The Baylor Family Blog

As you know, on January 22, Eli entered into a new role in his life as BIG BROTHER to Abi. Being a brother has had its ups and downs, but I think Eli wouldn’t want it any other way. The fact that he spontaneously gave his little sister a hug in the bathtub tonight and announced, “I love my sista,” confirms that being a big brother isn’t all bad!

Though she has no clue what is coming, Abi, too, will be a BIG SISTER!

That’s right…I’m pregnant with Baby Baylor #3, with a due date of June 9.

I’ll save you the trouble of doing the math. I’m currently 12.5 weeks pregnant. Eli is currently 2 1/2, but will turn 3 in March. Abi is currently 10 months, but will be 16 months on May 22. For a season, we will have three children ages three and under.

Are we overwhelmed? Absolutely! Are we excited? Absolutely!

Though we anticipate the struggles, busy-ness, and pure chaos that will come with having three little ones, we are super excited about our children growing up together so close in age. Our family of five will be our normal, and we couldn’t be happier!

I had IUGR during my pregnancies with both Eli and Abi, which is why I was induced at 37 weeks and had little babies. Though the odds are likely that I will have IUGR during my third pregnancy, my OB told me he recently had a patient who had three IUGR pregnancies and a normal fourth pregnancy. Regardless, we will all be okay, but that story offered a little hope that this pregnancy could be different! I was on aspirin during my pregnancy with Abi to try and prevent IUGR, but ended up an allergic reaction of chronic hives from the medicine. Because it did more harm than good, I thankfully don’t have to take aspirin this pregnancy!

The initial weeks of my pregnancy have been hard. I’ve been exhausted and sick. My amazing husband has truly stepped up and helped a ton with the cooking and housework and caring for the kids when he comes home from work. Thankfully, within the last week, I have started to feel so much better. I’m able to care for the kids and still have a little energy left over to get a few other things done!

Its been a joy to watch Eli thrive with a little sibling in the house, and I look forward to watching Abi adjust to the new role of big sister, herself!

Are you tired of “we’re still sick” posts yet? Well, I can tell you that we sure are tired of sickness around here! It has been quite a month! Today we missed our third Sunday in a row of church due to sickness.

Somehow, by God’s grace, we were all healthy enough to travel to Matt’s parents house for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a great day and both kids did amazing! We took a deep breath and felt like we were getting back to normal!

We woke up Black Friday morning not to shopping, but to Eli throwing up. He was miserable and uncomfortable. Fortunately Matt was off work and able to hold him and give him lots of extra attention. By Saturday, he had diarrhea, too. He is able to hold food down, but he does not feel good at all. Today, he woke up from his nap with a 101.4 fever. He is sleeping extra and just wants to lay around. Poor kid. In the month of November, he has cycled through croup, a nasty cold, and now a GI bug. I think he needs a break!

Abi is doing remarkably better. She is taking lots of formula (as opposed to syringes of pedialyte).  Today she tolerated some baby food and some cheerios for the first time in about three weeks. She isn’t quite all better, though, as she continues to have diarrhea. We are almost at two weeks with that symptom. We’d take diarrhea over vomiting, though. She fortunately is taking naps in her crib (instead of in our arms), though she is up multiple times a night to eat. Because she didn’t eat much at all for a week or more, we think she might be catching up or needing more until she can hold down more solid foods. It has been good to see her playing with toys again, and the sound of her giggle reminds us that she is feeling much better!

Matt and I thankfully are healthy. We’ve kicked our colds and are using as much hand sanitizer as possible to try and avoid getting the lovely GI bug. Having two sick kids isn’t all that fun, but it sure is easier to deal with when both parents are healthy! I won’t hesitate to admit that we are looking forward to a full night of rest, less laundry, socialization (we’ve been hibernating for weeks!), happier kids, and simply health! I’m regretting not purchasing stock in hand sanitizer, kleenex, and clorox wipes. Uf.

Here’s to hoping that December is a healthier month for our family…

It sure feels like this past week has lasted a month! Eli recovered from croup, but went straight into a cold with a nasty cough and lots of snot. He kindly shared that cold with Matt over the weekend. Fortunately, Matt seemed to recover pretty quickly. I survived the flu. I think the Tamiflu helped speed up the recovery. My breathing is mostly better, my fevers have been gone since the weekend, and I’m feeling a little stronger everyday. I still have a lingering cough,though think I may have caught a cold, too!

The person we’ve been most concerned about lately is Abi. She had a strange mix of symptoms last week. On Sunday, we started hearing a rattle in her chest, so Matt drove in the snow to bring her to urgent care. Fortunately her breathing was fine, but she had a double ear infection. The doctor prescribed 14-days of antibiotics. After urgent care, she quit holding any formula down. We started feeding her pedialyte via a syringe. Everytime we tried to increase the amount or add any formula, she threw up. We quickly learned that 14 days of antibiotics wasn’t going to work when Abi could barely keep a teaspoon of pedialyte down. So Matt brought Abi back to the doctor on Monday morning. The doctor thought her double ear infection might be causing the vomiting. So we stopped the oral antibiotic, and Abi was to get antibiotic shots for three days instead. Throughout those days, Abi was supposed to show marked improvement. However, she still couldn’t hold anything but a syringe full or pedialyte down. After her third shot, the doctor said her ear infection was completely gone and Abi likely had gastroenteritis (AKA GI bug). Abi confirmed that by starting to have diarrhea. She is now able to hold down about 2 ounces of 1/2 pediaylte and 1/2 formula. She still throws up sometimes, but she is holding the majority of it down. Fortunately, with even a little formula in her, she will sleep a little in her crib, as opposed to demanding to be hold 24/7. I think she is on the up-swing now. But its been a long week for her I am so thankful that she somehow managed to stay hydrated during these past few days.

So, we continue to hibernate. I’ve left the house twice in over a week…and that was to bring Abi to the doctor to get her antibiotic shot. For the first time since we owned our home, we didn’t shovel our driveway when it snowed. I think we went more than three days without checking the mail. I haven’t cooked in well over a week. I’m trying to catch up on laundry and go through mail and sort through the clutter that accumulates when everyone is sick. So yeah, we are recovering…slowly and surely We are ready to get back to normal…whatever that is

Sickness has invaded our home. The majority of us don’t feel well. Thankfully, Matt has remained healthy, though!

Eli has had a runny nose and a slight cough for a couple days. Yesterday he woke up from his nap with a 102.5 fever. He looked pitiful. We had heard some funny sounding coughs during his nap, but upon walking into his room, we realized it was a barking cough. We were thankfully able to get him into the pediatrician within 30 minutes of him waking up from his nap. He’s now being treated for croup, which is prednisone for 3 days. After two doses, he already seems to be feeling a little better. I’m just thankful it wasn’t the flu! He was going to get the flu shot today, but didn’t because he was sick.

Abi has a strange mix of symptoms. I have no idea what to say she has. Earlier in the week, she was on 1/2 pedialyte and 1/2 formula because she was having trouble holding down her full-strength formula. She was back on full-strength formula and holding it down fine, but she was very, very cranky. We noticed she cut her second tooth on Wednesday and noticed a little relief in her mood. But on Thursday, the clinginess returned, and a runny nose, low-grade fever, and occasional vomiting and diarrhea, too.Whatever she has, she definitely doesn’t feel good.

I was healthy earlier in the week. Abi and I go the H1N1 vaccine on Wednesday. I usually get a little sick after flu shots, so I wasn’t shocked when I woke up feeling awful on Thursday. However, I didn’t just have muscle aches and a low-grade fever. My chest was so tight, I could hardly take a deep breath. And I had a deep, painful cough. I started  nebulizer treatments and doubled my Advair to get some relief. I started having a fever late yesterday, and runny nose and congestion started up during the night. So when 48 hours passed from the vaccine and my symptoms showed no signs of improvement, I called the doctor. And sure enough, I have the flu. Joyful. Thankfully, the doctor called in Tamiflu for me.

Please pray that in some miraculous way, Matt stays healthy. Matt and Eli haven’t gotten the H1N1 vaccine, and Eli and Abi haven’t been able to get the seasonal flu shot. I will be wearing a mask and secluding myself as much as possible, but please pray that Eli and Abi don’t get the flu, too. For now, we will be hibernating here at home for a while.

Eli, Oh, Eli.

How I love you.

You are always on the go.

You are always on a mission.

You always have a funny face to make me laugh. Or a funny phrase.

But you also drive me crazy.

You have learned to push your boundaries and push my buttons.

I wish I knew what motivates you.

And I wish what motivates you didn’t change so often.

But Eli, oh, Eli. I do love you.

That’s all the pictures. Now I have lots of words.

Its hard for me to put words to how I can love someone so much and the same person can drive me so crazy all at the same time. Being my oldest, I’m learning so much watching Eli grow up. One thing I’m learning is the importance of training my children, but doing so is mentally and emotionally exhausting! I’m spending plenty of time praying, listening to ideas from others, reading, and soul searching. If I’m going to be a parent, I want to figure out what works to save as much money as possible on my children’s future counseling bills! Ha!

One thing we started was positive reinforcement. After realizing that Eli was spending a lot of the day in time out and receiving negative reinforcement, we decided to try someone new. Eli was starting to get immune to being in time out anyway. So thanks to the $1 section at Target, we found an Elmo ink stamp and a Seasame Street incentive chart. Now, when Eli does something without whining, the first time we ask, and/or very kind, he earns an Elmo stamp. When he fills up the paper with Elmo stamps, his reward is getting to hold the paper. To my delight, weeks later, he still looks forward to getting Elmo stamps and holding the paper! So far, so good.

Now we are having struggles with sleeping again. And no, I don’t think the kid is ready to skip nap time. He has started banging on the walls, windows, doing gymnastics in bed, yelling, and my favorite: making ambulance noises. For hours. In the past, if Eli is misbehaving like this during sleeping time, we go in and remove a stuffed animal from his bed. Well, needless to say, after hours of this behavior, he had no more stuffed animals left. This obviously wasn’t working. Now what? Well a good handful of stern talks later, our new plan is that if Eli can go to sleep without us having to intervene to tell him to be quiet or lay down, he can earn a stuffed animal back when he wakes up. But if we have to intervene, he still loses a stuffed animal. And the biggest change: I’m lowering my standards. I know Eli is safe in his room. If he is loud and banging on the walls, I’m taking a deep breath and ignoring it. Fortunately, it isn’t waking Abi up. And I think Eli has been soaking up the attention from these behaviors. We’ve made some improvement with this plan, but only time will tell if this works and for how long!

On top of it all, Eli is having to learn to share. If I hear, “Abi don’t touch that! Abi don’t play with that!” one more time…! Seriously, my patience is being tried! I’m trying to teach Eli how things will work in our house. I’m sending him to play by himself when he isn’t sharing. I’m trying to teach both kids not to take toys out of each other’s hands. I’m trying to teach love and grace and better conflict management. But we have a long way to go. And some days, training and teaching these life skills is very exhausting!

From the suggestion of Eli’s speech therapist, I’ve introduced “table time” into Eli’s life during Abi’s morning nap. This is time when we sit at the table and do an activity together. From coloring to play-doh to games to whatever. The fact is that Eli isn’t very good at sitting. I struggle to get 10-15 minutes of table time before Eli only has a toe left on his chair. Thankfully, the speech therapist said 5 minutes is plenty! I sighed…we are making it! And in praise of Eli, he is doing a little better each week at sitting. He is also a sponge right now and is learning so much! I’ve actually enjoyed that focused time with him every day!

I definitely love Eli more than words can say and am filled with joy as I watch up run up the sidewalk full of energy ten times in a row! I love watching him play pretend. I am filled with pride when he says please and thank you without being cued. I love driving anywhere and hearing him communicate all of his observations. I love his excitement. I love so much about this kid. We are both growing so much right now…just in very different ways! And I’m so thankful for God’s grace!

Because this was the first year Eli could actually say “trick-or-treat” and “thank you,” we decided this could be the first year to bring him trick-or-treating! Leading up to Halloween, we prepared Eli for the fun night ahead. He practiced wearing his monkey costume around the house a couple times. We played pretend “trick-or-treating” by my hiding in the closet, having Eli knock on the door, then having Eli say “trick-or-treat,” me giving him pretend candy, and Eli responding with “thank you.” He thought it was quite fun!

The first trick-or-treater at our door was our good friend, Soren, who just turned one, and his parents! We got a few pictures and of course gave him some candy!

We were blessed with an absolutely beautiful day on Halloween. We didn’t even need coats on when we went out! What a treat! I wasn’t sure how Eli would handle the trick-or-treating routine with strangers, but he caught on very quickly and very well! He put on his charm and was often allowed to pick his candy and even take a couple extra. Eli often ran ahead of us, and he quickly learned to identify the houses with the lights on! He had a blast! It was fun for Matt and I to meet a few more neighbors, too! We are so blessed by the people who live around us! We made a simple walk around the block, then came home and passed out candy the rest of the evening. Eli was so excited about his candy! We allowed him to have one piece that night, and he hasn’t asked for any since!

Abi dressed up as a pumpkin. She was able to crawl around just fine in costume. We carried her around while trick-or-treating. I think she was amused being out and about at night! Next year, she’ll have a chance to keep up with her brother!!

The day after we played in the leaves, we woke up to a couple inches of snow outside. Being the first snow with enough accumulation to play in, I bundled the kids up for some fun outside. Fortunately, it wasn’t too cold!

Eli loved carrying around his snow shovel, tasting the snow, making hand prints and foot prints, being pulled around in his sled, and going down the slide.

Abi wasn’t too fond of her snowsuit. It was a bit too big on her, and quite frankly, she couldn’t move. As long as she was being carried around, though, she was quite content! I tried to stand her up, but she lost her balance and got a face full of snow. She wasn’t too happy about that! Oh well!

Contrary to Abi, Eli loves his snow gear. If he could, he would wear his mittens all the time! And it took a while to convince him he didn’t need to wear his snow boots every time we left the house (especially since the snow melted that day).

Since this snow, we had another big storm come through. Though lots of snow was predicted, we only ended with 5-6 inches here. However, the wind, cold, and ice closed many schools and some businesses. We were blessed with a “snow day” for Matt, too! Because the roads weren’t that bad (in my opinion), I took the opportunity of having Matt home to watch the kids, and I headed off to the dentist (who had lots of cancellations) and to get my hair cut (finally!). Its always nice to have an extra family day!

Colorado weather is uniquely Colorado. From what I hear, the farmer’s almanacs are predicting a cold, wet winter here. We’ve had a good handful of warm fall days in October, but we’ve also had a good handful of snowy days already, too. Unfortunately, we haven’t got the traditional beautiful fall colors. Most of the leaves around us have turned brown and fallen off. Oh well. At least we can still play in the leaves, right?

We had a beautiful fall day and took time to play outside as a family in the leaves. Good thing, as the next day, the weather was quite different!

On October 12, I received the very sad news that my Grandma Griffin passed away. Grandma had been in a nursing home for several years, her body strong, but her mind slowly being taken away by Alzheimer’s Disease. I never realized how much our memories make us who we are. Though she was in my Grandma’s skin, she slowly changed into someone very different from the grandmother I grew up loving and knowing. Though I knew the day would one day come, the news still came as a shock.

I am so blessed by a rock solid, supportive husband who graciously made a lot of last minute travel arrangements so our family of four could travel out to Indiana for her funeral. It is no small task packing and carting around two small children and lots of stuff, but we did, and I’m so glad we were able to be there together.

As we gathered together as family, we reminisced. We remembered. And we sighed knowing that Grandma’s suffering was finally over. Her mind and her body are restored. And she is reunited in heaven with my grandfather.

I was thankful for the opportunity to re-connect with family members I haven’t seen in several years. I blessed to introduce my two children, as well as meet many of my cousins’ children for the first time.  I was also blessed by the hugs and presence of my Grandma Davis who traveled to the funeral.

Though an unexpected family reunion, it was special to re-connect with my immediate family as well. We live all over, so any chance we get to see each other face to face is a special occasion!

Well, somehow, October has gotten away from me in terms of blogging! At the beginning of the month, we were having some technical difficulties. My tech-savvy husband kindly rebuilt our blog, but then life got busy and I haven’t updated since! Though I don’t have a large number of blog entries to prove it, October has proven to be a very busy month for us! Here are a few things to get me started again…

• We spent a day in Denver with Matt’s parents, brother and family. The kids enjoyed running around, playing with grandparents, and of course playing Red Light, Green Light! The adults enjoyed good conversations, delicious food prepared by Michelle, and of course several games of Red Light, Green Light!
• We’ve passed around a couple colds. Eli thankfully has been able to kick three colds so far this fall without having to go to the doctor. Abi ended up at the doctor with a double ear infection. Unfortunately, we learned that her tummy doesn’t tolerate antibiotics will. We tried two different ones, and she threw up after most doses.
• Eli spent a day with his Gran-B and Poppy. Matt had some training in Denver, so he brought Eli up one evening and spent the night in Denver and then they traveled home the next day after Matt’s training. All reports are that  Eli had a blast swimming, playing in the leaves, running around with his cousin, Nathan, seeing Sadie, and much more. He was exhausted when he came home and took long naps for a couple days afterwords!
• Abi had an Upper GI, which is an X-ray of her GI tract taken after she drank some barium. To my delight and surprise, Abi tolerated the procedure amazing well. She actually held the barium down and cried more from being restrained than anything else. The doctor recommended this test when she was 4-months old. For various reasons, we decided to wait. Well, five months later, she still is having a really difficult time having a bowel movement, even with medication. And about every month, she has the symptoms of a GI bug and can’t hold anything down for 12-24 hours. It could be a bug, but that seems odd since the rest of us have never gotten sick and she isn’t in daycare or around sick kids. So, with that said, we decided the test would be prudent. The doctor called a few days after the procedure to report everything looked normal, which is exactly what we expected.