No sleep for the weary

Madeleine's still sick but there's nothing the doctor can do for her unless she gets so dehydrated she needs an iv. She's currently napping because she only got about 5 hours of sleep. Parker still seems well despite refusing to sleep last night. Justin and I took turns going in the kids' rooms and doing laundry. I went to the store early this morning for another set of sheets for Mad's crib. I don't want to keep doing 4 loads a day. Justin's at work trying to function like a normal person. We both got about 4 hours of sleep. I'd be sleeping right now but Parker decided to wake up from a nap as soon as I got Madeleine down. And I always wondered what would be the catalyst for getting a head full of gray hair. Now I know. Thanks for your prayers.

My end of the bargain

Thanks to all of you for proving to me that blogging is so much more than posting a picture and sharing a story: it's about creating community and you have helped me to see exactly how expansive and supportive my community of friends can be! So thank you for all of your kind words.

Now back to business.

I know I promised an update on Parker and that's still coming but we've had some more immediate parenting issues. Madeleine has been vomiting for the last 24 hours. She had a 10-hour reprieve this afternoon (including a 5 hour nap...we were up with her most of the night) but commenced spewing at 8pm tonight. How does one explain the "way" to throw up to a 2 year old? She understands the words themselves but can't bring herself to actually just spit out everything. Instead she ends up swallowing bile back down which starts the process all over again. I winced feeling her little body convulse in my arms as the dry heaves began. No one enjoys throwing up but seeing your little child suffer is even worse. Then she said she was thirsty. She cried and cried asking for water and milk. Again, how do you reason with the parched throat and empty belly of a 2 year old? She doesn't understand because she's always allowed to have these drinks; why not now? I'm hoping she'll fall asleep easily tonight with no more incidents and if she wakes up we'll give her a few sips of pedialyte. The doctor on call said a lot of viral infections have been going around so she wasn't surprised to hear about Madeleine's case. Fortunately Madeleine has had a few wet diapers so we know she's still hydrated. I'm fervently praying Parker stays well...

That leads me to Mr. P as we affectionately call him. Wouldn't you know the little bugger has TWO teeth?!? It was Tuesday of last week that I first realized he was teething in the first place because that little white speck wasn't spit up in his mouth; it was a broken-through tooth! Parker continues to teach me that just because you have one kid that means the second will fall the pattern of the first! Madeleine began teething at 7 months and slept through the night at 2 months. Unlike his big sister however, Parker is willing to let most anyone hold him as long as they smile and make silly faces. He really enjoys playing in the jumperoo as well. You can laugh at my attempt to get a picture of his teeth; the best shot is the last one. And as you can see, he carries his favorite teething toys with him: his fingers!

We are still struggling with sleep. I'm almost ready to try a spoonful of cereal before bed to see if that helps. But as it stands, Justin and I aren't getting sleep anyway with both of the kids sharing my cold (which I've now had for 12 days but I think it's really going away this time) and now with Madeleine puking. We do love this job of his though because he was able to take a half day of sick leave last week and a sick day today.


I have a video to post but it's not downloaded to the computer yet so I'll leave you in suspense for that one but I do have a few new family photos from our first official hike with Parker that we took two weeks ago. It had snowed the night before and left one of our favorite trails up the Rattlesnake Wilderness Area completely blanketed. It was a delight to be out, especially considering the sickness that followed.

One more thing. We are now the proud owners of an indoor-outdoor kitty. No, despite Madeleine's attempts to get me to adopt a new kitty at Petsmart, I'm talking about our good ol' family feline Oreo. We took her to the vet today to get her vaccinations updated so she can terrorize the neighborhood squirrels instead of us. She's already tried to make friends with a neighbor's cat who came over to hiss at her. I practiced some parenting skills in defending Oreo's right to play in our driveway by chasing that cat away. Big tough Mama, that's me! I'm not keen on the dirt she'll bring inside but it's way better than risking her scratching the new couches because she's bored.

That's the skinny on us. More as soon as I have time and energy. Thanks again to all of you for sharing your hearts with us!

Too much for one day

I have way too much to update you all on to fit in one post so I'll just list a few of Madeleine's latest developments first.

1. We officially said goodbye to the bottle a week ago. Since last Monday Madeleine has used some special Elmo sippy cups she picked out for her milk. I'm really proud of how well she transitioned, although our collection of Elmo memorabilia continues to grow.

2. Madeleine LOVES jewelry! She raided my beaded necklaces and bracelets and decided that they looked better on her. Fortunately, Grammie (my mom) sent Madeleine a small treasure chest of necklaces, bracelets, and rings which should keep her out of my stash :)

3. The girl's vocab is growing! The other day she came up to us and pointed to the color blue in one of her books and said "bue." Not perfect but she's getting it all on her own! She's also added socks, green, car, jeep, baby, Zoe (a Sesame Street character), "where's that cat" (a book title), and (my personal favorite) Costco to her repertoire. Every day she seems to try saying new things much to our entertainment.

4. She caught my ick. It's bad enough being sick myself but seeing my kiddos share in the congestion is horrible. There's only so much we can do for her; we can't even put a humidifier in her room because it brings out the smell of cigarette smoke which we can only assume is left over from the previous owners. So for now she blows her nose, drinks as much fluids as she wants, takes longs naps and warm showers with me. We hope this passes quickly.

That's all I have time for today but I'll try to get more out on Parker tomorrow. Thanks for the comments; I guess in some sick way I was trying to guilt you into commenting more but it's the only way I know people actually read this stuff. So even if it's a simple hello, I greatly appreciate it.

Justin and Carol save the blog

I wasn't going to post anything else until I got at least one comment on any of the last three entries. I know you people look at it; just let me know that you do so I have motivation to keep posting!

As a result of the lack of comments, the blog is very behind on the latest family updates. We're talking sophisticated vocabulary, a knock-you-on-your butt cold, and teeth! No specifics yet though because it's late and I'm tired but I'll try to get something up tomorrow.

Montana: fountain of youth

http://www.montanapbs.org/ConversationwithWalter/

wow.

Grover love

A few weeks ago I bought Madeleine a small Elmo doll and a small Grover doll because she loves Sesame Street so much. She loved Elmo but wasn't thrilled about Grover so we decided to let Parker have him. Although Grover's blue fur is more reminiscent of Cookie Monster, he still has the classic Grover look about him that we all love. And now we can add Parker to the masses who love the blue furry super hero (he's now known as Super Grover).

Community

The Super Bowl has come and gone (go Steelers!...no need to add new pictures since we wore the same clothes as before) and I've only received one more package since the last post and it was one I ordered off Ebay. So I'll move on to new news.

Despite Parker's continued efforts to wake me up every three hours during the night (this MUST end soon!), we've finally gotten in to a routine. We have a lot of fun going to the grocery store on Mondays, story time Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, except every other Tuesday when we'll be now attending MOPS: Mothers of Preschoolers. Yesterday was our first visit and I was thrilled to see so many young Christian moms gathered in one place! For the first time since moving here I felt at home in a place where I could meet and become great friends with quite a few of these women. I'm actually meeting one of them with her kids on Friday at the library for story time!

I had been meaning to join the MOPS group for a while but with the job, move, Parker's birth and the holidays all happening sequentially, I ended up waiting until now. Parker did great in the nursery but Madeleine wasn't ready to be in the classroom so she stayed with me. We'll give the classroom another go in two weeks; once she heard all of the kids laughing and playing she became really interested in finding out what they were doing. I hope she'll get brave and participate so I can have a little kid-free time. It's exciting to realize there's an un-tapped community out here waiting for me to join in!

And speaking of community, it was just announced two weeks ago that Community Medical Center here in Missoula is taking over the Birth Center where I had both Madeleine and Parker. Back in October the head doctor, Lynn Montgomery, died suddenly and unexpectedly. This left the Birth Center with no managing doctor and a sudden drop in patients and therefore revenue. After soliciting the other hospital in town to take them over and being turned town, the Center's only other options were to close completely, find a replacement doctor, or hope that Community would take them over but let them continue to operate as the Birth Center. Community did agree to take over the facilities but they are converting it to a family practice office. I was crushed when I first heard this! I had been in regular contact with a woman at the office named Theresa who I had become pretty familiar with over the last few years and she told me that this was a blow to everyone. This means all births have to take place at Community (they want to be the only birthing facility in town) unless one opts for a home birth. Fortunately for those of us committed to natural birth in as a home-like setting as possible, my midwife Jeanne has gone into private practice and has agreed to do almost exclusively home births. I'm no where near ready to have another baby but I'm relieved to know that the vision of Dr. Montgomery isn't dying completely. Jeanne has also promised to dedicate herself to opening another birth center as soon as possible.

Most of you know how meaningful my prenatal, labor and delivery care was and I'm sorry so many other women will not get to experience the same treatment I did. However, I'm staying committed to Jeanne and her vision and will help in whatever capacity I can to bring the Birth Center back to Missoula.