Update #3

Well, it isn't a urinary tract infection. We are on day 9 of the fever. Last time it lasted exactly this long, and the ninth night was the last. Today the fever seemed to be much lower - in the 102 range instead of 104. That's promising. She was also quite lively this afternoon and even ate half of a quesadilla, which is more than she's eaten almost since the fever began. Tomorrow morning we're leaving to drive to Nashville so I'm quite hopeful that she'll wake up and miraculously be better. That's pretty much what happened last time. I'm going to be hopeful. Isn't that what you are supposed to do on New Year's Eve? Well, actually you are probably supposed to do something fun. Luke and I will be on the couch if you need us :-)

Mystery Fever Theater 3000 Update

Well, we went to the doctor. As I suspected, there are no easy answers. She doesn't have an ear infection. I'm still holding out hope that it could be a urinary tract infection. I have to drop off a urine sample tomorrow morning.

She was quite sweet and pathetic tonight. Not that I enjoy her being sick, but she does like to cuddle. We actually read 8 chapters of The Little Mermaid. What a treat. Unfortunately, she was suffering from a 104 degree fever at the time. Don't worry. The Tylenol brought it down eventually.

Mystery Fever Theater 3000

As I mentioned in my Christmas post, Hailey has another mysterious fever situation. I call it mysterious because she has no other symptoms…just a fever. If you’ll recall, she had a similar incident over the summer where the fever lasted 9 days, and we had to take her to the emergency room. That was a truly awful experience that ended with no answers and with her being afraid of doctors. Not something I’d like to repeat. Anyway, I hate the mystery fevers because you have no other clues as to what might be wrong, which means that my imagination is free to just make things up without any constraint.

Now, you might ask, “why have you not taken her to the doctor yet?” It was a timing issue. The fever started late last Monday. Tuesday was far too soon to worry about it. Wednesday and Thursday no one was open because of the holiday. Friday morning we were prepared to take her, but the fever actually broke at about 4:00am. Unfortunately, it was back the next day, which was our travel day back from Buffalo. Yesterday was Sunday so no one was open except the emergency room, and as I said before, I’m not doing that again. So, we’re taking her to her regular doctor at 11:30. That gives me an hour and a half to imagine the worst.

"Open This, Please"

Ready to open presents, Mom!

Oh boy...Time to open!!!

Stickers are a big hit

Nothing like a little PlayDoh fun before nap

"I wish my fever would end"

What a fun day! Hailey woke up at 6:00am begging to go downstairs to see if Santa came. I was able to hold her off until about 6:45, but then we HAD to go see what Santa had brought. I had my camera all ready for a major gasp when she saw all of the gifts, but she wasn't too impressed at first. Then, we started opening and her story changed. She was into it. Every gift had to be opened and unboxed and explored. By far, her favorite phrase was "open this." She must have said that in a variety of ways, tones, and inflections every time a new gift was unwrapped.

After our nap (yes, Mommy needed one too!), we went over to our Uncle Frank and Aunt Michelle's house for more gift unwrapping and some family time. Hailey was so fortunate in all of the wonderful gifts that she received, and of course, all of the attention that she received. Unfortunately, she's had a terrible fever since Monday. So, the evening ended with her laying on the couch in a feverish stupor. Poor thing!

PIZZA!

First things first, when we come to Buffalo we have to have pizza from Niagara Falls. Why drive all the way to Niagara Falls? Because that is where La Hacienda is. How can the best pizza place in the universe have a Spanish name? Who knows! They also have Spanish decor. Our theory is that the owner was too lazy to change it when he bought the place. Which brings me to the owner - Aldo. Aldo looks exactly like you would think a native Italian pizza place owner would look, complete with tall white chef's hat. La Hacienda is a cash-only establishment and is closed if Aldo can't be there...'nough said. Anyway, I'm not going to ever do justice to the beauty that is La Hacienda pizza by just describing it. So, we took some pictures this time. Let me just say that eating this pizza is always one of the highlights of our trips to Buffalo. We crave it for weeks leading up to our trip and usually for several weeks after we get home. Oh the goodness!

I Feel So Dirty

I purchased my daughter the most ridiculous pair of princess sneakers that you've ever seen for Christmas. Not only do they have 3 princesses on them, but they also have glittery parts, silver shiny parts, and pink parts on them. Oh, and they light up! Ridiculous. She loves them, of course. And, yes, she did put them on herself in these pictures so they are on the wrong feet.

Varicose Veins, Heartburn, and Other Joys of Pregnancy

I know I should be writing about the joys of Christmas and the wonders of experiencing this magical holiday with a wide-eyed little girl, but frankly I’m a bit cranky today. Consider this my official “honeymoon is over” entry. Yes, this pregnancy is now at the stage where I’d like a divorce please. How many more weeks do I have???

I was diagnosed with my first varicose vein yesterday. It’s not in a place that’s highly visible, but is in a place where it’s constantly throbbing. Also, the heartburn has kicked in. Not the once in a while heartburn though…we’re talking after every meal type heartburn. I’ve purchased three bottles of Pepcid in the past 48 hours. Granted, I haven’t eaten all the Pepcids yet, I just needed one bottle for my desk, one for my purse, one for the bedroom, and one for the dining room. You never can be too careful.

Lies and the Lying Parents Who Tell Them

"Santa doesn't bring presents to little girls who whine."

"Santa doesn't bring presents to naughty girls."

"Santa will bring your presents to Buffalo this year."

I catch Luke saying these thing to Hailey from time to time. It bothers me a little even though I know that these are things that have been said to our children for decades. I guess I'm just not bought in to the whole Santa thing so I'm blaming him for these statements, even though I may have uttered them myself.

Come to think of it, I just hope that someday Hailey is smart enough to turn to us and say "then, why did Santa bring me presents last year when I bit my sister?" or "how does Santa cover the whole globe in one night, and why don't we use his transportation technology to get from place to place instead of airplanes which appear to be much less efficient?" That would just be perfect.

Quick Update

Just returned from our 28-week visit to the doctor and thought that maybe Baby Sophia deserved her own blog entry. From all accounts, she’s doing very well in there. Yesterday, she had the hiccups for the first time ever. Her heartbeat was as strong as ever at the doctor today, but she was breech. No need to worry though, plenty of time and room for her to turn herself around like a good little girl. My belly measurements are just fine, and I lost 2lbs since last time, which is not a big deal considering my ridiculous gain a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, I have low iron, which is making me unbelievably tired. No problem…that is easily fixed with yet another vitamin!

Other than that, all is well. I have to start going to the doctor every 2 weeks now. They are beginning to talk about birth plans and preregistering at the hospital and birthing classes. Am I ready for this already? I’m just trying to make it through the holidays!!! Luckily, we don’t need much since we have all of our stuff from Hailey. We have a few major items that I’ll need to research endlessly and eventually purchase, but other than that there’s much less stress this time around (well, if you don’t count the stress from Hailey’s school transition…more on that later).

Oh yeah...Sophia Catherine...that's her name.

Separation Anxiety

Hailey started her new school on Wednesday. As I expected, drop offs in the morning have been extremely difficult and often require the teacher to pry her out of my arms while she cries and screams. I know that after we are gone, she settles down and seems to enjoy the rest of her day. Yesterday, she got a little sad when other Mommies started picking up her classmates. Luckily, I arrived just after she burst into tears and was able to spend a long time with her in the classroom.

I expected this difficulty during drop-off in the morning, but I didn’t expect the separation anxiety to carry over so strongly at home. For the past few nights, beginning when she was sick, she’s woken up multiple times during the night and cried for Mommy. For the first few nights, one of us would go in and comfort her, give her water, or whatever she wanted. Unfortunately, I have a really hard time going back to sleep after each outburst because I just can’t get comfortable. So, I was quickly becoming really sleep deprived. Last night we finally decided that we had to just let her cry it out. If we continued to go in there, then she would continue to cry out for us even though she didn’t really need anything. If I moved her into our bed, which was our first instinct, then where do we draw the line and when do we move her back to her bed? I guess I am trying to justify our actions because I feel like a bad Mommy, but I really believe that sticking as closely to her routine as possible is the best remedy over the long haul.

Talky, Talk, Talk

Hailey has been home sick for the past two days with her Daddy. His company has a “take as many days as you need but get your work done policy;” mine does not. So, he is the dedicated caregiver for now. I’m trying to save every possible day for my maternity leave.

Anyway, yesterday I was IMing Luke to ask him how Hailey was when she woke up. His response made me laugh outloud… “A little fever and nonstop talking.” Yeah. Nonstop talking is not so much a symptom of the cold as it is a symptom of having a little girl in the house. It really is nonstop. Sometimes she won’t stop to eat. It’s just constant chatter, questions, answers, gibberish, more questions, remarks about things that happened days ago, commentary on the state of the weather outside, reminders of the last boo boo she had, reminders of who caused said boo boo, demands to go potty, discussions of what happens on the potty, etc, etc. You get the picture. It just goes on and on.

It can be quite exhausting to deal with someone who lacks any internal dialogue because I always want her to know that we’re listening to her. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. It’s quite adorable, and I know that there will be a day when she decides not to talk to us anymore. I’m sure that will be worse. So for now, I’ll enjoy each little conversation that we have even if it’s the eighteenth time today that we’ve talked about the fact that it’s raining.

Thanksgiving Weekend Pictures

Grandpa G always does a great job of capturing Hailey and all of her "looks." Click here to see his collection of Thanksgiving pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving. We enjoyed a delicious turkey, corn pudding, mashed potatoes, corn bread stuffing, etc, etc. It was quite a feast. I made the whole thing myself and learned some valuable lessons, like don't put too much heavy whipping cream in your mashed potatoes lest they try to become whipped cream and end up with a consistency resembling Elmer's Glue! Other than that, everything turned out very well including the turkey which was both moist and flavorful.

Hailey learned how to play her first board game, Candy Land, while wearing her Tinkerbell costume. I think she's got a way to go before she actually understands the rules. At this point, the gingerbread characters seem to move around the board with reckless abandon. It is good for practicing her colors though.

Today, we enjoyed a fun visit to the Georgia Aquarium. Now, I need a nap!

Impressive Gain

Just returned from the doctor's office. I gained 15 lbs in 8 weeks. That's pretty impressive for anyone! My midwife was not at all concerned about how quickly I gained. My appetite just really exploded for a few weeks, which is perfectly normal due to a growth spurt around 20 weeks. I think we're back to normal now, so I'm not expecting any other huge gains in the future. It was pretty funny though when I got on the scale and the nurse just kept pushing the little weight to the right. She was floored when she realized that I had gained 15 lbs, but she was thinking that was over only 4 weeks. Come on...I may have been a hungry hungry hippo, but that would be almost impossible

Another School Dilemma

It seems like just yesterday that I was whining about changing Hailey's school and how difficult it was. Well, here we go again. Our current school gave us about a month and a half notice that they are moving to a location that is completely inconvenient to our house or our work. Luckily another parent and I sniffed it out about 4 weeks ago, which means that I was able to get a jump start in looking for a new location. That's pretty important here where wait lists can range from six months to over a year. I spent an entire week's worth of lunch hours wandering around the city looking at daycare centers that ranged from having bars on the walls to being entirely green. Today, I went to a Montessori School. I always thought that I wanted to sent Hailey to Montessori, but this particular school only runs from 9-12. So, we would have to change our entire lives to accommodate it.

Ultimately, it came down to 2 schools that were near our offices. One is 90% white, is more expensive than we're paying now, and has a 6 month waiting list. The other is 90% African American, has one space available now and is $160 less than we are paying now. The curriculums are very similar and incorporate a lot of Montessori type aspects to them. Both have similar class sizes, beautiful locations, great playgrounds, etc. They are fairly equivalent in all ways but racial composition. So, it's a no brainer. We took the cheaper one with space. I think it's just a shame that in a city as diverse as ours, we still have relatively segregated day cares.

Hungry Hungry Hippo

Does anyone else remember that game? You would drop marbles onto the board and then control a little hippo head to try to eat up all of the marbles. If you tipped the board at all towards your hippo, all of the marbles would go sliding right towards its head. Well, that’s kind of how I feel at every meal these days. It’s almost like the table is tipped to my side and all of the food is sliding off into my mouth.

For the first 3-4 months of pregnancy, I really ate almost exactly like I did before I was pregnant. Then, all of a sudden in the past 3 weeks my appetite has come alive. I will get to the point in a meal where I’ll look down at my plate and think, based on past experience, that I should stop, but in reality that’s when I’m about half way finished. I pack lunches that used to fill me up and find that an hour later I need a snack. It’s ridiculous. I’m like a walking eating machine. I’m so afraid to weigh myself at home that I just pretend we have no scales. I’m going to go to the doctor next week and find that I’ve gained 25 lbs in a month!

I guess I should have accompanied this blog with a picture of my ever-expanding belly. Maybe I'll post one later for your entertainment.

Voting Saga

First some background... Lines to vote early in ga have been running 4-6 hours. That's not the oversensationalized news reports. That's actual people we know who voted. So, in my boy-scout like way, I decided that we were going to be prepared this election day. Polls opened at 7am. I planned to get there, Hailey and Luke in tow, by 6am with all of the equipment necessary to stand outside for the long haul. So, we go running up to the polling station with a stroller, camping chairs, blankets, breakfast, a bag of stuff for hailey and of course our IDs at 6:15am. A line has already formed but no worries... We are prepared. They pass out numbers at about 6:20 and we are numbers 97 & 98. About ten minutes later, they take 100 of us down to the game room of the rec center where they turn on Ratatouille (the movie) for us to watch. Of course, this is a wonderful surprise, but now Luke and I are the only goofballs carrying all of the aforementioned crap all over the rec center. The whole thing was so funny and such a clear indictment of my Type A personality. We ended up voting at about 7:30am. No problems. I let Hailey push the button which is illegal, but it didn't actually work when she pushed it so I did it myself...legally. Anyway, that's our voting story. We had a good time at an election party last night, and feel refreshed at the outcome.

Sweet Taters

I finally decided to pull up the sweet potatoes this morning. I've never grown them before so I had no idea what I was doing, but Hailey had a good time eating the last of the tomatoes. Here's a shot of the harvest and of Hailey digging away.

Halloween 2008

Hailey and Nana Trick or Treating

Kid's Party at the Square

Hailey and Kellen Prepping

Hailey Needs a Break

Hailey with Her Favorite Teacher

Hailey was Tinkerbell for Halloween. She could have been Belle or Ariel or Sleeping Beauty. It's really all the same fascination, but we went with Tinkerbell. The costume was a bit fluorescent, but she was adorable anyway, as you can see. I was dressed as a big oven and had my belly painted as a cinnamon bun, and Luke was a baker. It was pretty funny, and we received many compliments, but did not win the costume contest. Of course, we have zero pictures of that.

Drama

It’s funny how people react to the prospect of me having two girls. Mostly it’s with sympathy, sometimes laughter. For example, someone said to me today, “You are going to have a lot of drama in your life.” That was probably the best way that anyone thus far has summarized my fears, which is fitting since the person who said it has two young girls of his own.

Yes, I think that we probably are in for a lot of drama. In fact, when I think about two girls growing up together through the life phases, I start to get a little panicky right about when they hit adolescence. That’s pretty much the point at which I’m sure that they are going to hate me, break my heart, and Luke is going to become the sole parental figure in their lives. I’ve wallowed in the inevitability of this vision of the future for about a week now. Today, I just decided enough is enough. I need to see this as a challenge, not a certainty. I remember a while back I had heard a story on NPR about The Mother-Daughter Project. It’s a group that helps mothers form strong bonds with their daughters even before adolescence so that they can maintain a strong relationship through the toughest years. I probably need to buy their new book. Anyway, I feel renewed hope that just because I was a horrible, moody, cranky, unpleasant teenager, doesn’t mean that my girls have to be.

Oh, did I just say “my girls?” I guess I better get used to that phrase!