No rest for the weary!

I missed another blog post last weekend. It's getting harder and harder to find time for anything that isn't directly related to taking care of Emma and work. I find myself really looking forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, but not for any reason actually related to the holiday - just the days off!

This weekend we went to Roanoke for another MACK reunion. I still don't like traveling with Emma. It was so hard to keep her on schedule when there were so many other people around and so we ended up with a very cranky baby! Luckily, she has gotten over the pink eye and the ringworm is almost gone (we'll continue with the Lamisil cream for another week though). She still has her runny nose and cough. That's going on about 9 weeks now so we went to an allergist last Friday because we were getting worried that she might be allergic to the cats. The allergist said that she is too young to develop allergies (other than food allergies). He suspects that she has a nasty sinus infection and recommended a 3 week dose of antibiotic. I don't like the idea of having her on medicine that long, but my mom had a similar theory when she came down with the pink eye. I found it a bit frustrating that my physican couldn't have just said she was too young for allergies, but we're crossing our fingers and hoping this will help her out. (I hear her up in her crib hacking away right now.)

Last night we were looking through pictures from K's wedding last June and couldn't believe how different Emma looks. She looked like a baby and now she looks like a little kid! I was thinking that it was just because she can walk now, but even the pictures of just her face still look so different. She really is growing up! She has started saying "ma-ma" more. Usually just when she feels super sleepy or her mouth seems to be hurting (I think she's getting a couple molars now). It's not the excited "hi dad-dad" that Dan gets when she sees him, but it is nice to know that she trusts me to comfort her.

I'm not sure what milestones to post now. She seems to be learning new things daily, but they're not major things (like crawling or walking) and it's hard to even list foods because she pretty much eats whatever we're eating unless it's junk and then we find something healthier for her. She has been rejecting a lot of food lately, but I think that's due to the teething and I'm hoping it will go away soon.

That reminds me: Am I the only person in the world who thinks it is ridiculous to take a 12 month old trick-or-treating????? I can't believe how many people asked if we were taking her out this year and they were shocked when I said no! Other people kept asking if it was okay for her to have candy and daycare even had a party Friday with a sign up list for things like cookies, cheese puffs, chips, candy, etc. Seriously? My kid doesn't eat any of that stuff and I have no plans on allowing her to eat those things for quite a while. Apparently, I am the Halloween grinch! At least I have another year before I start getting harrassed about it again (and no, I don't plan on taking her trick-or-treating when she is 2 either).

What a week!

(Left: Birthday party; Below: pink eye)

I wasn't prepared for this week to be such a whirlwind! Last weekend was insanely busy trying to get ready for the birthday party, but we still tried to have fun. I think her party was a success, but honestly I was so stressed out that I can't really be the judge of that! We've gotten great reviews from Emma's guests and Emma seemed to have a blast, so I guess that's what matters.

Monday morning I woke up with a sore back and within a few hours it hurt every time I took a breath (any breath, not just a deep one). I tried to call my chiropractor, but no one answered so I called a different place (Dan used to work with this guy's wife). I managed to do quite a number on it and so I had to go back 2 more times during the week and will need to go twice a week for a month or so. As if I actually have time for all these appointments!

By Tuesday, Emma's cough had come back with a vengeance and she had icky green snot. She was scheduled for her shots, but the doctor had called in sick and we had to reschedule for later in the month. On a positive note - my friend at work had her BABY Tuesday evening! Little Lauren arrived weighing 7lb 9 1/2 oz.

Dan went ahead and took Wednesday off to stay home with her. They went to the doctor (not our normal doctor) who informed us that the spot on her cheek is not eczema, but ringworm (opps!). So we've started putting an anti-fungal on it twice a day. By this weekend it looks like she's getting one or two more spots on her face. Figures that she wouldn't get any new spots for over a month and then it would spread as soon as we actually start treating it!

Thursday it seemed like things were improving. The snot was clear instead of green so we were pleased about that. Oh yeah, the doctor said the cough may be asthma and prescribed Singulair. Not sure how the green snot fit into that diagnosis, but whatever. It was pretty fitting that the pharmacy was out of this particular prescription until Friday. I think it was around Thursday night that we discovered her first molar is poking through!

We made it until my lunch time on Friday and then I received a call from daycare that Emma woke up from her nap with her eye all gooked up and her eyelid was swollen. I managed to find a sub and throw some stuff together. We went back to the doctor (another doctor, still not our usual doctor) who confirmed that she had pink eye and prescribed an antibiotic eye drop. We had to rush from that appointment up to Winchester to the ear specialist for the follow-up appointment from her tubes. Her ears look great (thank God)! We follow-up again in 6 months.

We started the drops Friday night and were amazed at how much better she seemed Saturday morning! She was in a great mood, the swelling was down, and there was hardly any gunk throughout the day. The only down side was that the other eye started to gunk up a little too so we started treating both. After she went to bed that night we started Operation: Disinfect. We have wiped down every surface and toy that she possibly comes in contact with. Washed her bedding, clothes, and all our bedding and clothes that she's touched in the past week.

During the second set of eye drops Sunday morning, things seemed to go downhill again. When she started tearing after the drops, there was a pink tinge to the tears. I totally freaked out and called the on-call doctor. He said to keep an eye on it, but if she was acting normal and not running a fever that we could wait it out until tomorrow and then take her back for a follow-up at the office. I wasn't very reassured by that so I called my mom. She thinks that Emma has some infection going on more than just the eye thing and needs an oral antibiotic too. She tried to comfort Dan, who was feeling like it was something he'd done wrong because we really do have to pin her down and pry her eyes open to get the drops in. (It's a completely miserable situation for all of us and I really hate the baby who gave this to her!) At that point she was still in her normal, cheerful mood. She took a good morning nap and another long one in the afternoon. She did not wake up well from the afternoon nap though - the redness in her eyelid was worse, the swelling around her eye was worse and she was super cranky. She kept laying back down and whimpering. We are trying to decide if Dan is going to take tomorrow off or if we'll go ahead and drop her off at daycare and be prepared to get a call to pick her up. He's still going to try to get a doctor's appointment in the afternoon to get her checked out (hopefully we can see our normal doctor). She's scheduled for her shots next Saturday, so I'd like to have her feeling better by then!

This week doesn't look like it's going to be any easier. There are multiple things that we have to do each evening. Wednesday I leave for Richmond for work. It will be my first night away from Emma. I know Dan will take good care of her, but I'm still really anxious about being away!

Birthday!

I totally missed blogging last weekend and now Emmaline's birthday has come and gone! I think she had a good day. She went to daycare since it was a workday. We felt a little guilty not being with her the whole day, but felt like it was too weird to take a day off. The good thing about it is that she loves daycare! We baked some of our delicious pumpkin cupcakes and took them in with her. Several of the older babies (already 1 or close to it) got to have cupcakes together. They took some pictures so we're hoping to get copies of those soon. We went out to dinner that evening (3 Brothers Burgers) and she had a little bit of hamburger meat, but mostly shoved that aside so she could eat sweet potato fries. Unlike the ones we cook at home, these ones were covered in cinnamon and sugar. I wasn't too thrilled about giving her more sugar, but it's her birthday so we caved. When we got home there was a box from my parents so she got to open that. My friend (who is due with a baby girl any day now) came by and brought presents. Emmaline received a HUGE box from her other grandparents the day before. The downside - she isn't that excited about opening presents. We've gotten a few cute pictures of her playing with the box or tissue paper. Honestly though, she's really not into those things either. A few of the things she's received have been big hits so far - a fork and spoon from her auntie, monster squirt bath toys from her godparents, doll and play bottle from my aunt, and puzzles from a co-worker.

Today (the day after her birthday) was a fun day too. We went to the Little Gym for our regular class. Emmaline was way more outgoing than she usually is. I think she's getting very comfortable with the setting. We also went to the Festival of Leaves and walked around for a bit. It's an annual event and vendor set up booths and whatnot. They also open the historic museums near Main Street for free. The only thing we really got out of it (other than exercise) was talking to a couple different people about gutter cleaning and guards. I guess that was fitting since it was the Festival of Leaves and we're trying to get the freaking leaves out of our gutters. Since the house is 2 stories tall on 1 side b/c we're built on a hill, Dan can't get up on that side to clean them out. We don't actually have any trees on our property, but the neighbor has some huge ones that drop a ton of leaves. (We raked 20 bags one year!)

Tomorrow is her party. We are having that at the Little Gym as well. We're very excited about it and can't wait to see people. Most of the guests are co-workers and their kids. A couple friends from college are coming from out of town and bringing their kids (or in 1 case, just coming since they don't have kids). Emmaline's friend from Sign Language class is also coming from out of town. We invited the other babies that she's been going to daycare with for a while, but never heard back from them so I'm not expecting them to show up. Don't blame them, I'm not really sure if we would have shown up if we'd been invited to their parties since we don't know them outside of daycare. For one of the babies, I've never even met the parents. But I know Emmaline adores these kids and I would actually like to meet the families so maybe they could get together occasionally "after hours".

As for developments, she has some weird spot on her face. I'm thinking that it's an eczema kind of thing. It's gotten bigger over the past month, but looks like it might be fading now. She goes to the doctor on Tuesday for her 12 month check up and vaccinations so we're hoping to figure out what the doctor thinks about it. About a week ago, Emma got ahold of an apple out of the cupboard. She started chomping away on it and before we knew it had eaten it to the core (we got it away long enough to cut the core away, but she'd already eaten the stem)! I was worried that she would gag once she got down to the smaller bits, but she did great. Today she grabbed a nectarine as I was putting away some groceries and did the same thing (we took it in plenty of time to cut the pit out).