19 Months old!

Hello Everyone! I just want to start off this post by saying that I am officially a US citizen! One of the reasons for wanting this now is that I can finally take my husband's last name. I will no longer have to say, "I am so-and-so, mother of William" (since we currently have different last names). On January 17th, I had my interview and passed. They asked me 6 questions:

1. Name two national holidays.

2. What is the supreme law of the land?

3. Who is the Governor of your state now?

4. Who is the father of our country?

5. What did Martin Luther King, Jr. do?

6. Where is the statue of liberty?

I was bummed that the ceremony wasn't the same day but the daycare toddlers had made me a really nice sign.

Then on February 7th, two days after my birthday, I had my official ceremony. Steve went with me and I got an official certificate. After the ceremony we went down to the social security office to start the processes of changing my name in EVERYTHING (which we later found out that it takes about 4-6 weeks).

Update on Liam: My wonderful Liam is 19 months old! He is recovering from a cold which transpired from another bout of croup. His cold also turned into a double ear infection again. Due to the antibiotics, we have him in disposable diapers (since he usually gets a yeast infection when on antibiotics and we are trying to avoid a yeast build up in his diapers). Daycare has expressed their concerns about his speech and we looked into getting him evaluated. I plan to start the evaluation processes in May, if things do not improve by then. In the mean time, we are going to get his hearing checked. The pediatrician suspected that he could have some hearing damage due to all the ear infections.

I also recently purchased more clothes for him because his head is too big to fit though some of his shirts as well as his pajamas are too short. He is now officially in 2T clothes. I also got him 3 Melisa and Doug puzzles. He wasn't as excited about them as I was but I am sure that he will use them more in the future. 

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Croup & Yeast Diaper Rash update

An update to Wednesday night. Liam was up almost every half-hour. By 9pm he was hysterical and short of breath. I took him into the bathroom, ran a steamy shower and called the on-call nurse. After a series of questions, and listening to Liam becoming frantic in the background, she confirmed that he was going through "strider", a complication of croup and that he should stay in the bathroom for 20 minutes. She instructed that I try to calm him and that she would call back. 

Once calm, he was still wheezy but not making any horrible "short of breath" sounds. We went out into the night air, listened to crickets and waited for the nurse to call back, which she did, just as she said she would. She informed me that I should call back if "strider" happened again and that I should sleep in the same room as him, keep him elevated, run a cool-mist humidifier and feed him honey-water to soothe his throat. She also said that I should make an appointment with his pediatrician first thing in the morning.

The rest of the night was a blur. Steve was still on night crew (not coming home till 5:30am) and by the time I hung up with the nurse it was 10:30pm. I gave Liam a sippy of milk and then cuddled him till he got sleepy. He went back down to sleep in his crib relatively well and once asleep, I pulled in pillows and blankets to make myself a makeshift bed on his floor. And there was where I slept for the rest of the night. He woke up 3 times throughout the night. Once he wanted to cuddle and so there we slept, both on the floor of his room till about 2am. Then he woke up and wanted more milk. Since he has not drunk or ate much that day, I had no issues giving him another bottle. He drank in haste and went back to sleep till about 6am. 

By the next day his voice sounded worse and his cough had increased.I called and made an appointment for that morning, which went ok.  She confirmed that he did have croup as well as a yeast diaper rash. She gave him 1.5 steroid tablets in a little baggy for the croup and prescribed nystatin cream (of which I already had) for the rash. She also explained that after croup, he will get a very "junky" cold.

We are back in cloth (and cloth wipes) and so I cut up one of Steves' old t-shirts to use as a "barrier" between the diaper and the cream. So far the steroid worked like a charm, clearing up his raspy voice and the nystatin cream is working well. He is getting that "junky" cold she talked about and has a phlegmy sounding cough. But all in all, he is doing MUCH better. I can only think... what next?

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Did daycare just give Liam croup?!

My poor little man was fine over the weekend. We suspected teething pain but no fever, no real fuss. We even went to the library Saturday, played with trains and played "chef" in the play kitchen. He was a drooling mess but had a blast.

Then on Monday he was sent home from daycare with a fever. This was also around the same time that a diaper rash was starting so I assumed, oh no, here come's a week of Diaper Rash Hell and teething pain. We gave him some fever reducing medication and hoped that he would feel better the next day. I kept him home from daycare Tuesday and noticed that his throat was starting to sound real hoarse. Allegies? I first called his pediatrician who told me that if it was croup, that it was a virus and there was nothing I could do about it except cool mist at night.

I called daycare this morning and asked if any toddlers were sick in his room. The assistant manager assured me no, that only one little boy had been kept home due to a starting cough. I had an OB appointment, and with Steve working nights (sleeping during the day), I had to drop Liam off at daycare. He was fever free and so I hoped he would have a good day. When I got to daycare, I told the assistant manager that I was going to call in an hour to see how he was doing and if he was miserable, I would pick him up.

When I walked into toddlers, 3 children were screaming, 1 was in the arms of an aid coughing up a storm and two other toddlers and walking around wining and coughing. Great! So much for no one being sick. I told them I was going to call after my doctors appointment to see if I should come pick him up. I called about 45 minutes later and they told me he was a little fussy but overall ok. I then got a call from then around 11:45 to say that he was coughing more but it was because he was laying down. I told them if it got worse, to call and I would come pick him up. I waited a couple of hours and then went and got him. They told me he had a much better afternoon  but didn't nap long or eat very much.

Usually he will drink water throughout the day. The last couple of days, he has been on and off refusing water. He has even been refusing watered down juice (which he gets as a treat and LOVES). All he has wanted was milk. Not to mention that his diaper rash is starting to look worse and worse. I gave him a baking soda bath, put him back in a disposable and lathered up the cream for the night. I have a cool mist humidifier going and so I hope that he will get some sleep (though hes been waking up every 15 minutes coughing so I am guessing its going to be a LONG night). I plan to sleep with both doors open so that I can listen out for him.

They say the second and third night are always the worst (and thankfully not contagious to adults) so I am hoping that by tomorrow, this should all be behind us... I'm hoping. Hes not labored in his breathing so I am hoping that this is a mild case. He is going to stay home from daycare tomorrow and having a mom-and-me day. Lots of morning fresh air and lots of cuddle time. As for the diaper rash.... the battle begins. Wish me luck!

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