Illness Update #3

Natalie and I are both better today! Praise the Lord! Thanks to everyone for their prayers!

Amazingly, she fell asleep at 6:00 pm last night and slept about 13.5 hours! She usually sleeps 11 hours at night. I figured she must really need the sleep - and she must be feeling better - to sleep that long. Brad did a breathing treatment before he went to bed, which I was very thankful for. He's been home with her today (we've been alternating days) and she's doing so much better! She's eating and drinking, but still a little clingy at times. She hasn't had a fever today, which is really great news. Also, she's being more tolerant for the breathing treatments again. I think it sounds like she's really close to feeling like her normal self. I just talked to her on the phone, and she told me all her animal sounds, which was cute. :)

I slept pretty well last night, and am feeling SO much better today. I am still very congested, but the sinus pain is gone, and that's really the worst part. My voice sounds terrible, but I think that just happens sometimes when you're on your way to getting better. Hopefully in a couple days I'll be as good as new . . . or close at least! :)

Illness Update #2

Natalie is better and worse today. She woke up in a terrible mood, but her temperature was only about 99. She ate some fruit for breakfast, but rather grudgingly. She was just not a happy camper today, and it seemed really odd to me. This is the worst mood she's been in since she got sick. I was wondering if her ears were bothering her, because I had read before that ear infections often continue to get a little worse even after they are on antibiotics, which we're on day 3 of. So we got ready and went to her re-check and her RSV is about the same, not surprisingly. We have noticed her coughing less, but she's still congested and she's still wheezing a little, so we have to continue the breathing treatments. Also, her throat is not red anymore. None of that was a surprise. The bad news is that her ears both look terrible (mother's intuition?). So we decided to give her an antibiotic shot today, and hopefully that will better jump-start the healing in her ears. We're also continuing the oral antibiotic that she's on, and we'll be going back next week for another check-up. The doctor said she might not be contagious on Friday, depending on how the next two days go, so basically she can't go back to Katie's until next week. It's frusting for us to have to miss work, especially since I only work 3 days a week, but Brad is going to stay home with her tomorrow so I can go in, and then it looks like we'll be able to make up the other days later in the month, so that's great. I wasn't looking forward to going in on the weekend! :)

My congestion is still pretty bad today, but my throat is better. I have a little bit more energy, but I still just want to rest, and Natalie is not in a resting mood today. I don't know how to describe her mood. Discontent, I guess. Nothing seems to make her happy for long, and it's pretty draining. I'm just praying that she starts feeling better soon - for all of us!! Brad looked up the particular shot she got today, and some people say they felt better later the same day, so that's wonderful news! Pray that Miss Nat can be one of those!

Illness Update

Natalie is doing much better today, praise the Lord! I am feeling worse, and that stinks, but I'd rather myself be sick than her. She slept well last night, and Brad (aka the best hubby and dad ever) did 2 breathing treatments on her while she slept - and it doesn't wake her! Her fever was MUCH lower when she woke up, so that was encouraging. She's been drinking more today and ate some fruit for breakfast and asked for lunch and ate some of a bean burrito! Ha! Brad says she's in a good mood too, so that's wonderful!! I will go ahead and just be positive and say we're on the downhill side of the virus, and I'm soooo thankful for that. Now I'm just trying to decide what's going on with me. Ugh.

Thanks to everyone for their continued prayers!

Sick Again

Please pray for Natalie and for our family's health in general. It seems that we are unable to all be well at the same time anymore, and I've pretty much reached the end of my rope. Currently, Brad has a sinus infection (he's feeling much better and is on antibiotics), Natalie has RSV (a respiratory virus), and I thought I was getting over my allergy/cold/whatever, but I've been extra tired today with a headache and an irritated throat. I'm praying I'm not getting Brad's sinus infection, but even if I escape that, I don't see how I could not get Natalie's RSV, which they say manifests itself as the common cold in adults. That I can handle, but I'm also really ready to just be WELL for a while.

Back to Natalie. We took her to the doctor this morning since she had a cough, congestion, and fever over the weekend. Turns out she has RSV, a red throat, AND her ear infections are still there. So she's now on a stronger antibiotic, we have to do breathing treatments every four hours (that she really doesn't like), and try to get her to drink as much as possible. Turns out that drinking thing is WAY more difficult than it sounds. I even tried to get her to drink some blue raspberry pedialyte (which she seemed to like earlier) from a syringe, and she spit most of it back out - on her white shirt. I won't be bothering with that trick again. *sigh* She basically doesn't want anything to do with anything that goes in her mouth. I'm praying that the antibiotic kicks in quickly and starts working on the sore throat - maybe that's why she doesn't want to drink or eat. The doctor seems to think the RSV will get worse before it gets better, but we're praying it's peaked already and that we're on the downward slope because she does seem better to us today. Her fever seems to be lower and the motrin seems to be keeping it down better today. Her mood is actually quite good, surprisingly. Just don't try to get her to open her mouth. :(

Thank you for your prayers - truly, truly.

Another Long Overdue Update

Well, I've done it again and it's been too long since I posted anything. Christmas is just crazy. I just did 2 posts with lots of pics from Christmas, though, and I'll try to do my best to get down what Natalie's been doing lately in this post.

Natalie cut her 8th tooth today. It seems like it's all the way through, but she was awfully fussy this evening, so maybe there's still a little bit left. She does seem to get through it more quickly now, but she's still got SO many teeth to go, I dread all the teething yet to come!

Natalie has added a few animal sounds to her repertoire! She knows:

• cow
• sheep
• horse
• snake
• rooster (although she says "hoooo hoo," but she is trying to say "doodle doo")
• kitty
• doggie (but only sometimes)

Here's a quick list of cute stuff she's been doing lately:

• Brad taught her how to tell a secret, so she gets a kick out of leaning into your ear and making "whispering" noises.
• She's so prone to runny noses that we seem to be constantly using saline in her nose. She'll find bottles of it lying around and put the bottle (lid on) into her nostril.
• On a related note, she's on some eye drops right now, and she will find other kinds of bottles (the eye drops are definitely not within her reach), and act like she's putting them in her eyes or in a baby doll's eyes.
• She got lots of baby dolls for Christmas, and I think her favorite part about them is feeding them their bottles. It's so cute! She knows just what to do! (see pictures below)
• She fairly consistently says "nose" when she points to her nose and "mouth" when she points to her mouth. She also knows these body parts, just by pointing: eyes, ears, head, hair, teeth, tongue, hands, feet, and belly button.
• She loves her Brown Bear book, and I think it's because she gets to point out the eyes on every single animal each time we turn the page. She definitely has a fascination with eyes.

Christmas in Ohio

We arrived in Ohio around 8 am EST on Tuesday, December 23 after Brad drove 12.5 hours straight! This works best for us right now since Natalie gets really fidgety after a while. She slept pretty much the entire way, praise the Lord! She did wake up every time we stopped for gas, but she would just look around, then go back to sleep on the road. The only drawback is that it leaves Brad super tired the next day! We had lots of fun with family, and Natalie especially enjoyed hanging out with her cousins. She also was very excited about Al & Deb's dog, Rosie, who is a silky terrier. Miss Nat would chase her around the house saying "Casey!" and making clicking noises and motioning for Rosie to "come here." Rosie is not quite as accomodating as Casey, but they got along ok. :)

While we were in Ohio, I think all 3 of us were sick in some form or fashion. I had the usual allergy/cold stuff, Brad actually came down with a fever but seemed to recover fairly quickly, and we ended up having to find an urgent care place open the day after Christmas to take Natalie, who was very quickly pronounced with another ear infection. This makes 2 in about a month. We really think that allergies may be the culprit and plan on trying out some baby zyrtec very soon. Thank goodness, she recovered very quickly and you wouldn't even hardly know she felt bad by the very next day. Sunday, we went to Elizabeth's first birthday party, and after a nap for Miss Nat, we were on the road again that evening! She was awake for an hour and a half (which was fine by us) before drifting off, and on the way home, she slept all the way through until we reached Mustang!

Here are a bunch of pictures from our trip!

Happy first birthday, Elizabeth Grace! Glad we could share your big day with you!

Christmas in Oklahoma

Well, I'm ashamed that I have not posted anything in about 3 weeks, but I'm going to do my best to catch up tonight! I have to say, Christmas has got to be one of the hardest times of year to sit down and keep track of what's going on, but I really should make a better effort!

Here are some pictures from our Christmas celebrations here in Oklahoma. We had lots of fun at Nonny & Poppy's for lunch and then at Oma & Papa's for dinner!

Fun with Nonny and Aunt Kimme, playing with her new (mommy's old) purse with Gram, hanging out with Poppy, playing on her new cool trike from Oma & Papa, and sitting with Daddy.

This last one showcases her new "cheeeeese" face. We're not sure where she picked it up because we've never said it to her, but she says "cheese" a lot of the time when you try to take her picture. Pretty cute! :)