The Baylor Family Blog

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!!

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.

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!

On October 22, Abi hit the 9-month milestone. My how time flies!

Here are her stats from her 9-month check up:
Weight: 15.7 pounds (approx. 5th percentile)
Height: 27 inches (approx. 50th percentile)

Abi has changed so much in the past month, I hope I can remember to mention most of them!

• Abi has mastered crawling up the stairs. Matt or I help her go down on her belly, but she hasn’t mastered that part yet. Eli has pushed her, but that isn’t her preferred method!
• Abi is crawling quite well and quite fast! In fact, her motivation to learn to crawl was the stairs. She wanted to get to the stairs, so she decided it was time to crawl!
• Abi has her first tooth. She got it slightly after she turned 8-months. She was super fussy. We weren’t sure if her bowels were bothering her or if she was reacting to a food or of course teething. The sharp tooth clued us in!

• Abi can walk with assistance! She isn’t very close to be independent, but she pushes her walker or laundy baskets around. She loves when we hold her hands and let her walk around the room. She is an excellent furniture walker, too!
• Abi is still wearing 6-9 month clothes and size 2 shoes, but she is outgrowing these at an alarming rate. I’m pretty sure she’ll be sprouting 9-12 month clothes and size 3 shoes soon.Wow.
• Abi appears to have the same climbing instincts as her brother. She can climb into Eli’s little rocker. She is trying to climb on the ledge. She is always trying to go up!

• Abi is pooping on her own, with little to no medication! While no big deal to most, this is just another sign that her GI tract is maturing a little more!
• Abi is eating baby food, primarily fruits and vegetables, as well as feeding herself cheerios, kix, crackers, and slices of fruit. She loves feeding herself, so we hope to offer more table food during this next month.
• Hair bows and headbands are becoming a thing of the past. She pulls them right off. This was a sad day in my world. Shoes and socks are almost impossible to keep on, too. Not the best timing for winter, though!
• Abi doesn’t like other people very much. In fact, if just about anyone besides Matt, Eli or I looks at her, she’ll cry. Its lovely.

• Do to her dislike of other people, we have found about the only chance we have of her surviving the nursery is when she sleeps.
• Abi is sleeping through the night! Mostly. She goes down between 7-8 p.m. with a bottle. And we started refusing to feed her until at least 4 a.m. Now, we refuse to feed her until about 5 a.m. Occasionally, she’ll sleep all the way through. Sometimes, she needs a little to stretch her night out. She normally sleeps until 7-8 a.m. with that plan, which we are quite content with.
• Abi LOVES popcorn. I started giving her small pieces months ago. And she always wanted more. Now she can eat whole pieces. Though, we discovered too much popcorn and her digestive tract are a bad combination. Fortunately, a little lactulose cleared her out. We’ll be more careful in the future!
• Abi babbles, but unfortunately doesn’t babble the sounds “dada” or “mama.” However, we are getting more and more convinced that one sound in her babble is “hi.”
• Abi loves to play with toys. It doesn’t matter whether its cars or trains or blocks, thanks to having an older brother!
• Abi LOVES pillows! She crawls up to any pillow she can find and puts her head on it and snuggles in! Its so sweet! She especially likes her pink heart pillow!

Abi is at a stage in life where she is simply changing sooo fast! Do I dare say too fast? A couple weeks ago she started pulling herself up to the standing position and falling over. We thought it was so cute. Now its her favorite past time. Her biggest motivation to crawl is to a place where she can pull herself up to stand. And she just stands. She no longer plays in the bath tub. She just stands and holds on to the side. She stands holding on to the fire place ledge. She stands at the kitchen table, holding on to a chair. She pulls herself up by my leg to stand by me. She pulls herself up in her crib, though she found it difficult to sleep while standing up.

Which leads to a skill we forced her to learn: how to sit back down! Now she is pretty good at it in general. She over balances on the way down sometimes, but overall, I’ve been impressed.

Because she was starting to stand on her crib bumper, we took it off. I kept thinking, she is just so young. She’ll bump her head or get her leg stuck. But its hitting me: she is at that stage. With mobility comes bumps and falls and boo-boos! It has all happened so fast! Her cute little music mobile is also packed up. Her crib looks so different. And I realize that Abi looks so different from the day we brought her home from the hospital.

Truth be told, though…I love watching my kids learn new things. Though bittersweet at times, its so worth it!

And standing is not all she’s doing. She is “furniture walking.” As long as she has something to hold on to, she walks along it. She can side step over 12 feet from one side of our fire place ledge to the other. She can hold onto an upside down laundry basket and walk across the floor. She walks along the couch. She walks holding on to our fingers.

Did I mention she is only 8-months old…yesterday, actually!

Since we have so many stairs in her house, we’ve started some lessons with her. Eli started crawling up the stairs at 8-months. So we thought, why not? It was so nice that he mastered stairs at such a young age, so we are hoping Abi may too. She gets this great big smile at the top of the stairs like she’s climbed the biggest mountain. She has shown zero motivation to crawl over to the stairs and practice on her own. We are savoring our days, though they might be short-lived, without baby gates.

Sigh.

Oh, if all that wasn’t enough…Abi graduated from her infant carrier to her backwards facing bigger baby car seat. She loves it. Eli gets a much better view of his little sister, so he is much happier, too.

Matt and I are amazed at how fast Abi is changing! A couple weeks ago, she could only sit for a few moments before falling over. She has now mastered sitting, which is her preferred position to play in right now! She has also started pulling herself into the standing position, thus her crib has been moved down to a lower setting. When she pulls herself to the standing position, she often falls a few moments later. She is a great army crawler and can take a couple strides at regular crawling before she quits. She is very interested in her surroundings and putting anything she can manage to reach into her mouth! She has also started kneeling to reach up and play with toys she cannot reach while sitting.

Feeding is actually going pretty well for Abi, too! A few weeks ago, we tried adding prune juice to her solid food, but that resulted in her throwing up a lot. So we stopped that. Instead, we have increased her laxative dose and have been very aggressive in preventing constipation. Sometimes, we have to hold solid foods until she can clear her system out.  It appears as long as we can keep her bowels moving, Abi can tolerate solid foods.  And she loves to eat! She’s eaten avocados, pears, apples, bananas, blueberries, squash as well as gummed down crackers, pretzels, and cheerios. We have some vegetables to give her, but they tend to bulk up her stools so we are going to very slowly introduce them. She still has no signs of teeth and hardly drools at all.

Abi is usually taking two naps a day and often a cat nap in the evening. We are still feeding her once during the night, usually around 4 a.m. Her routine before going to sleep is very simple. She often gets  bottle, then we lay Abi in her crib with her blanket, turn on some music, and she falls asleep. She has a little security blanket she has bonded with that helps her fall asleep. She moves all over the crib and carries her little blanket with her. She is doing just fine without her pacifier. None of us have missed it at all!