Poor sick baby: day 10

I guess it IS worth noting that the first time I ever brought her to the Dr. sick she was 17+ months old. She had small colds before that, but nothing I would take her in for. So, that's a pretty good record, eh? A record that is now demolished, but a good one none-the-less...

Trying to urge the toddler out of the baby:

Layla HATES anything on her hands that is squishy, cold, wet, slimy, etc. She will hold bread-type things, and feed herself those, but that is IT. So, she still is fed like she is an 8-month-old, for crying out loud! :) She acts like a baby bird if she WILL eat something: opens her mouth wide, tips her head back, but won't touch it with her hands to save her life. (Hello, sensory issues???) She also never wears bibs because she never gets messy while eating. If the smallest grain of rice is still on her lip after she takes a bite she can't stand it. She has to carefully pick it off and put it BACK in the bowl of soup, or whatever she is eating. It's pretty funny, actually. She's handed stuff to Jonas and me that I can't even SEE, but it was really bothering her.

Anyway, it's TIME. Time to be a toddler, not a baby, when it comes to eating. I'm trying to get her used to using a spoon and fold, and (*gasp!*) touching food. This is how rice went last night.

(Layla to herself: "Hands high, hands high! They might touch the rice!")


THRILLED with feeding herself:


Ooooooor, a BETTER idea!






I allowed this to happen for THIS very reason: if she didn't want the rice around she had to TOUCH it! This is her getting disgusted after she forgot and tried to sweep it off her tray, and then trying to pick every last grain off of her hands:

Sleep, 1 day shy of 17 months...

Well, last night Layla slept 7 hours straight. Again, "personal best" for her. (No waking from 11:00 p.m through 6:00 a.m., after a rough "getting to slee" time)

:)

I have absolutely no faith or hope that this will continue, but it IS nice that it came on the heels of a very hard day for her. I think she's getting sick, based on her behavior yesterday. She was UP this morning at 6:00 a.m. because she couldn't breathe through her nose, poor thing.

The saga continues...

**UPDATE:
Shoot. She threw up just after waking up from her nap...poor baby. Officially sick.

**Second UPDATE:
Worst.Sickness.EVER! Sheesh. This is day 4, and it's not normal at all...after hours and hours of screeeeeaming last night I was ready to take her to the ER, sure that she MUST have a broken bone or something if she's wigging out that much. At the Dr. today they found nothing--no high white blood cell counts, no UTI, no ear infections, etc. So we have no answers. And a very sad, very sick little girl with very very tired and worried parents. :(

**Third UPDATE:
Layla seems to be on the mend today (Wednesday), so hopefully she'll allow me to wash her nose and take her pictures--maybe with a smile?--by tomorrow for her 17 month pictures. No, Sue, I haven't forgotten. :)

**Fourth Update (Thursday afternoon):
Well, Layla certainly has been "better" yesterday and today, but her recovery is much slooooower than I thought it might be at this point. She seems 80% most of the time, but can dissolve into tears at the slightest thing and then starts hacking up a lung, and then her nose starts running again, and then she' can't breathe which means she can't eat/drink, etc. Fun little cycle. The coughing is most concerning to me. Everything else at this point seems like a "normal cold," but I've never heard her cough EVER, so this sort of hacking cough is just horrible to hear. She needs some Mucinex, but darn if they don't make any for babies. :( I've been forcing her to be in her room as much as possible, where the humidifier is going around the clock (with some Vicks Vapors in it, just for kicks). She does better in there, but then wants out. Sigh.

Also, I have no idea about how contagious she is to other people at this point...if she acts totally normal tomorrow, maybe with just a slight cough or runny nose, when is it okay for her to be around other kids? I would feel horrible bringing her to church (because she HAS to go in the nursery there...no way can she be quiet in the service...) and then infecting all the other kids. :(

Sleep at (almost) 17 months:

Layla slept the longest she has ever slept in her life last night:

6 hours, 15 minutes.

That.Is.PATHETIC.

I know a million and one 5-week-olds that do that on a regular basis, but noooo, not my sweet pea! Hey, I guess I'll take it. The sad thing is that I was only sleeping for 3 hours of that time....the rest of the time we were having a grand ol' time with friends watching Top Chef. So, from 8:30 p.m. to 2:45 a.m., Layla slept. She got up twice last night, which is TOTALLY normal for us, but she ended up STAYING awake on her last awakening. Who knows what is going on with this kid. She had such a truly awful week last week with teething/molars, and this week has been better for sure, but then there was tragedy last night: She fell head-first into the bathtub while leaning on the shower curtain and ended up cutting her top lip on her bottom teeth. Blood everywhere. Her poor mouth can't catch a break.

*Sigh*

Well, she's down for a very early nap now, after getting up at 5:30 a.m., so I better run out to the car and bring in the groceries now that I have TWO free hands!

:)
Lisa

Happy Valentine's Day!

Jonas came home with some beautiful flowers AND a lovely plant for me...so sweet. :) I was PLANNING on making him some shortbread to show my undying love (during Layla's nap), but INSTEAD I spent three hours on the phone at the end of months and months of working the system, and I was able to save us abotu $700 a month in medical costs. So, that's my gift to him. And me. :) Gotta love a from-the-heart Valentine's Day gift!

Valentine's Day (...the "Berube Lunch" version...)

Pulling apart an edible valentine...(very little actually goes into this kid's mouth...)


Hiding from Grandpa in the toy room closet...he's the "tickle monster"