Belly and teeth

Mia's stomach just needed more time to heal before going back to a regular diet. We fed her bland foods all weekend and she is now back to normal. Well, except for the two new teeth that are cutting through and hurting my girl. That makes teeth 6 and 7. Tooth number 8 is visible, so I'm sure we'll have that one within the next week or so also!

Enough is enough!

Mia vomited four times last night and we ended up in the urgent care center. She's doing much better today but we're sticking with bland foods. She has a doctor’s appointment today so we’ll see what’s going on.

First Word

Can you believe it? The day after we get tubes, Mia says her first word! We were at the store last night with Brent, Carol and Mike’s sister Kelly. Mia was holding the phone up to her ear and I kept saying “hello”. Well, as plain as day she says, “Hello”. It was so loud and clear Mike and Kelly came running from the other side of the store, asking if that was Mia. Of course we all laughed and made such a fuss she didn’t say it again, but we all heard it. Then, this morning (after our first full night’s sleep in ages!) she said “doh” and pointed at the dog! Everyone said this would make a world of difference to us and I can’t believe that, less than 48 hours later, it already has.

Now for the positives

• I’ve been calling Mia Miss Inquisitive lately because she is curious about everything. She points to nearly every object in the house as we make our way around. She’s particularly fascinated by photographs (especially of herself!) and the characters in her bedding and accessories, which has thrilled me to no end. I selected this bedding (it has primary colors, numbers, letters and animals on it) because parent reviews ranked it really highly as an educational tool, and because it was appropriate for either sex. Now I’m glad we haven’t done girly bedding just yet, because she loves to point to everything and have me recite the number, animal, etc. So she’s learning her ABCs, counting and animals.
• Mia loves to talk to us and loves our cell phones. She now picks up random objects and pretends they are phones. She holds them to her ear and actually makes sounds that mimic “hello”, kind of like “ey-yo”. She also thinks she’s having conversations with us. Last night while I was on the phone with Mike, she kept leaning forward, babbling to me like she was telling me something I needed to pay attention to. Then she’d lean back while I responded, and lean forward again to speak.
• Mia loves her push toys. She got several for Christmas and likes to walk behind them. She is also into walking while I hold her hands. She’s not very stable at this point, but I love her fearlessness and determination.
• Speaking of fearless, Mia loves to slide head-first off the couch onto the floor. Since she’s determined to do it, I let her, holding her feet to soften the fall. I figure if she’s going to do it, she needs to learn to fall without hurting herself!
• Mia now has 5 teeth, and numbers 6, 7 and 8 are visible under her gums. I wish I could say I remember to brush them every day but I sometimes forget. Mom got her this large handled toothbrush for Christmas that seems more like a toy. I usually hand that to her and let her chew on it for awhile. Self-sufficient, that’s my girl! ;-)
• Mia got several new CDs for Christmas and we’ve discovered she loves to dance! Once the music comes on, she starts to bounce up and down, clapping her hands. She’s not on the beat just yet, but don’t worry, Mama will take care of that!
• Mia continues to go down to sleep very well (when she isn’t sick, that is). She is like clockwork, and is so easy to read that we can simply look at her and know it’s time. We lay her in bed, kiss her goodnight and leave the room. She may or may not fuss for a minute or two, then she’s out.
• It’s simply a matter of time before she starts taking off her own diaper. She tries to pull at it now and yanks on it as soon as I unfasten it. I’m not looking forward to the days of poopy walls.
• She also has no interest in sitting still while being changed. She loves to hang upside down anywhere, and that especially applies to her changing table. She scoots herself to the end, hangs her head upside down, then flings her arms over her head. Luckily I have a table there with her CD player on it, so the worst that can happen from this is she’ll whack her head or her arms.
• Crawling off the changing table is another story. If she’s not allowed to take off her diaper or hang upside down, she wants no part of being on the table. So she’ll sit up and try to crawl off. We may have to start changing on the floor.

Where do I even start?

Where do I even start? New Year’s Eve was fun. MODA sponsored a party at Prime Lounge, so Mia rang in her first New Year with Granny and Grampy Hollkamp. She wasn’t up for banging pots and pans just yet, but she had a great time and we picked her up from the annual Hollkamp New Year get-together the next day.

On Friday, my 36th birthday, I woke up feeling pretty sick. I was very congested and had a lot of sinus pressure. Luckily we only worked half day, so I went to the urgent care center that afternoon where I was told I had a very bad cold. On Saturday I continued to feel bad and finally Mike told me to take a nap. I had just fallen asleep when I heard him yelling for me. I ran out to the kitchen and saw Mia, Mike, the high chair, the table and the floor covered in vomit. Mia was sitting there crying. We ran Mia to the bathroom where she got sick again. We stripped her down and I got in the shower with her. We wondered if she ate something bad, or if her formula wasn’t sitting right with her. We’ve recently switched her from soy to milk formula and thought that could be it. As soon as we got her out of the shower she vomited again. After she vomited 6 times in an hour I called the doctor. They said there is a bad stomach flu going around and there was really nothing they could give babies and to avoid giving her anything to eat or drink until it had been two hours since she last vomited. So I continued to hold her for the next hour while she vomited over and over. She was so scared that all she wanted to do was cling to me each time she got sick. I felt so helpless that I held her to me, allowing her to get sick all over me, just to keep her close. It was so awful to watch her stare and grab at me while her little body shook with pain and fear. She soon ran out of things to bring up and that was far worse, because it wracked her body so hard. After another hour I called the doctor back. This time they said to give her Karo syrup to calm her stomach spasms. Mike headed out to get that and Mia was sick three more times before he even got back. We tried the syrup but that kept coming up too, so now we were covered in sticky vomit. We got in the bath and she lay on my chest, trying to relax. By this time she was completely lethargic and when she vomited her eyes rolled back in her head. She couldn’t even hold herself up. I was scared and furious that the doctor hadn’t wanted to see her. I didn’t know whether to take her to the urgent care or straight to the ER so I called the doctor back. I informed them she had vomited 18 times in two and a half hours. They said take her to the ER. On our way to the hospital I sat in the back with Mia and kept trying to get her to open her eyes. A couple times she was so motionless I actually checked her pulse. It was terrifying and the longest ride of my life.

We arrived in the ER and she vomited before I could even sign her in. There were several patients ahead of us and the nurse was helping someone else at the time. We took her to the waiting room and stripped her down and wrapped a towel around her. I held her to me as she vomited again. I took Mia and stood outside the nurse’s station. I was finally able to tell someone what was going on and she brought Mia back immediately. Very long story short, she was not dehydrated enough that she needed an IV, but they gave her Zofran (ironically the same medicine I needed almost daily during my pregnancy for the nausea) and fluids. They said she had the stomach flu and that we should just give her bland foods for the next 24 hours to keep her stomach calm.

We took her home and Mike and I slept on the sofa with Mia in the pack and play. We were terrified to let her out of our sights. At about 3:00 a.m. our power went out. It woke us all up and Mia began to cry. Her stomach was empty and she wanted to eat, but we could only give her a few sips every 5 minutes, so she wouldn’t vomit again. We began feeding her sips of juice, then we’d have to pull the bottle away from her. She would then scream and throw herself around for 5 minutes until we could give her more. This proceeded for THREE HOURS. It was awful, because we knew how hungry she was and there was nothing we could do for her. At about 6:00 a.m. she’d had enough to fill her, and she fell asleep.

Sunday afternoon Carol came and got Mia so Mike and I could relax for a little bit. Later that afternoon we went to pick her up. It was there at the Robbins’ that I began to vomit. Thus began a horrific night of my own illness. Mike and Mia stayed at Brent and Carol’s since we knew this was definitely contagious. I was sick every 15 minutes for EIGHT HOURS, then every half hour for another 4 hours. It was so bad I actually called Margo, my pregnant best friend, to bring me her two remaining Zofran. I took two Zofran, four Immodium and it didn’t stop this. After awhile I quit leaving the bathroom and just lay on the floor in between sickness. Mike called at about 5:45 am and said Mia had started vomiting again. I just cried, trying to figure out how I was going to take care of my baby when I couldn’t even stand up without getting sick. I called Mom and she offered to stay home from work to take care of Mia. Thank God she did, because I was still sporadically getting sick through Monday night. Mike and Mia stayed with Brent and Carol again Monday night.

Tuesday morning was Mia’s ear tube surgery. On Monday I’d called the surgeon to tell them she’d been sick and that Mike and I didn’t want to put her through a surgery after such illness. They encouraged me to rethink that decision and said they’d leave room for us on the schedule if we changed our minds. Well, Mom called Monday afternoon to tell me Mia was pulling on her ear and she had a fever, so we decided to proceed. On Tuesday Mike, Mia, Carol and I went to the hospital. It was the first time I’d seen Mia since Sunday. We were very nervous to have our baby undergoing this procedure, primarily because of the anesthesia, but we knew it would help her so much in the long run. It turned out to be pretty uneventful. They came to get her and carried her away from us without incident. She was fine and didn’t cry at all. The doctor checked back less than a half hour later and said she was in recovery, all went well, and that her ears had both been extremely infected. I couldn’t believe how quickly that had happened, as we’d been in his office the previous week and they’d also been checked at the ER. It just further confirmed that we’d made the right decision. We got antibiotic drops for her ears and we were ready to go.

We took Mia home and she slept a few hours. When she woke up she was very happy. She wanted me to hold her hands and walk her all around the house, and she played and talked to me all afternoon. Mike closed the store early and came home to be with us. We made pizza and hung out together. Mia even ate a little of the pizza crust and cheese. Once we put Mia to bed, she had some trouble though. She began waking up every 20-30 minutes. That continued until about 12:30 when I’d had enough walking back and forth to her bedroom. I put her in bed with me and Mike slept on the couch. She rolled around and continued to wake up frequently until about 3:45 this morning. At that time she woke up, leaned over to reach for me, and puked all over me. So we got up, changed her clothes and got Daddy up. She didn’t have a fever. Since I’d had no sleep up until that point, Mike then took her back to the bedroom and I slept on the couch the remaining two and a half hours until I had to get up. Mia didn’t get sick again so we took her to daycare this morning. We think that her stomach just wasn’t ready for the pizza, even though she hadn’t been sick since Sunday morning.Keep your fingers crossed that things finally calm down for us after this crazy week!

Surgery

Things have been very hectic for us with the holidays, but we did make a trip to see the ENT specialist yesterday. Mia will have surgery next Tuesday to get tubes. Supposedly it's a very simple procedure and she'll only be away from us for about 20 minutes, but I'm a little anxious regardless. Please keep my baby girl in your prayers, and hopefully after next week these ear infections will be gone!

Mia's First Christmas

• On Monday, Mia got a fever. I wasn't sure if it was her new tooth poking through or her ears. 
• On Tuesday I took her to the doctor where they confirmed ANOTHER double ear infection. She got a shot of antibiotic, a prescription for additional antibiotic and an appointment with an ENT specialist for Monday morning.
• On Wednesday we celebrated Christmas at Mom and Bruce's. The girls were so cute and entertaining. Granny and Grampy got them push and riding toys and they were all over the place! Mike and I were "spoiled" ourselves and we loved just hanging out with the family for the afternoon.
• That evening we went to the Robbins'. Mia was showered with gifts from her aunts and uncles, including educational books from Uncle Charlie, her first tutu from Aunt Kelly and a handmade blanket from Aunt Jenny! Mia played for hours and could barely keep her head up when the time came to head home.
• On Christmas morning Mia was so surprised to see Santa Claus had visited her while she slept! She loved opening the presents he left - and playing with the paper! 
• Mia and Cara brought so much fun to the annual Christmas breakfast at Dad and Sue's. It was entertaining to watch them explore and see what they found fun and what they had no interest in whatsoever. Paper was the biggest hit, followed by anything they can put in their mouths. Mia received so many great toys to enjoy this next year, including the push/rock/ride toy from Nana and Papa and her Pockets CD from Aunt Miss.
• We spent Christmas afternoon back at the Robbins'. We opened our stockings, and Mia had a nice big stocking of her own to open. She loved her toys and had fun crawling around the house all afternoon.
• Mike and I were very humbled by the generosity of our family and were reminded once again of all the blessings we have in our lives. It was such an amazing feeling so sit there with our child on such a wonderful day. Every Christmas we've felt like something was missing, and we wondered how we could recreate the magic that Christmas brought us as children. Finally, this year the magic was there for us as we watched the day through our daughter's eyes.