First of all, I thought he was spoiling me by cuddling with me yesterday morning until just after 9am! Wohoo! But further examination while we were getting him dress was that he was burning up - with a temperature of 103! Oiy! After a minor freak out by me, a dose of Tylenol and a call into Dr. C: we were to monitor him, dose him with Tylenol every 4-6 hours or as needed and if it's still over 101 after 24 hours to bring him into the clinic to see if there was something underlying going on.
Side note: He's teething right? Did you know a lot of doctors don't believe that fever is associated with teething??? I've always heard that... but anyway, that's what Dr. C said. She says, for the most part she disagrees, but she also said that generally a "teething fever" is low grade and generally no higher than 100-101.
Let me say... I have one HAPPY baby for having a temperature above 100! He's smiley and running around like normal, a little clingy but for the most part alright.
After getting up at 9am he surprisingly was ready for a nap by 10:30am. He slept for a good two hours and when he got up his temp was normal. Wohoo! Well, 4 hours later, he's burning up again and it's hovering right around 100. So I gave him anther dose of Tylenol and we went on with our day. When Adam got home from work he could just tell that he wasn't feeling well. His face was flushed and he was really whiny so when we checked him again he was back up to 102 :( Poor guy... I was thiiiiiis close to taking him down to the clinic but Adam thought I should give it the 24 hours like Dr. C said and wait until morning. So we waited.
Ugh. Landon hasn't gotten up in the middle of the night in I don't know HOW long. But.... he was up at 3am, and 5am, and 6am, and then finally we got out of bed at 8:30. Momma.is.tired!!! His temp this morning was right around 100 so we gave him some Tylenol and he seemed to have an OK morning. He just played like normal, he ate fine, and was smiley! :)
Well, around 3pm it spiked again... poor guy. Off to the clinic we go... He has a double ear infection and I'm kicking myself that I didn't just go to the clinic last night. He didn't act like he was in any pain and he regularly pulls on his ears when he's tired but I didn't even really see him do that?! So weird. But that's what they tell us - so he's on Amoxicillin for 10 days and we've got a prescription for Ibuprofen to give him as needed. Here's hoping my little man sleeps well tonight.
This is what I've been seeing for the last week or so since tooth number one popped through :( Poor little man. It's only about 1/2 way up and his gums are all swollen right next to it so I imagine tooth number two will be making an appearance in the next few days
Overall, he's been pretty happy and we're dealing well with Orajel. I generally don't like taking medicine so I try not to give it to him unless he's obviously in pain but it seems like every night so far since we've seen it pop through is that he has a little meltdown after his afternoon nap. Around 3 or 4 every day, he'll have nothing but to be held - standing up. Don't you dare sit down with him or put him down!
Seriously, the bath is the only place these days I can keep Landon contained enough to get some good shots of him! So... enjoy some more bathtime pictures, I know grandma & grandpa won't mind :) Here's our fun from the other night, I couldn't pick my favorite so I'm just posting them all!!!
Mr. Landon has been BUSY these last two weeks!!! On the walking front, he literally went from being a wobbly little stiff legged guy to basically running across the living room pretty much over night! He's also started climbing up on things...Oiy! The other night as he was reaching over the side of the tub for his toy the little guy picked up one of his feet and came tumbling over the side all wet right into my lap! And then he laughed about it!? Here's one of him today...
Speaking of laughing... up until this week we'd been rocking him to sleep for his naps and bedtime. Well we had a day or two where he WOULD NOT SLEEP. We rocked and rocked and rocked... we tried laying him down awake, laying him down drowsy... nothing would work. Then all of a sudden he'd start playing while we were doing our usual nap or bedtime routines instead of getting drowsy. He'd flap his arms and shake his head - and when you'd hold his arm down or say "No Landon, night night!" He'd start laughing hysterically?!?! =/
So that was the end of that - for 3 days now - no rocking him to a drowsy stupor! Adam started it cause I don't do well with letting him cry it out... but he gave him his blanky and binky, laid him down, said night night and that was that?! The first day was rough - he cried for like 20 minutes. Adam went in a time or two to calm him down and lay him back down but he eventually fell asleep. Same thing for his afternoon nap.... wow! I did cave for bedtime and rocked him a little but did lay him down awake where he proceeded to SCREAM. But eventually, off to dream land he went!
This morning was my turn for daytime naps... ugh. To my surprise, he laid down and hasn't made a peep for the last hour and a half now! Wohoo!!!
Oh yeah! Yesterday was mister's first Valentine's Day!!! AW! Guess what cupid brought him??? His first tooth!!! :) Yup, he's been drooling like a faucet this week and with that little bought of no sleeping I'd been wondering if one would makes its debut. Sure enough, as we were wondering how so much drool can come out of that little mouth, Adam stuck his finger in and there it was! Ever so slightly poking through - basically with no warning what-so-ever?! He hasn't really been cranky even!
And speaking of Valentine's Day, I'm a little bummed that I've been a slacker about Landon's pictures lately. My house is so freakin' small that it's really hard to find the space to set it all up. Plus I need someone to help me keep mister occupied and happy in front of the camera - now that he's SO mobile it's nearly impossible by myself and needless to say, it's not Adam's most favorite task. I'm still doing them... even though it's passed, but I just have to wait until my bff and her girls has a free minute to help me :) Hopefully this week sometime. Here's one from earlier today when he was just getting up from his nap...
Wow... I am yet again a bad bad blogger. It's been over a month since I last updated. In my defense, it's been a helluva month!
First of all, there was Christmas, adventure in itself! Despite really wanting to spend Christmas with our families, we stayed home and enjoyed our first Christmas with Mr. Landon! He didn't have a care in the world about anything, even opening his presents from "Santa." :)
What's this "stocking" thing???
After Christmas, comes New Years! I was SO excited to ring in 2011, it's going to be a GREAT year... riiiiight? Ugh, on December 28th we had a little - how should I put this - difference of opinion, regarding Landon's care and on the 29th we found ourselves with no babysitter for him, sad... but really, it's for the best anyway. I had to leave work that day to go back home so Adam (cause really, his job is more important) could go to work and then Friday rolled around, thankfully, my friend was still out of school for Christmas break from college and came over to help me out so I could finish out the year at work. That night we went on our way and did end up having an EXCELLENT New Years Eve!
I love my hubby!!!
Some of our best friends!
Back to reality after the 1st of the year and I took most of the week off because we had no one to care for Landon. Adam's dad was scheduled to have heart surgery on the 5th and I still had no daycare at that time. We had planned on driving home for the weekend to visit and help with any recovery we could. Instead we find out that Landon can't be in the hospital room at all so he ended up getting to spend some much needed time with Grandma! :) In the meantime, Adam and I got to see his dad and hang out with him in the hospital. It was much needed for Adam.
On the way home, I found out that the friend I thought could care for Landon was sick.... oh man, I already knew my absences were up there in number but what could I do? I end up taking pretty much a whole week off cause you can't just find childcare overnight. I called what seemed like 100 different places and found that either 1: they didn't take infants 2: they didn't have space for an infant or 3: they were hell for expensive! After everything, they ended up giving me a second week off for "personal leave."
The 4 places that I did find were very varied. Three of them were in-home daycares. I really liked the 1st place - she was nice, only had 2 other (toddler) kids right now cause all her other kids had "graduated" to kindergarten. It was in-home but her basement was used as the actual daycare and the kids didn't have access to the rest of her house. She was however, $45 PER DAY :( (over $700 per month)
I visited another place similar to this but I got a horrible vibe from the daycare lady - she seemed just like our previous care in which, I felt like she wouldn't listen to what I wanted, as the mom, as opposed to how SHE ran things. She was $575 per month and the cheapest of everyone I visited.
The third place I visited was horrible. I'm SO glad I didn't go here first because I probably would have turn and ran away, quit my job and not looked back. It was like a sad orphanage that you see in the movies... I'm not kidding. It was horrible. And they were still $625 per month?!
Then the very last place that I visited was another in-home place. She runs it literally out of her home. The kids eat meals in her kitchen, nap in her bedrooms, and play in her house. It's great and she's so nice. Adam even (semi) felt comfortable dropping him off. She was still $640 per month but it was what I thought it was??!
The first week in day care was hard, I'm not going to lie. I cried the whole first day and I wasn't even the one who dropped him off. Adam did, and he said he spent probably a half hour to 45 min there before he left. Which, I'm really happy about. He called me after he left him and said that it went ok. He sat him in the high chair and helped feel him his breakfast before saying goodbye.
The rest of the week continued to go pretty well. He had a couple mornings of separation anxiety but after a little distraction was fine. He also seemed to be adjusting well to being around other (older) kids.
Then... the plague hits...
Ok, well, maybe not the plague but the winter cold/flu. :( It spread from my friend's kid (thanks Joni!) to Landon (who'd just had it 2 weeks prior) to me and back to my friend and her other kid. GAH! Can we catch a BREAK!??!!!
My work had told me when I was still looking for a daycare that I was on the verge of breaking the absence policy and that if I called in another time before the end of March that I would be terminated. Well, knowing that I was beyond sick, I called in... there was no other option. Would they rather me puke in the garbage can and attempt to work OR just stay home??? Apparently they want me to puke in the can?! When I called, basically all my boss said was "When do you want to pick up your stuff?" Thankfully, I took down most of my pictures and "stuff" earlier in the month so there's not much there. I still have to go in and get a few things.
Honestly, I feel like a huge weight has lifted from my shoulders. I'm not going to lie, I was not in a good place before this happened. I hated my job. I hated Landon in daycare, even though we'd found someone we like. I WANTED to be a stay at home mom and housewife!
In the last 4 days at home - despite being sick- I've never been happier?! I love being home all day with Landon. I love knowing his routine, what he's eaten, when he's napped, and most of all I love playing, reading to and loving on him!!! It's amazing.
There are a few kinks we have to work out...
Landon's medical - on Adam's income alone he qualifies for FREE health care through the state. Even if I end up having an income (via unemployment or another job up to a certain amount) he would qualify for low cost (re: $30 per month) care?!
OUR medical - still working on this one... I just got my information packet regarding COBRA and for the 3 of is it is $1400 per month?! =/ Seriously, who can afford that? So I'm looking into a private plan or Washington Basic Health, so we'll see what we figure out. In the meantime, PRAY neither of us get sick again!
Our income - I think maybe, just maybe, we can make it work on Adam's income alone. I mean, after daycare and insurance, I was making a measly $400 a month. What a joke. So, I've offered my services out to my girlfriends with babies :) Basically if I charge only 1/2 of what their daycare charges and watch 2 kids two or three days a week, I'd be making the same amount of money I would have made working. WOW. Remind me why I wanted to keep my job? Then if I get unemployment for a month or two then that's just a bonus :) Horrible but whatever. Don't hate. :)
Also, I'm trying to channel my inner creativity and find something that I love to do and make money doing it. We all know I love photography and in March the Rocky Mountain School of Photography will be holding a 2 day workshop that I'll be attending :) SO EXCITED!!! Also, I've put an ad out for photo sessions just to gain experience. Basically, I'm hoping to charge something dirt cheap like $50 for an hour or two of my time wherever they want to take photos and edit them. Then I'll make sure they get a CD with all the edited prints and give them rights to print them. It'll give me the hands on experience I need! I'm no professional by any means but I'd really like the experience and hell, it's fun to take people's pictures!
By the way, have I mentioned I LOVE my camera??? =/
So anyway, that's the gist of what's been going on... I'm sure I've missed some and I'm sure this is all a bunch of mumbo jumbo to some but at least I got it out there.
Now, to close... a few of my favorite boy in the world (besides Adam... hehe).
