William's 15 month check-up

I took William to the pediatrician on January 24th for his 15 month check-up.  At his check-up he weighed in at 25 pounds 2 ounces and is 30.5 inches tall.  He is in the 60th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for height.

William is excelling in both his motor skills and his vocabulary.

William is a climber.  He climbs on anything he can.  His favorite place to climb is the dining room table.  We no longer leave the regular chairs up to the table.  If we do, he pulls them out climbs on the chair and then onto the table.  So, one chair is against the dining room wall and the other three are in the living room. He won't move them if they are not up to the table.  He is also into climbing onto the couch and the chair in  his room.

William is very vocal.  He loves to jabber and yell.  He really LOVES to yell.  If his sisters are around he doesn't use his words as much he points and says, "ah, ah".  This sound drives me crazy.  I am working with him on using more words.  He signs and says more.  He can also say mama, dada, papa, ball, balloon, basketball (bah-bah-ball), yes, no, please (pease), thanks (tanks), and a few more words.  I LOVE that he is talking and using words.  I love asking him yes and no questions because he gets excited and can answer me.  He also understands a lot.  I can tell him to go find a book, his pacifier, one of his sisters, or a number of other toys and he can do it.  He interacts with us so much and I love it!!

William is just like his mom and dad and LOVES snow.  If a door gets left cracked for a second he is out it.  He loves to play with the snow.  I can't wait to get him out to play in it when it warms up a bit.  I haven't had a chance to take him out in it yet because up until a short time ago, he wouldn't leave shoes on.

What a great time this is with William.  He is adventurous and his laugh and smile are contagious.

Enjoy the pictures!

William's One Year Check-up

Yesterday William, Katelyn and myself headed to Kansas City for William's check-up and a little shopping.  Here are William's new stats:

Weight: 23 pounds 6 ounces
Height: 29 3/4 inches

When I did he birthday blog I took a guess at his weight and height.  I guessed he weighed about 24 pounds and was between 30 and 32 inches tall.  I wasn't too far off on either.  The other big news from his check-up, the doctor gave me the okay to put him forward facing.  I wasn't planning on doing this until at least January, but he constantly fights getting in his carseat and screams when he is in in.  During the hour and a half drive to KC yesterday he screamed for about an hour of it.  After a good conversation with the pediatrician, I put William's carseat forward facing and he loves it!  He loved to just look at the window and point at things.  The drive back to Chillicothe was much more peaceful!

Becca

Will's Ears

So, I took Will to the pediatrician and he said his ears look great. He has no fluid and no pink or red in his ears. Yeah!! If Will can make it thru the next 5 days or so we should hopefully be home free for the ear infection season!

A crazy update...

Wow, how crazy life has been! We are going thru a lot of changes in our lives and are looking forward to the adventures that lay ahead. Brian left this morning for a conference in Chicago. He will be back Thursday night. Friday morning he leaves for another conference, this time he is only going to Jeff City and will be back early Saturday evening.

We had Will's ears checked last night. His left ear is clear, yeah! Unfortunately his right ear is still pink. The doctor did not prescribe any antibiotics, he wanted us to check in with Will's pediatrician first. Though Dr. H said that he wouldn't be surprised if his right ear had an infection again in 2-3 days, ugh!! So, this morning I called Dr. Burgert's (our pediatrician) office to let them know. I had to go through the whole story of the ear infections and burst ear drums, I knew I put it all on the calendar for a reason! The nurse told me she was going to pull Will's chart, talk to Dr. Burgert and give me a call back. I am anticipating a trip to KC for us this week. If we do it will be a quick and crazy trip as I am the taxi driver for everything this week for the girls and it is not a light week. Oh well, it is part of motherhood and I love to watch my girls be involved in things, so they are social, disciplined, learn, and most importantly have fun!

I will keep you posted as to what I find out with his ears, but the understanding I have from Dr. Burgert, Dr. H and a few nurses is that Will is a candidate for tubes. Hopefully I will know more within the next couple of days because I am getting worn out with all these ear infections!

Here are the stats for Will's ears:

Feb. 8 - Ear infection #1, right ear only
Feb. 12 - Finish first antibiotic (5 day treatment)
Feb. 14 - Both ear drums burst
Feb. 15 - start antibiotic ear drops
Feb. 22 - end antibiotics
Feb. 23 - 4 month check-up, ears given a clean bill
Feb. 27 - ear infection in both ears, start Augmentin
March 8 - finish the augmentin, now has a rash, start benadryl
March 11 - Rash is gone, talk to Dr. Burgert's nurse, Will is probably allergic to Augmentin (further talks lead to allergic to penicillin)
March 12 - ear infection in both ears, start Bactrim
March 22 - done with Bactrim and had his ears checked; left ear looks great, right ear is still pink
March 23 - Talked with nurse at Dr. Burgert's office, waiting to hear from Dr. Burgert

As you can see Will has been on some type of antibiotic for around 32 days of the last 43! I am not liking this at all. Hopefully we will get something figured out so my little guy can get better. He was sleeping thru the night until the ear infections started, now he is up 1-2 times a night. I know I should not complain about this since I have friends who are up more than that during the night, but it is hard to regress from sleeping thru the night!

Please say a prayer for Will to get those little ears all healed up. Also, a prayer for Benjamin and Isaac that they both get well and stay healthy!

Love,
Becca

I DEFY YOU EAR INFECTIONS!!

(I am following in a friends footsteps and am using her wording.)

Here we go again...Will has an infection in both ears!!!!!  He is now on Bactrim because of his reaction on Augmentin.  Ugh!!

Let's hope this works.  I will call the pediatrician on Monday to discuss any options we may have.  I don't like the fact that Will has been on antibiotics for around 25 of the last 34 days or something like that.

Nofun, no fun. 

Another day and another...well, who knows!

So, on Monday afternoon after Julianne and Katelyn's swim lessons I noticed a bit of a rash on Will's tummy.  I didn't think much of it, as it was quite warm and humid in the pool area and when I took him out of his carseat he was sweating.  I chalked the rash up to that.  Monday night when I got him ready for bed it seemed to be gone.

On to Tuesday afternoon...

I was nursing Will and after all his wiggles his shirt exposed his tummy.  What do I see?  The rash!  Argh.  So I inspect him some more and it is on his belly, his sides, and his chest.  Alright, now what is causing this rash.  After I got done nursing him, I inspect him all over.  Nothing on his legs, butt, or arms.  Now I look at his neck and face and there it is.  It is on his neck, up the sides of his neck, behind his ears, and around his hairline.  I am not freaking out, but am very frustrated.  What to do?  I call Brian to get his opinion...no luck, he is in a meeting downstairs.  I call my Mom, no answer.  Alright, I will call the Peditrician. I call and leave a message, now I must wait for the call back.  Wait, I am going to call the pharmacy and talk to Scott or Mary (what wonderful friends and pharmacists!) and ask them about the side effects and reactions to augmentin.  Will just finished it for his most recent ear infection.  A rash could be a sign of an allergic reaction.  Scott says that benadryl can probably help.  While I am on the phone with him, the pediatrician's office calls.  I pick up that call.  I talk to the nurse, apologize for calling and she tells me it is okay that I am calling.  I explain to her that I have two other kids, ages almost 6 and 3 years old.  Between the 2 of them we have had 4 sick visits!  I do feel very lucky about this.  However with Will I have had that many in the past month and feel that I keep over-reacting.  She assures me I am not.  I tell her what is going on.  I give her the history for the past month:

February 8: Will's first ear infection, right ear
February 14: both ear drums burst
February 27: ear infection, right ear

I let her know that he just finished the augmentin.  She then tells me it could be an allergic reaction to the augmentin or it could be a virus.  GO AWAY SICKNESS!  She then says to give him benadryl.  The benadryl will clear up the rash if it is one, but not the other.  I can't remember which way it goes.  The nurse said if the benadryl doesn't clear it up in 3 or 4 days to call back.  I tell her thanks and hang-up.

Now I call Scott back and tell him what the nurse said.  He says he will pull a bottle of benadryl off the shelf, put in a plug, get a medicine measurer and have it waiting for me.  I sure do appreciate the great service I get from Scott, Mary, and the rest of the staff at Hometown Pharmacy!

So, 45 minutes late I have things worked out for Will.  It is now 4:30, crap Julianne isn't ready for dance, hasn't eaten and we have to leave in 15 minutes.  Oh yeah, I need to nurse Will before I leave.  I know we can do this, it will just take a lot of encouraging Julianne to keep her moving.

We did it!  We made it out of the house at 4:50...plenty of time to get her to dance.  I drop her off at dance, walk fast to the pharmacy (luckily it is only a half block away), and then I need to head to a board meeting.  I get to my meeting a few minutes late, but at least I made it!  Brian calls about 6:25 to let me know that I need to head home right after picking Julianne up because Will is awake.  I tell Brian to give Will a bath, that will buy some time.

Alright, my meeting is over.  I go to the car and drive back to the dance studio to get Julianne.  I get Julianne and head back to the car.  I try to start the car, but it won't start...you have got to be kidding me.  I try again...nothing.  I open the hood...had this problem last summer and it was a simple fix.  Nope, that is not the anwer.  CRAP!  I call Brian...he says he will call our "neighborhood mechanic" to come and help.  Great, I will wait.  Mike shows up to rescue the damsel in distress.  Mika is with too for the rescue, she thinks it is awesome.  Mike jumps my car and it is running.  YEAH!!  I thank Mike multiple times and Julianne and I are on our way home. 

We get home and all is fine with the world.  I put things away, check Julianne's dance bag and crap, one tap shoe is missing...you have got to be kidding me.  Oh well, another day I will go check the lost and found at the dance studio.  For tonight, I am done and ready for bed.

What a day it was....let's hope that Wedensday is uneventful!!

Will's 4 month check-up

Once again we made the trip to Kansas City to see the pediatrician. Will was supposed to have his 4-month check-up on Monday but after the weekend snowstorm the appointment was rescheduled to Tuesday. Will had a great check-up. His ears are clear and he is a healthy baby boy!

Will now weights 17 pounds 13 ounces (95th percentile) and is 25 inches long (50th percentile). If I remember correctly this is very close to Katelyn's stats and a little smaller than Julianne's stats at the same age.

He is on track and even a little ahead of a few milestones. He is getting close to rolling over from his back to his tummy. He gets his head cranked around and his lower body moving, but just doesn't move his torso. I am sure he will roll over when no one is watching. He loves to move when he is on his back by pushing with his feet. Finally, he is starting to grab things now. He is already developing favorite toys (they go with us almost everywhere to help keep him content!), loves to grab at my plate/bowl at the dinner table, and he really loves to pull his sisters' hair.

Will has another 2 months to wait until we start him on solids. His pediatrician likes to wait until 6 months to start solids and I am just fine with that. Both girls were around 6 months when we started them on solids. So, for now I will continue to nurse him. I must say after doing bottles 2 different times, I find it much easier to nurse and I definitely don't have as many dishes to do or do I have as much stuff to pack when we go places!

Happy Thursday to everyone!