The Baylor Family Blog

What a month this has been for us! I wish we could say all the sickness has come and gone, but sadly I can’t. But, on a positive note, we are finally seeing some improvements! I think three of us are on the mend!

Eli is still fighting off his bronchitis and reactive airway disease…Saturday will mark three weeks! Though he is still coughing plenty, we are hearing less of the concerning, barking cough. Today is his last day on oral steroids, and I don’t think he needs a refill. He is still on Albuterol nebulizers 2-3 times a day and we are only giving his steroid nebulizer when his coughing spells are bad, usually not more than once a day now. I’m thinking and hoping that he’ll be healthy enough to get out of the house next week. We are still having to restrict his activity at times, though, because he goes into coughing fits.

Abi recovered nicely from her cold and double ear infections and allergic reaction to Amoxicillin. We enjoyed a few normal days with her before she got sick again. After a night of no sleep, we headed back to the doctor to find out she had yet another double ear infection. With her difficulty holding down oral antibiotics, the doctor suggested three days of Rocephin antibiotic shots instead. So, Abi went to the doctor three days in a row for the shots. On the third visit, the doctor checked her ears…one looked fine, but the right ear was still infected. Ugh! So, the doctor prescribed Azithromycin for five days. She practically refused to sleep yesterday making for an absolutlely fussy and exhausted girl by the end of the day. But she cried herself to sleep and amazingly slept all night…praise God! So far, she has held down two doses of the medicine just fine! She seems to be doing so much better today. We’ll be off to see the ENT on Tuesday to hopefully schedule surgery for tubes.

After caring for sick kids for a couple week, I inevitably got sick, too. I’d been fighting off a much lesser form of the kids’ sickness, but started getting worse this week and developed a deep cough, that was bothering my asthma. So I headed off the doctor, too, to be treated for bronchitis. After one day on my antibiotic, I felt a ton of relief. I’m also on steroids to help my breathing, hoping to make sure the baby is getting plenty of oxygen!

Matt seems to be coming down with similar symptoms, too. I’m hoping he somehow gets a lesser version. He isn’t bad enough to see the doctor yet…but time will indeed tell!

Matt has remained crazy busy at work. When I got sick, he called his mom to see if she could come to help with the kids. It was a huge relief to have the help and time to rest and recover. The kids definitely enjoyed the extra attention and love. I’ll hopefully post more with pictures later, but I’m too lazy to upload any at the moment!

Hopefully, the next time I blog…it’ll be from a healthy household!!

Here is a picture of my littlest Valentine wearing her new outfit from Gran-B and Poppy. Well unfortunately, my littlest Valentine wasn’t the healthiest on her 2nd Valentine’s Day. In fact, she has only worn pajamas for the past seven days. So sadly no cute outfit for her today. Late yesterday, she broke out in hives. They started on her back, moved to her belly, and then spread to her face and everywhere else. Suspecting an allergy, Matt brought her in to urgent care to confirm our suspicion: Abi is allergic to Amoxicillin. Looking back, it makes sense why her little body seems to almost always throw up the medicine…she was developing an allergy to it.

The good news is the infection in her ears is gone, so she doesn’t need to start another antibiotic at the moment. The urgent care physician said it will be important for Abi to get tubes in her ears since she seems prone to ear infections and is allergic to the most commonly used antibiotic to treat ear infections.  I’ll be bringing both kids to the pediatrician in the morning. Abi is still coughing a lot and not sleeping well, and I’m starting to wonder if she might have bronchitis, too. Anyway, I have A LOT to talk to their pediatrician about, so I hope the kids cooperate so I can have a good conversation with her

This wasn’t exactly how we planned to spend our Valentine’s Day or weekend, but it goes with the territory when you have kids Regardless, I guess we still made memories!! Matt graciously let me get out of the house while the kids napped this afternoon, which was extremely therapeutic to me after being cooped up in the house for over a week! I picked up some yummy smoothies for us to enjoy, and Matt cooked a delicious dinner for the two of us. We’re hoping to go on a date this week, but we may need to postpone depending on how the kids are doing. In the meantime, we’ll continue to try and keep track of all the medicine doses, try and keep up with the piles of laundry, and sleep whenever we can! Happy Valentine’s Day to you!!

We’ve had a rough week of sickness in this house. Some days Eli seemed more sick and other days Abi seemed more sick. They both started coughing last weekend, so we decided to stay home from church last Sunday. Both kids started having fevers on Monday that were pretty constant, cycling down with Tylenol and then back up again. Both kids were miserable and clingy. Abi quit sleeping on Monday night, cluing us into the possibility of an ear infection. Knowing Eli isn’t prone to ear infections and he is more able to kick these things, we decided to only have Abi seen. Both kids were extremely lethargic and fell asleep on me at the doctor’s appointment. Sure enough, Abi had a double ear infection, but fortunately the RSV test came back negative. She tends to throw up antibiotics, so we’ve been working hard at getting her to hold it down. We’ve succeeded some and failed at other attempts. She still isn’t sleeping great at night, but she hasn’t had a fever in 24 hours now and is starting to play a little bit. So I think her ears are feeling better. However, she is now coughing a lot more and throwing up, so she isn’t completely out of the woods. We’ll be following up with the pediatrician to check her ears and discuss getting tubes put in after she finishes her antibiotic.

Unlike his sister, Eli still has a fever…six days in a row. I ended up bringing him into the doctor on Thursday as his cough has gotten progressively worse and his fever higher. The doctor said it was viral and to wait it out. They weren’t able to get his O2 sats to register, but his lungs were clear. He has been having coughing fits lasting 30-40 minutes, especially at night. He hasn’t been eating hardly anything. The only reason he is drinking is we tell him he has to. He hasn’t wanted to move around much on his own and wants carried. He’s been watching a lot of PBS this week. I started him on nebulizer treatments to help him come out of his coughing fits, and he has been a good sport. When his fever is up and his coughing fits start, his heart rate is going up to 160+ and his respirations are 40+. Pretty scary to us. I called the pediatrician and they told us to continue watching him, but they weren’t concerned.

This morning Eli is very clingy, feverish, and wants carried everywhere. We noticed a lot of green mucous on his blankey that he apparently coughed up during the night. After some debate, we decided to check back in with the pediatrician. They told us to bring Eli to urgent care. So Matt and Eli headed over to our favorite urgent care. To our suprise, Eli’s O2 sat was in the 70’s. Its supposed to be above 90. And his lungs were clear. He had a chest xray that came back clear. They put him on oxygen and gave him a nebulizer treatment. From Matt’s report, Eli was a trooper. Poor kid. Eli appears to have bronchitis. The doctor was pretty concerned and on the fence about sending Eli over to the hospital. Well, after the nebulizer treatment, Eli’s O2 sat was able to come back up to 92%. The doctor let Matt bring Eli home. He’ll be on a couple different nebulizer treatments, oral steroids, and a strong antibiotic. We have to watch his heart rate, respirations, and coughing fits carefully…but hopefully we’ll be able to treat him at home. I had assumed since his lungs were clear (I listened to them this morning) that his O2 sats would be okay. But that wasn’t the case with Eli. And I’m wondering if his O2 sats could have been low at the pediatrician on Thursday, because they were unable to get a reading. Its hard to know. So I’m a little anxious about his breathing, since he isn’t showing the typical signs of labored breathing I would have expected. Hopefully if we stay on top of the treatments, he’ll be okay. Poor kid. If all goes well tomorrow, we’ll plan to follow up at the pediatrician on Monday.

So Happy Valentine’s Day! I don’t think we’ll be getting out of the house much this weekend!

On Saturday, the day after Abi’s 1st birthday, we welcomed somewhere around 40 people into our home to celebrate! We are so grateful to the friends and family members who have walked beside us through Abi’s first year!

Matt and I carefully crafted a butterfly cake, with Matt as the head cake-icer! We enjoyed using some fun neon-food coloring to add some fun colors to the cake and some fun candies we found at a local candy store.

We served breakfast burrittos for the party-attenders to enjoy for lunch. Though Abi usually enjoys lots of the foods we put into burritos, I think she was a little overwhelmed during lunch and didn’t eat much. Or maybe she was saving plenty of room for cake!

Abi wasn’t too sure when we initially gave her the birthday cupcake.

Eli was quick to come to Abi’s side for encouragement!

Abi wasn’t too sure about the gummy butterfly at first, but she quickly grew fond of the taste and managed to gum down the whole thing!

Abi worked at eating her cupcake for about 45 minutes. I think the smile proves she thoroughly enjoyed it!

With her daddy’s help, Abi opened lots of presents, some bigger than she was! Of course, she had plenty of help from Eli and her cousin, Nathan, too! Abi was spoiled with many things, all which are being well-enjoyed by both Eli and Abi!

Abi snuggled right into her new heart pillow!

And Abi proudly posed for the camera in her movie-star sunglasses, which came in her brand new pink purse!

Of course, the kids soaked up attention from lots of people, including their Gran-B and Poppy.

To our delight, Abi seemed to be in a great mood and enjoyed having lots of people around to celebrate her first birthday! Thanks for all who made her first year so special!

…and I’ll CRY IF I WANT TO!!

One year ago, on January 22 at 5:17 p.m., we welcomed sweet Abi into the world. If I thought Eli’s first year went fast, Abi’s sped by even faster! My prayers were answered after delivery, and I got to experience holding and cuddling my new baby girl right after birth. Little did I know, hours later, Abi would land herself in the NICU with trouble breathing from an infection. The NICU was all-too-familiar for Matt and I, as we were greeted by many of the same staff we met during Eli’s stay. Those seven days felt eternally long as our family was divided, Abi and I at the hospital and Matt and Eli at home. Seven days of antibiotics later, complete with bili lights, a spinal tap, and oxygen, we were able to take Abi home. We survived two months of dragging an oxygen tank everywhere with us and numerous overnight oxygen tests. Abi overcame reflux, a milk allergy, pneumonia, a very long lasting GI bug, and plenty of other GI issues. Though small, she somehow managed to keep her weight barely on the charts, keeping the doctors from worrying to much! She has babbled and crawled her way right into our heart. Her calm demeanor and independence has been a pleasant addition to our family.

One year has come and gone. Little did I know that on Abi’s first birthday, I would be over halfway through the pregnancy of her little brother. Little did I know one year ago, that Abi would be extra special in my heart as my one and only girl.

Though I had big dreams of somehow making her actual 1st birthday extra special, Abi had other ideas. To fit with the rest of the week, she spent plenty of the day on her birthday crying and screaming, desparately clutching her blankie for comfort. She didn’t know what she wanted. She just knew she wasn’t happy. Perhaps her first birthday was having a bigger emotional toll on her than I realized. But we survived the day, much of it filled with preparing for her big party the next day.

We ended the day with a trip to our favorite local ice cream shop, Rizzutos. It was as much a little celebration of Abi’s birthday as it was a treat for Matt and I for surviving yet another day with a very fussy little girl. Abi had her first tastes of ice cream. It was amazing how the ice cream fizzled her tears away and her face instead filled with glee. That was more the face I was hoping to see on my little girl on her birthday. But I’ll take whatever I can get!

Happy First Birthday, Abigail Joy!
We are so thankful that you are part of our family!!

Last night we got a light dusting of snow, but enough for an excuse for Matt and Eli to go out this morning and shovel and play! Eli got to sport his new snowsuit. I think it looks like he should be hitting the slopes instead of the sledding hills! Eli’s favorite part is eating the snow!

You know how some day seem to flow, and well, others don’t? Well, this week hasn’t really felt like its been flowing so well in this house. I started the week with a stomach bug, and though I’m recovered, it seems like the pregnancy version of my nausea and tiredness has returned (I’m still hoping temporarily). Abi’s sleep is all off and she is throwing plenty of temper tantrums over everything and nothing. I don’t think she is teething. She isn’t sick. Everything seems fine, except for her tantrums. Despite my best attempts to let it slide off, its really hard for the screaming not to get under my skin. And I don’t know if its been ongoing or I had a sudden revelation, but Eli is completely convinced that the world revolves around him. His words and actions are completely self-centered, and something has to change. So the combination on dealing with Abi’s screaming and Eli’s attitude is leaving me feeling physically and emotionally exhausted. I know its a season. This, too, shall pass. Eventually, I will see the fruit of my labor. But right now, it just feels hard. And the days seems long.

Eli got a bike helmet for Christmas. He thinks its really cool.

Who says bike helmets can only be used when riding a bike?

And just so you know, this boy doesn’t only use his snow shovel in the winter!

I’d say he has pretty good technique for a two-year old, though. His daddy has taught him well!

Thank you, Aunt Andee, for my new hat.

Mommy has to hold my hands to keep me from taking my pretty new hat off.

Legos are good distractions for my hands, too.

Even if I will only wear it for a few moments, I really like my new hat.
But maybe not as much as my mommy does.