Emergency

Well okay. We took Tycho to the emergency room today.  He had an allergic reaction to his antibiotic.

Seriously, I almost peed my pants when we got up this morning and he was covered in this rash. And the fever. OMG. Those Mama-bear instincts are serious business. I am very proud of myself, though. I didn't cry or panic, and we calmly got ready to go and took him in.

No waiting. I had barely checked him in and they whisked us back to a room. Never had emergency service so fast. At least, though, this was mostly straightforward. He is allergic to sulfa. We just barely finished his antibiotics (last dose this morning before we left), and now we're onto a round of steroids and Benedryl.

He is such a wonderful kid. He is in great spirits despite everything, although just looking at his little swollen body makes me want to cry.

One more "first"

It finally happened. We made it 15 months and four days before Tycho had to go to the doctor for anything other than a checkup. Hopefully we have another 15 months of health ahead of us, because this weekend is not something I'd like to repeat any time soon.

Last Thursday I noticed a welt on Tycho's belly when I was changing his diaper. Looked like a bug bite, I didn't think much of it. But that night it was still hanging around and looking kind of enormous and freaky and of course it was too late to call the doctor. Crap. But due to the common sense of my wonderful girl friends I drew a circle around it and called it a night. And then forgot all about it.

Until Friday morning when I was getting him dressed to get out the door and get me to work, and holy crap! That's a lot bigger than it was last night. We get in the car and head out on our way to Ashley's where he hangs out while I'm at work, but I call the doctor on the way, and they advise me to take an immediate detour. Long story short, they think it was a staph infection, and we got the largest possible dose of antibiotics, and three doctor visits in four days to keep checking up on it. I was almost three hours late to work, which made an already crazy weekend kind of insane. Whew.

Tycho, of course, is a total trooper. You never would have been able to tell he was sick. he has been completely cheerful and happy and delightful. Besides when we're trying to get him to take his medicine. We still have a couple days of antibiotics left, but his rash is almost entirely gone, and the doc has cleared him to do whatever and not infect anyone, and even though he's on tons of drugs, they haven't done anything funky to his system. Couldn't ask for more.

But still, scary. I like my healthy kid. Lets not do that again for a while, okay, Tycho?

Happy Birthday, Tycho!

Dear Tycho,

Yesterday you turned one year old. One year! That is amazing. YOU are amazing.

We had a fun day yesterday for your birthday. I am a mean mama, though, and started things off with your one year doctor appointment. It was a necessary evil, I guess. You were very unhappy about your shots, but only for a minute, and then we were on our way. You are still growing like crazy. You weigh 31 and a half pounds (99.99 percentile!) and are 32 inches tall (99.02 percentile), which means you are kind of thinning out. A teeny tiny little bit. Maybe. :)

After you had a nap we took a trip to the aquarium. The last time we visited, you were in my belly. You liked looking at the fish, and at the otters, but you were a little bummed when you reached out to touch them and the glass was in your way. Sorry, buddy. We'll take you snorkeling someday.

We ate some fish and chips for lunch, and then Daddy took off work early and met us at the new Great Wheel. It was a first ride for all of us. We were very high up, but you were no scared at all.

And after all that we watched Daddy's baseball game together. It was a long day, and by the end of it all you were pooped! So was I! But I think we had a lot of fun, and I'm glad I got to take off work and spend the whole day doing new things with you.

You are without a doubt the most significant thing that has ever happened to me. You made me a mother. You have changed my life. I am such a different person now than I was just over a year ago. I love you.

Doctor, doctor.

I suppose I should update on our visit to the endocrinologist, huh? (Thank you, anonymous commenter, for reminding me.) But really, I got nothing. It's almost not worth mentioning at this point, but loose strings ought to be tied up, I suppose.

My stomach was in knots over it, and I was warned by other mamas how traumatic baby blood draws can be, and I was steeling myself to stand up to a doctor that is under-educated about breast feeding and blah blah blah, and... nothing! Seriously.

Doctor man gave Tycho a full physical to try and find any other symptom besides his unusual size that could point to any sort of problem or condition and, no. The only things slightly out of the ordinary about my kid are:

• his eyes are slightly far apart,
• the bridge of his nose is a tiny bit wide, and
• the distance between his nose and his upper lip is a little long.

And that's it. So basically nothing at all. We didn't even do a blood draw, because there was nothing to test for. As I had been saying (mostly to keep myself calm), if there was something wrong with him, there would be something else wrong with him. And there isn't. At all.

His barely curving growth curve is still a little bit of a concern, I guess, and the endocrinologist suggested just watching it, and if it hasn't leveled off some by his birthday then we can go see a nutritionist if we're still worried. I'm not still worried, so it's kind of moot, anyway. I asked what a nutritionist would do and he said they would probably want us to keep a food journal for him to figure out exactly what he's eating, and exclusively pumping for a few days to see how much milk he is getting. I kind of tuned out at that point, to be perfectly honest, because a) no, and b) he won't drink the same amount from a bottle as he will straight from the source. And also, HELL THE FUCK, NO. Pumping. Right. No. 

Anyway, unless he's gained another ten pounds by the end of next month, the nutritionist is out. I don't know what they would be able to tell us anyway. He eats table foods, very little in the way of carbs, and breastmilk. I'm not going to stop nursing on demand and I'm not going to put him on some sort of crazy baby diet, so just, NO. No.

And I'm done worrying about it. Really and truly. He is fine. He is THRIVING. I'll save my worry for when there is something to worry about, thank you very much. Doctors. Whatever.

Thank you for your time. He is an adorable picture of my totally healthy baby, rolls and all:

Weighty Matters

And now for a slightly heavier post... literally.

Tycho had his nine month well visit on Monday. I was expecting it to be quick and easy; we didn't have anything worrying us to ask about. Tycho seems happy and healthy and developmentally on track... and big. 29 pounds big. His being big in itself isn't a concern, but the way he is growing might be. His growth curve... doesn't actually curve. It's still almost a straight line heading off into oblivion. His gain hasn't slowed at all. Every time we see the doctor he is in an even higher percentile.

We've been referred to a pediatric endocrinologist. What a mouthful. Doc says that he doesn't think anything is wrong, but it is best to be sure. I agree, yes, but also... I don't even want to think about it.

Yesterday Ashley asked me if I had googled what might be wrong with Tycho. Strangely, I hadn't even thought to do that. She said that she did, and told me not to.

The pediatric specialty unit is busy. I called them with Tycho's referral today and made an appointment. The very first opening they had is an entire month away. A month is like, ten percent of Tycho's entire life! How are we supposed to wait a month in this horrible limbo?

So I googled today. I think I am bad at the internet or something because all I get is like ZOMG BABY DIABETES I bet you filled his bottle with Coca Cola! So. I'm pretty sure that's not our problem. I don't know.

I really don't think there's anything wrong with him. He's happy and he eats healthily and still breastfeeds on demand and yeah, he's chubby, but he's not flabby. He's strong. He babbles and moves and learns and he is perfect and harumph.

I thin it's going to be a long month.

End of Summer

I guess it's officially been fall for a few days now.  The weather has certainly been hinting at it. (Aside: navigating the rain with a baby is a whole different ballgame.) But the sun was out on Sunday, so we picked up some fried chicken (Oprah's Favorite!) and headed to Gasworks Park for a picnic, just the three of us.

I love my little family.

This morning we took Tycho to his 2-month doctor appointment. He is still exceedingly healthy and perfect and amazing, and he now weighs 15lbs, 8oz. That's the 97th percentile. I'm sure by our next visit he'll be off the charts entirely.

Tycho also had his first round of immunizations today. He took them like a champ, and he only seems to be a little extra fussy. Nothing some extra cuddles and kisses and constant boob-access can't cure. I think we're going to make it without any tylenol, and I couldn't be happier.

Life is good.

One Whole Month!

As of this past Tuesday, Tycho is a month old. A month! That is crazy!

He's doing very well. So well, in fact, that I'm kind of just waiting for the shit to hit the fan. After such an easy pregnancy and labor and birth, you think I'd get dealt a shitty card somewhere in the past few weeks. But really, he is awesome. Breastfeeding has come pretty easily to us. My letdown can be kind of overpowering, but it hasn't stopped him from getting appropriately fed, and at the very worst it's just a little bit messy. No big deal.  He does spit up all the time, but I don't think that's really that out of the ordinary. Sleep is still tricky, as he seems to still be semi-nocturnal, but it's improving, and that's all I can really asked for.

So much has changed in a month. He is growing like a freaking weed. He's in his 3-6 months clothes already. I'm glad I didn't really buy very much newborn or 0-3 stuff. He's getting much more interactive. He can stick out his tongue. And he's smiling for real now and it's amazing. Especially when you give him big sloppy kisses, which is my favorite thing in the world to do. And it seems to be his favorite thing, too.

Tycho had his one month doctor visit today. He weighed 12 pounds, 2 ounces, if you can believe it. That puts him in the 92nd percentile. And he's in the 95th percentile for height. I never would have guessed I would produce such a big baby, but I love how chubby and robust and healthy he is. Perfect.

Thirty five and then some.

I really do intend on writing posts on a regular basis, but like, life seems to happen and omg what day is it now? Fuck.

Pretty much. Thirty five weeks as of this past Wednesday. Which means I will be offficially full term omg the baby can come anytime in TEN DAYS. Let me repeat that, TEN DAYS. WHAT! I am not exactly ready. Between trying to get everything done and being freaking exhausted from all the gestating I'm doing, yeah, blog posts have been few and far between. But watch me end up going right to 42 weeks or something and writing three posts a day out of boredom because I have nothing else to do. I hope not.

Things I still have to do: hire a doula, pick a doctor, install my carseat, write my birth plan, see a shrink, clean my entire stupid house, and oh yeah, figure out what the hell to do about daycare, because the solution we thought we had fell through and oh my god there is nothing left in the city of Seattle available before January, apparently. And that's not even including all the "little" things. Ten days. I spend a lot of time trying not to hyperventilate.

I swear one of these days I will have enough time to write something of substance.

to do

Hi blog.

I'm doing much better than I was the last time I posted. Still, though, this becoming a parent business is stressful. I've managed to feel pretty okay with the fact that I will soon have a baby, but the idea that I will soon be someone's mother is still hard to swallow. Yes, they sounds like the same thing, but really they are different, and the second is much harder for me.

I've finally stopped dragging my feet about finding a daycare, and called the local referral network today. We now have a list of providers to research and call and visit and omg. The consultant I spoke with on the phone was really wonderful and sweet, but that didn't stop me from crying when it hit me that someone else is going to be hanging out with my baby all day. Remind me not to wear mascara on my first day back to work. Or possibly ever again.

We also need to find a doctor for baby boy. We're leaning towards finding a family practitioner versus a pediatrician, especially since neither Kyle nor I have a doctor right now. Lots to do and only a few weeks left.

The cat's out of the bag.

So I didn't intend on telling sister or our parents that I am not using birth control anymore, but sister is home for the long weekend and I was at my parents' house for dinner last night and holy hell am I ever terrible at keeping secrets. Sister is angry at me because she wants me to be unpregnant to come visit her in France. According to her, it is impossible to have a good time in Europe unless you are drinking wine.

My family also fails to understand the difference between us forgoing birth control and actually, you know, trying. With the having sex all the time and on the appropriate days and all that business. So they gave me a hard time about that. And about the hypothetical baby names husband and I have agreed on and hey, I guess this is why I didn't plan on telling anyone until I had good news(!!) to share. Too late now.

In other news, husband and I ventured back to my dear gynecologist to discuss "family planning," as the nurse so politely put it. After which she remarked how young we are. God, I get tired of hearing that. Doctor assured us that getting pregnant should be quick and easy and we talked about all the thing I already know, like how sushi is verboten, so yesterday I most definitely ate sushi for lunch. I probably will continue to do so on a regular basis until there is a possibility of pregnancy because sushi, you will be greatly missed. Now I just need to get me some prenatal vitamins.