Archive for September, 2009
Wednesday, September 9th, 2009
Up until about 18 months ago, I was pretty sure that I would make it through life without ever experiencing a diaper change, let alone actually performing one. But I’m sort of a modern man in at least some respects. I believe in taking an active role in our daughter’s life and sharing the workload when I’m around. So here I am after 9 months of pregnancy and anticipation, and 9 months of truly incredible time getting to know our little girl, and Lord only knows how many diaper changes under my belt. I had almost considered myself somewhat of an expert. Until now.
We’ve had a few very minor rashes along our journey. But a little dab of Bubba’s Butt Paste or the like would clear it right up. I even began to believe that all this talk about diaper rashes from people was just a bunch of embellished stories. Not unlike the “record” fish that jumped off the line just before entering the boat. Now I understand.
I do the nighttime routine – bath, books and bed. So the other day when I was getting her out of her clothes for bath I was a bit taken aback by what has scarred my retinas. She was clearly not very happy about any sort of diaper change. And I can’t blame her. Nothing but blistering red everywhere! My poor little girl looked miserable!
Now, keeping in mind that I grew up in the South (feel free to add whatever accent you’re thinking about), let me just say that I don’t know nothing about no vajajays! I knew I was out matched on this one and called in the big guns – MAMA COME QUICK! Thank goodness my wife handles things like this so well. I would have been at the ER without any assistance.
BTW, I don’t have a southern accent at all, so don’t you feel silly for using it! Actually, I’ve been accused of being from Canada more often than not. Which I find rather odd, eh.
Now that it’s been a couple of days and my wife has polled Facebook and all kinds of other places, we’ve implemented a few remedies and she’s definitely on the mend. We tried the various butt pastes with added cornstarch and we weren’t making much headway. Then today Karen tried Lotrimin and things would appear to be improving markedly. I could see a big difference in just a day, and my retinas are thankful.
After a week of being sick with her first cold and the follow-on diaper rash, my little girl could certainly use a break! So with any luck tomorrow she’ll be completely perfect again and ready to keep winning hearts of everybody she encounters.
Posted in Illness | 3 Comments »
Monday, September 7th, 2009
Bummer. Why is it that long weekends always seem so, um, not long? I’m always sad the day before going back to work. At least tomorrow I’ll start the week with 20% behind me.
Our little girl was sick all last week and not quite back to normal all weekend. And I started getting sick Friday and have been sick all weekend. Mother Nature threw out nothing but clouds Saturday and Sunday. Needless to say, the last big weekend of the Summer was less than exciting.
At least today The Weather Channel, which is actually located here in Atlanta, got the forecast wrong again (shocker!) and instead of “mostly cloudy” we got nothing but blue sky. I took the morning shift with the baby (up at 6:30!) and earned a little time sitting by the pool absorbing some vitamin D. And during the afternoon nap, Karen even came out and joined me. All Summer Karen hardly goes in the pool at all, but now that it’s much cooler she decides to take a swim. I have to say, it seemed much colder than the thermometer indicated. Allegedly, the water was about 79 degrees, but I have to tell you, getting the buddies below the waterline was a challenge. Maybe it was just because the Sun made it so hot.
This morning when I let the dogs out I was sad to feel the coolness in the air. My wife is SO excited that Fall is in the air, but to me it just means we’re only days away from the pool becoming nothing more than a hassle, with no other benefit than catching leaves from the trees on three sides. I swore that this was going to be the year we get a cover for the pool, but here it is September and I haven’t even looked into it. I’ll be fishing leaves out twice a day before I know it.
I wonder how old a child has to be before then can efficiently pull leaves out of a pool? Since we don’t have any coal mines nearby, she’s gotta find some way to pay her way!
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Saturday, September 5th, 2009
It would appear that we’re on the cusp of getting our precious little angel back. Today is the first day this week where she wasn’t just absolutely pitiful with her cold. She played and smiled and was generally back to her very engaging self. There was only one hiccup. She coughed a lot last night, so I don’t think she slept very well. It showed around lunchtime when she was extremely cranky. After a good hour and a half of solid nap time though she was happy happy.
We’re hoping for a really good night of sleep for her tonight. With any luck, she’ll wake up and resume her role of the happiest baby ever! She didn’t even cry when I put her down in the crib for nighty night. She’s pretty much screamed every time since we got back from our vacation to New Hampshire a few weeks ago. So a nice mellow transition to bed is a welcome return.
I at least got to leave the house all week for work, but my wife has been pretty much stuck here all week waiting for girl to get better. I like to get out of the house at least once a week for dinner, so even I’m starting to get excited about the prospect of getting out of the house as a family. If nothing else, it’d be nice to take advantage just a little bit of the long weekend to have some fun outside of the living room. Now, if only the weather would cooperate and turn nice and sunny!
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Thursday, September 3rd, 2009
I’m not sure there’s anything better than getting home from a long day of work and walking through the door to have your daughter look up and SQUEAL with excitement. I just think it’s the coolest thing ever! Of course, not going to work in the first place and spending the day with her would probably top it. Perhaps it’s one of those unique things that moms who stay at home don’t get to enjoy to the level of us working dads. Either way, it’s great incentive to get my butt out of the office on time.
Courtney has been doing the baby hand wave for quite some time now – at least 2 or 3 months. But she’s only really been copying people as far as I can tell, and normally with a pretty good delay. But yesterday when I walked through the door I got a big squeal AND an immediate baby hand wave from across the room. I suppose it could have just been a coincidence, but since I have the smartest baby in the whole world! I’m sure she’s finally putting it all together.
In spite of her being completely pitiful while she works through her first cold ever, she seems to still be advancing rapidly. Today, while we sat on the floor, she stood up on her own for a few seconds before she realized there wasn’t anything to hold onto and promptly squatted back down. And I’m pretty sure she’s using “da da da da” correctly when she sees me now, which I have to say is SUPER cool. Makes me wonder how much more she would’ve accomplished if she wasn’t in the midst of such a bad cold. I swear it’s almost like I go away for 9.5 hours or so during the day and when I come home she’s changed. I guess before I know it she’ll be shunning me in front of her friends and moving out! It’s sort of scary how quickly time has passed this year.
By my crazy calculations, I figure that the reason the days, months, years – time in general, goes by so much more quickly the older you get is that each one of those units is less substantial on its own as you add up the numbers. For example, if you’re 10 years old, one year is only 1/10 of your entire experience, so one year is pretty damn significant as far as you’re concerned. But if you’re, say, um, 41 then one year is only 1/41 of your entire experience and therefore less significant on its own. Things just sort of blend together. Now, add a baby who changes daily to the mix, and you’ve got the “baby modifier” that makes it go even faster! I know it’s a little fuzzy from a scientific perspective, but you have to admit it kind of makes sense, right? Please?
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Tuesday, September 1st, 2009
Well, we made it 9 months and 11 days, but our little girl finally found her kryptonite. She appears to have contracted her first real cold. Up until now she’s never even had a runny nose.
Talk about feeling like a bad parent… We’ve been working on maintaining the sleep schedule, so we’ve made an effort to not go into the nursery during the night if at all possible. We even had to let her cry it out a few times. Our efforts have paid off for the most part, as she has been sleeping through the night very regularly. Last night, however, she was whining for quite a while off and on. I finally went in there and she had snot running down her nose and a fever and looked absolutely pitiful.
In retrospect, she had a different, more whiny cry than her normal “let me out of here” cry. Of course, since she’s never been sick we didn’t really pick up on that. At least we should be better prepared for the next time. In the meanwhile, I don’t think there’s going to be much sleeping going on in the house until she gets back to her normal, incredibly happy self.
Speaking of sleep… Good night.
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