Head Check

Thursday was Derek's 6 week check-up for his head.  I was fairly certain that his head size was okay and hadn't grown a lot since the last visit but what I was concerned about his mood, runny nose, cough, and slight ear tugging that had been going on since last weekend.  All of those symptoms (except the cough) could be attributed to teething so I didn't think much of it since he got new teeth on Monday (he's up to 5 now) but we were going in and I had to pay the copay regardless, I called to see if our appointment could also include a quick check of his ears, nose, throat, & chest.    The scheduler said the doctor didn't have any extra time to give us and referred me to a nurse.  After speaking with the nurse, she said the same thing but agreed to contact to the doctor to see if she could squeeze that in.  I found out our appointment was the first one of the day so I told both the nurse & scheduler that we would be there early, just in case she could see us.  I got a call back from the nurse that said our doctor said she would check Derek out during our appointment.  Yay!!!

As expected, his head still wasn't growing and actually measured exactly the same size as his 1 year check-up 6 weeks ago.  That's just fine and it means that our last appointment was right after a growth spurt and he is okay.

His doctor thanked me for calling ahead to schedule extra time to be checked out.  She said is lungs were clear (no need to worry about the cough), clear throat (no strep or blisters), left ear was red with puss (ear infection), and.....his right ear had the same = double ear infection!!  I didn't see that one coming at all.  All of the signs for an ear infection also match teething and he's been getting in teeth non-stop.  Ahhhh.... we probably should have taken him in earlier in the week.  (I'd have to say to the two biggest questions I routinely struggle with as a parent are "Should we give him medicine?" and "Should we bring him to the doctor?")

He's on augmentin for the next 10 days and then we'll be back in 2 weeks to recheck his ears and cough.  Thankfully, augmentin should clear up the ears and also take care of anything with the cough at the same time.

Peek & Struggles

Checking on Derek before we went to bed at night has become part of our nightly bedtime routine.  There is something very calming about seeing him sleeping (often with his little butt up in the air) - it always seems to make me smile.  I enjoy that the last moments of every day include kisses & I love you's to my boys.

With the flash (Mike shinning a dim light from his ipod on Derek)

What we really see when we "peek"

As great as Friday was, we really struggled this weekend.  It was a weekend where many conversations started out "I think it's your turn to take him for a while."  We struggled mostly with getting him to nap.  Both days he skipped his morning nap and was content to just play in the pack n play quietly.  Afternoon naps then came much earlier in the day and only last 1 1/2 hours.  (A typical afternoon nap is around 2 hours +  1-1 1/2 morning nap).  This lack of sleep really threw off his schedule, which we were okay with but he wasn't.  Each routine ultimately got moved up in the day and we had a very moody little boy.  One minute he was as happy as could be and just when we started thinking things might finally be getting better, his mood flipped and it was suddenly the end of the world that the tower of blocks fell down before he got a chance to knock them down.  He cried when we put him down, he squirmed like crazy if you were holding him....there was just no deciphering what he wanted.  

Sunday was much of the same with the added bonus of a runny nose.  Great, another cold.  Monday morning lead to a difficult conversation with daycare about him being sick, whether he should be there, and his the frequency of illness.  We opted to bring him to daycare because he only had a clear, runny nose.  No temp, no cough, no other cold symptoms.  This afternoon I got a text from daycare which finally gave us the answers to this difficult weekend - another tooth has just broken through, this time on the top.  It's just barely through, but we can feel it and hear it grinding against the bottom ones.

The light bulb went off - his teething symptoms are always a clear runny nose.  He has four new teeth in the last month, which would explain our feeling like he's always sick but yet the doctor's keep saying that he's just fine.  Now that we know, we feel more comfortable about giving him medicine.  (After our first scare with the overdose of medicine that resulted in a call to poison control and the fact that we are just not big medicine people, I struggle with when to give him medicine for discomfort vs over medicating him.)  We're only four teeth in and I'm ready for it to be done.  I'm not looking forward to the rest, especially the molars.  I hear those are particularly bad.

#2

Yesterday Derek turned 13 months and today his second tooth broke through, but just barely.  You cannot even see it, but can feel it.  He now has two bottom teeth - bottom front left [then working to the right], a space, and a second tooth.   It looks like there is one more on the way where the space is.  In fact, I though it would come before this one because the outline is so visible under his gums.  Our little drool monster continues....

Christmas in Milwaukee

This Christmas, we were back to our normal routine.  (Last year we changed things up due to Derek's arrival). We celebrated with the Nistler's early so they could head down to Florida and we took off down to Milwaukee.  The one big deviation from our normal routine was my brother.  He and his wife have decided to do the big holidays every other.  This meant that he was not in Milwaukee celebrating with us.

Overall, traveling went well with Derek.  Since he's bigger now (and it's a pretty long trip), I wasn't sure how this trip would go.  He had plenty of entertainment with Mike and Grandpa in the back seat.  After we stopped for dinner, he ended up sleeping the entire way.  Then when we arrived, we brought him straight up to bed to go back to sleep instead of being overwhelmed by all these new faces at 11 pm at night.  While he didn't fall right back to sleep, it proved to be a good decision because he met each person as they woke up in the morning.  It was more of a gradual transition and much better for him.

We had a chance to catch up with most of our relatives.  While it was different because everyone wasn't there, it was nice.  We did get to see everyone a bit more than we do in a normal year because of all of the weddings (my cousin & brother).  Derek got to meet his new 2nd cousin (my cousin's little girl).

Peek-a-boo!

Playing with bowls

Fun climbing the stairs with Grandpa

Building blocks with his 2nd cousin

Happy to meet his new 2nd cousin

There were also two dogs for him to be around at Christmas.  There was a gate separating the dogs from the him, which proved to be a good idea.  The little dog he liked because it was more his size, but he didn't like it when she jumped up on him.  And the bigger dog was very friendly but had a very loud, deep bark that sometimes scared him.  The gate was nice to allow him to enjoy the dogs but to be to close.

Doggie

Safely behind the gate

I was concerned about the drive home.  Derek did great on the way down because he slept most of the way.  On they way home, we coordinated leaving with his afternoon nap and we got a good 3 hour nap out of him. That helped so much.  The remaining 3 hours he did alright.  Again, Mike and Grandpa stepped in and played endless games of peek-a-boo, reading stories, etc.  All and all it was a good trip.  Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas, Christmas

This weekend we celebrate both the Nistler Christmas and the Schultz Christmas. It was a back to back days of fun.  We started with the Nistler's at Dan & Heidi's house.  We had a great meal and hung out to watch the kids.  Christmas sure has changed with little kids running around and they are the center of attention.  Derek really enjoyed watching his older cousin play & dance around.  We even got a few cute photos:

Reading stories with his cousin

Checking out the opened presents

Reading stories with Grandpa

Walking with Granpda

I thought for sure he would be interested in opening presents this year now that he's a bit older but he wasn't.  He was interested in playing with some of the toys after they were opened but he much preferred walking with Grandpa Chuck all over the house.

The Schultz side of the family celebration was the next day.  Not quite the level of excitement because Derek is the only little one around but we still had a great, relaxing time.  Despite having a "small" Christmas with everyone choosing a name this year (because of the cruise), there were still so many more gifts than I ever expected.  We opened presents in the afternoon, again Derek didn't really care about presents so we opened most of them when he was napping.

Not sure about this hat, Katie

He LOVED these singing dancing snowman

I had been telling my mom about this portable chair I was trying to find (I wanted it before we left for Milwaukee for Christmas) and how I had even called every Babies R Us/Toys R Us store in the state without any luck.  Amazon had it in stock but it would take to long to be delivered.  It's nice because it has so many different ways to use it and it works everywhere because it just straps onto the chair.  Some of the best reviews I've ever seen on a product.  She managed to find this chair - I couldn't believe it!!

Eating Christmas dinner in his new chair

After presents we ate some of the best pot roast I've ever had.  Mom was using us as guinea pigs for a meal she was planning later for hosting Bunco.  I'll happily be a guinea pig again - yum!!!

Overall we had a wonderful weekend full of family and fun.

Roseola again?

Derek has been acting sick again - crabby and running a temp this weekend.  After a few days of this behavior, we expected to see a rash break out on his tummy.  We were totally expecting this behavior to be Roseola since it was the last time we him like this.  When no rash appeared on day 3, we took him into the doctor only to discover that he's just fine and it's a delayed reaction to his MMR shots.


Seriously?!?!?  Those were almost 2 weeks ago!  Had this happened the day or two after his shots we would have attributed it to them but not given that this amount of time had passed.  We went back and read our literature and sure enough, symptoms present 10-14 days after the shots.  We always read the check-up documents but just scan the shot ones because they are all the worst case reactions.  From now on, we'll be reading all documents thoroughly - lesson learned (and paid for with a copay)!

1st Cookie Baking

Derek participated in his first cookie baking.  Cookie baking is a family tradition on Mike's mom's side and for the past few years (with the exception of last year due to Derek's early arrival) we have hosted at our house.  It's always a great time and we end up with way more cookies than we know what to do with, plus it's a nice way to catch up while doing something together.

A new apron for our youngest baker.

Derek was excited to try cookie dough.

First taste (he found a tiny fleck on the table)

The Nistlers with all the grandkids.

Katie & Chris were having fun too!

Brother in-law Matt - He made these chocolate covered cherry
 cookies.  Each cookie had a chocolate chip stuffed in a cherry!

I want the cookies!

As usual, we had way to many cookies left over so I packaged some up for the neighbors & friends.  Then I went to work at freezing them.  I made good use of our Food Saver and frozen tons with 2-3 cookies in a package - the perfect little snack!  One year I made it all the way to the following December, finishing off the last packet a few weeks before our next cookie baking.  I hope I can make it to the next one this year.