Cold Cold Cold

We are all sick over here at the Strube house again. I think it started when we went shopping on December 23rd. First Garrett got a runny nose and cough and then Kelly and I got it. We took Garrett to the pediatrician on Dec 26th and she said that there's nothing we can give him and that since he didn't have a fever it would just have to run its course.

That was a couple of weeks ago and for a little bit it looked like we were all going to get better but now we are sick all over again. I went to the doctor on Wednesday and she said I had a throat and ear infection and gave me some antibiotics. We're taking Garrett back to the pediatrician today.

On top of being sick Garrett is also teething so he has not been a happy camper, especially when at bedtime. It sucks to start out the new year sick.

The weather isn't helping any. It's 25ºF here so we've got the pipes wrapped and the plants covered.

3 Months Old

For the first week after we put Garrett in the nursery he slept pretty good.  Since then he’s had a hard time staying asleep.  His being in the nursery has been harder on us than it has been on him.  The baby monitor we got is pretty cool. It has a night vision camera on it so after we put him to bed Kelly and I lay in our bed and watch him sleep on the monitor.  It's our new favorite TV show.

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This past week Kelly got sick. She went to the doctor and they told her that she had a double ear infection and a throat infection. She had the exact same thing last year around this time. They prescribed some antibiotics.  I worked from home for a couple of days so I could take care of Garrett.   Then I started to get sick too, but I took some of Kelly's antibiotics to nip it in the bud.

Grandma & Grandpa rescued him from us on Friday and kept him through the weekend so he wouldn't get sick. We missed him so much while he was gone. It was nice to rest for a couple of days but we were really glad to have him back home.

 

We had tickets to the Nickleback concert for Saturday but we were too sick to go. We tried to sell the tickets but couldn't find anyone to buy them. At the last minute we were able to give them away so they wouldn't go to waste. It rained and it was muddy, but we heard it was an awesome show. Bummer.

2 Month Checkup

We took Garrett to his 2 month checkup today. He weighed in at a whopping 12 lbs 7 ozs and is 23" inches long or tall depending on how you look at it. The doctor said that developmentally he is on-track and physically he's perfect. He had to get four vaccinations today. Three of them were shots in his legs and one of them was oral. The needles for the shots were not little baby needles either. They were big Capri-Sun-straw needles. He cried for a little bit, but, I was surprised that by the time we put him in the car seat to leave he was fine.

Clean Bill of Health

I hadn’t been to the doctor since I went to get a physical after  I turned 30.  I turned 35 this year so it was time to go back to the doctor again for another physical.

I didn’t like my last doctor that much and he was way across town, so I picked a new doctor.  I choose Dr. Shelly Ferrill at the Cinco Ranch Family Medical Center.

I like her a lot.  She did a complete set of test and everything is tip-top.

4 Week Checkup

Thursday went back to Garrett’s doctors for his 4 week checkup.

I look a little tired in this picture.

Garrett now weighs 9 lbs. 9 oz. and is 22 1/4” long so he’s grown 2 inches and gained almost 2 lbs since birth.  His eye is much better but we still need to massage the tear duct a few times a day.  For his baby acne, she said it was most likely due to the oils from his hair and we should wash his face with Dove soap twice a day and start bathing him every day.  We started doing that and it’s already looking much better.  Other than that he has a perfect bill of health.  We were one day early to get his vaccinations so we’ll get them at his next appointment in a month.

2 Week Checkups

Today was a long day. Garrett and Kelly both had their 2-week checkups.

On Sunday Garrett started getting eye boogers in his right eye. I looked it up online and since it wasn't red or bloodshot it was most likely a clogged tear duct. What I found said to clear it out with a warm washcloth. We called the doctor and she agreeded and called in some antibiotic drops to the pharmacy to cut the chance of infection.

Today at the doctor she told us we need to massage his tear ducts a few times a day until it clears up. Newborn's tear ducts are covered with a thin membrane that should go away, but sometimes it remains and causes tears to not drain out of the eye properly. Massaging the tear duct will loosen the membrane and he'll be fine.

They also had to prick his foot twice to take blood. It was a lot of blood and it took a long time. He screamed the whole time and it was really traumatic for all of us. Luckily this only has to happen once and he got over it pretty fast.


The doctor said everything else was fine with him and we go back to see her again in 2 weeks. At that visit he'll get a vaccination, but it won't be as bad at the blood samples today.

The sterile strips on Kelly's incision came off today before her appointment. The doctor said the incision looked good and everything was looking normal. He said she can do anything she wants now including exercise, driving, whatever... except sex. :( We go back and see him again in 2 weeks also. Kelly was glad to finally get out of the house and went to dinner with Peg.

Later today Garrett's umbilicus fell off. I've heard that some people put it a scrapbook like a lock of hair from the first haircut. I think that's gross. That would be like keeping toenail clippings or urine so it's going in the garbage.

We were all tired at the end of the day, even the puppy... who had no involvement whatsoever.

First Doctor Appointment

Dr. Jackson recommended Dr. Pamela McGraw at Texas Childrens Pediatrics to be Garrett's pediatrician so we loaded him up...

... and took him to see her this morning. The doctor and all the nurses were very good. She examined him and told us:

• He's sleep and eating schedules are good. When he was born he weighed 7 lbs 11.5 ozs. Before we left the hospital he weighed 7 lbs 3 ozs. Now he weighs 7lbs and 9 ozs. This is normal because babies loose a little weight after they are born then start gaining again. She said that by next week when we bring him back he should be over his birth weight.
  
• His umbilicus looks fine and will probably fall off in the next week.
• His circumcision looks fine and is healing nicely. We don't have to keep gauze on it anymore, but we should still keep petroleum jelly on it for a while. This is good because it will decrease our pit time.
  
• He has a couple of places on him that look like dry skin. This is normal too and isn't really dry skin but the layer of skin that babies shed after they are born.
• He shouldn't go to any public places for 4 to 6 weeks.
  

We go back to see her again next week and they will have to prick his heel and draw some blood for blood tests. Then we go again two weeks after that to get some vaccinations.

Insulin Increase

Kelly went back to the diabetes doctor on Tuesday.  They said her blood sugar was still a little higher than they wanted it to be.  They said it should be under 90, but hers was averaging around 110.  They increased her nightly insulin dosage from 6 units to 8.  Since then her keytones and sugar levels have been better.  We also cleaned out our pantry of all the high-carb food (which was basically everything) and stocked up on zero- or low-carb foods. 

Grocery shopping for low carb food sucks because there are so few choices.

Insulin Shots

Kelly went to the diabetes doctor again last week to monitor her gestational diabetes.  She was told that her blood sugar was still too high and that she would have to take insulin shots once a day before she goes to bed.  She also has a more restrictive diet now.

I feel so bad for her.  Not only does she have to go through all the normal unpleasantries of pregnancy, but now she has to stick herself four times a day to monitor her blood sugar and get a shot every night.  Being pregnant you should be able to eat anything you want but she is on a no-sweets, low-carb diet.

Week 32

Just 8 weeks left! We were suppose to go to the doctor yesterday but it was flooding so bad here in Houston that the doctor's office was closed. We've rescheduled to this afternoon.

After going back to the diabetes doctor, we found out that Kelly does, in fact, have gestational diabetes. She has a blood sugar monitor that she has to use before and after each meal and she has to limit the amount of carbohydrates she eats for the rest of the pregnancy. After the pregnancy it can develop into type 2 diabetes so we'll be changing our eating/drinking habits starting now since she has a family history of diabetes.

Down with the Sickness

Last week was horrible.  It started out with a sore throat on Sunday, then I developed a cough and a runny nose. I missed work Monday, Tuesday, worked from home half of Wednesday, and tried to go in on Thursday but left early because I couldn’t control my cough.  I got better Thursday night and went to work on Friday but then Kelly started getting the same symptoms. She’s been sick all weekend and is just now getting over it.  We went through 7 boxes of Puffs Plus last week.  There were a lot of people where I work who were out sick around the same time.

This season is horrible for getting sick so take care of yourselves.

Fat Puppy

We took Abigail to the vet bright and early yesterday morning to get her some shots she needed and a checkup.  She was a champ and didn’t mind the shots at all.  We were concerned about her allergies lately because she’d been licking her paws, rubbing her face, and her eyes were tearing.  The vet said that was all due to allergies and the elevated pollen levels in the area and that we could just give her Benadryl.

When they weighed her she was a whopping 17 lbs.  She is only suppose to be about 13 lbs.  We noticed she was getting a little thick a while back so we stopped leaving her food out all the time and just fed her a little bit twice a day.  The vet told us that the amount we were feeding her was equivalent to what you would feed a 20 lb. dog.  Plus we give her treats all the time so we are turning her into a real porker.  It might not seem that bad when you say she’s only gained 4 lbs, but when you only weigh 13 lbs. that’s bad.  That’s a 30% weight gain which is like me packing on about 60 lbs.  No wonder she snores.

We are going  to cut back the amount we feed her and the number of treats she gets.

Week 19

Kelly is getting over being sick. She's had a sinus infection, runny nose, sore throat, coughing, etc. She's had trouble sleeping and it pretty much sucks. She's getting over it now but this last week hasn't been fun. There's almost nothing you can do about it when you're pregnant. She's been taking a lot of vitamin C, eating a lot of soup, drinking a lot of water, using a humidifier, and Vick's Vapo-Rub. All of this seemed to help and she's almost well.