Ella/Marian comparison

Most of the time I think the girls look completely different. In fact, most people comment on how much Ella looks like her dad and Marian looks like me and how they look nothing like each other.

Then I put a picture of them at the same age together, and I realize they look pretty darn similar.  

Marian at 4.5 months, Ella at 5 months

What do you think?

Plague House

Here's the toll the toddler germs took on us in the past few days:

Marian: RSV and bronchiolitis
Me: Sinus infection plus some underlying virus
Jim: Unidentified crud, most likely the same virus that took me down
Ella: 103 degree fever but still running around like crazy

Basically my house imploded this weekend. Ella watched more TV in four days than she has in the rest of her life.

Today is the first day since last Wednesday that I feel semi-okay. Hopefully these antibiotics will continue to work and I can knock this thing out. In the meantime, I am embarking on Operation Die Germs Die.

Two side notes to all of this:

1. I'm super glad I'm not pregnant right now. Because I've been coughing so hard that I've almost thrown up at times, and were I pregnant, I'm sure I would have peed myself.

2. The older Disney movies are definitely not as nice as the newer ones. "Lady and the Tramp" has a dog being euthanized, in addition to the creepy rats. "101 Dalmatians" repeatedly talks about the dogs being bashed and skinned. WTF Disney. WTF.

Typhoid (Eleanor) Mary strikes again

Poor Marian can't catch a break. I took both girls to the doctor yesterday for what I hoped were colds. Little Typhoid Mary, aka Ella, has a case of the sniffles. But most likely passed on RSV to her sister, which in turn led to bronchiolitis. Marian has to have a breathing treatment every 4 hours, which, if you've ever had to give a nebulizer treatment to a kid, you know how much fun that is.

I did discover that I can keep her relatively calm by taking selfies. Naturally, that led to creating this photo comparison:

Are you my mummy? 

Have to have a little fun, right?

Happy Valentine's Day

From my two little sweethearts- hope your day was filled with lots of chocolate!

Unconditional love is putting up with your crazy sister...

...or your drooly sister who moments before slobbered all over your elbow

At least someone is not jaded by Valentine's Day...yet

Pertussis scare

In Marian's 4 month update, I mentioned she had to be on antibiotics. This is the first time in over two years of parenting that one of my kids has needed any antibiotics (yes, I realize some of that is due to dumb luck). The reason why she was on them is important enough that I feel it warrants its own blog post: She was exposed to pertussis, also known as whooping cough.

Here's the most likely scenario of how it happened:

My parents went out to California at the beginning of January for the Rose Bowl. Someone, either on the airplane or in California, had pertussis and didn't know it, thus exposing my parents. My mom, who had her DTaP booster, was fine. My dad, who did not get his booster, came home with a cough. He didn't think too much of it, but was feeling sick enough that he went to the doctor, who prescribed antibiotics for what he thought was bronchitis or something of the like. Shortly thereafter, he came out to BFE to visit us, thereby exposing me and my family to what he later found out was pertussis.

Thankfully, we had a few things working for us:

-Jim and I have been vaccinated, and Ella has had 4/5 doses
-Marian had had her first dose of the vaccine, actually just a few weeks prior
-Because I breastfeed, Marian had some immunity/protection through me
-My dad was already on antibiotics, albeit not the ones he needed to be on to fight pertussis, but they still probably did some good

Still, despite the fact that the likelihood of her developing pertussis was low, Marian's pediatrician recommended we start her on a course of antibiotics because it can be so incredibly deadly for babies. Per the CDC:

"About half of babies younger than 1 year who get the disease need care in the hospital. About 1 out of 4 hospitalized babies with whooping cough will get pneumonia (a serious lung infection). Whooping cough can also cause seizures (jerking or staring) and brain damage."

Obviously not anything you want to mess around with.

Every time I think about the possibility of my helpless little baby getting a serious disease, I feel angry. Why? Because pertussis is almost 100% preventable.

Before this I didn't feel particularly strongly about vaccines. I get them for myself and my kids because they have been scientifically proven to prevent some pretty horrendous diseases. But I always felt, hey, if you don't want to vaccinate, that is your business.

Except now it has become my business. Angry mama bear mode is on because other people, with their selfishness, put my family in danger. The only people who are getting a free pass for not vaccinating are those who cannot for a legitimate medical reason. Not those who don't vaccinate because a former porn star and a discredited doctor told them vaccines cause autism. Not those who think vaccines are some crazy government conspiracy. Not those who talk about how there are :gasp: chemicals in vaccines (seriously, I just can't even talk to people about The Chemicals any more). Not those who believe Jesus doesn't like vaccines. Not those who argue "Well I didn't vaccinate my children and they have never had mumps/polio/diphtheria/etc."- to which the rest of the general population says, "You're welcome."

Here is where I am at now: If you don't want to get your vaccines, you are no longer welcome around my family. To all you anti-vaxxers: You are selfish, and I have no problem telling you so. The anti-vaxxers might be loud, but I am going to be louder.

Reason #7890 why my kids are going to hate me when they are older

I picked Ella up from mom's day out this afternoon and immediately felt like a slacker mom. Apparently I'm the only mom who didn't get the memo I was supposed to send in something cutesy for Valentine's Day, thus ensuring that my toddler is going to be ostracized for the rest of her life. She got little cards, candies, and a chocolate covered strawberry stuffed with cream cheese from some effing over-achieving mom with kids that clearly sleep through the night and don't run around the house naked taking the hinge pins off doors. This is, of course, on top of the mom from MOPS on Monday who hot-glued little plastic bugs to cards with some vomit-inducing saying like "Happy Valentine's Day from your love bug."

Here's what I have to say to Valentine's for two year olds:

Bitch please. It's not even February 14th

Even so, I'm setting a reminder on my calendar to make "sorry I forgot about a fake holiday" cookies for Ella to bring in next week. Maybe I'll make them all look like Abraham Lincoln's hat for Presidents' Day and one-up the strawberry mom.

4 month update

I can't believe I haven't done a blog post since Marian's 3 month update. Oh well. Life has been busy. We've had family out to visit, Ella has been running me ragged (per usual), Marian is going through a sleep regression, and I got suckered into being a committee member for the school auction gala. Soooo, not a lot of free time for blogging.

Weight: 14 lb 2 oz (70%)

Height: 25 inches (90%)

Diapers: We had moved entirely to cloth, even at night. Then she had to be on antibiotics for five days (more on that in a different post) and was entirely in disposables because of the lovely antibiotic poop. Today is the first day she's off the antibiotic and I'm keeping her in sposies for today to make sure everything is out of her system.

Clothes: Big girl is already in 6-9 month clothes! When she was born I was so excited because I would get to reuse all of Ella's clothes and would be able to save a ton of money. Well, she is a lot taller than Ella was at the same age so I had to go out and buy her some winter clothes, as all of our 6-9 month clothes were summery.

Sleep: She hit the dreaded 4 month wakeful period hard. And I mean REALLY hard. Some nights we are up 5+ times a night. It's like having a newborn all over again. On the days when she nurses a ton during the day and doesn't have her naps sabotaged by her sister, she sleeps fairly well at night.

Feedings: Going along with the crap sleep is the crap eating. She doesn't want to nurse a ton during the day because everything is way more interesting. Big sister running around like crazy? Super fun to watch. Mama's boobs? Eh, not so much. Some times I can get her to nurse under a cover and then she'll do a good feed. But mostly she'll eat for long enough for me to get a let-down, pop off, and either scream or watch what Ella's doing while I deal with Mt. Vesuvius boob spraying everywhere. Fun. Then at 2am I get the "YOU NEVER FEED ME!!!!" cry.

Milestones: Marian rolled over from back to belly for the first time on January 19. The best part about it was she did it in front of my entire family. She also can frog sit.

Miscellaneous: Right now she is very into peekaboo, "running" with her legs, getting tickled under her chin, and cuddling with/attempting to eat her toys.

Rocking some undies, courtesy of her big sister

Snuggling in bed together

At her baptism

Another photo from her baptism. Poor kiddo had her first cold and was all snuffly and miserable, AND had to get water dumped on her head. 

Hanging out by the pool with her Aunt Cait 

Showing off her awesome frog sitting skills