ScrumpyDaddy

Zach is now 2 months old and has just had his first trip to the ER. Unfortunately, I’m sure it won’t be his last, after all he is a boy. It all started at 3am  Sunday morning. He woke up to nurse as usual and he was very fussy. Normally when he is done he goes right back to bed and lets mommy and daddy sleep a little longer. Not that morning! He would not go back to sleep unless one of us were holding him. We noticed he was feeling quite warm to the touch also. We wanted to take his temp because we believed he was running a temperature, but of course could not find the thermometer in the middle of the night. Well, Dave and I took turns holding Zach so we each could get a little bit more sleep. Then when our daughter awoke we began the search for the thermometer again. We finally found it and Zach had a temperature of 101.2. Dave called the doctor.

We, unfortunately, did not receive a call back from the doctor. We aren’t exactly sure if the answering service didn’t relay the message to call us or if the doctor forgot. An hour and half later we took his temperature again and it was up to 102.1 so we called the doctor again. This time she called us back immediately and said take him to the ER at Children’s Hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at around 1:30pm and were taken in right away. The new Children’s hospital is beautiful. Our first experience was great. It was so peaceful and well made. Once you shut the glass door to your room all the way you could not here anything from other rooms or the hall.

They took Zach’s stats at the hospital and he is now 15 lbs. He is growing like a weed. He is definitely a little porker. Oink, Oink.

The nurse took his temperature and they said he was running a fever. He then had to have blood taken and an urine sample. Unfortunately, to obtain a urine sample in a 2 month old they had to use a catheter and to get the blood sample they gave him and IV. They said that the doctor may give him anti-biotics later and it would go through that. He also had to have an x-ray done. He did a great job with all of it. He definitely didn’t like it, but calmed down fairly quickly after it was all done.

The doctor didn’t see anything suspicious. It is probably just a cold, but they are having a blood and urine culture done. If they grow anything the hospital will give us a call.

Zach responded well to the tylenol and they did end up giving him a dose of anti-biotics just in case. We were then released and left the hospital at 4 pm. Not to bad time wise.

Overall after Zach’s visit he is doing well. We are very pleased with our experience and that Zach is doing better.

Zach home with Daddy after his trip yesterday to the ER.

It is so wonderful when a person decides to do something and sticks to it.  I believe it is this way with potty training.  From the beginning, we hardly had any trouble getting Abby to pee on the potty.  We had waited until she really started to show interest in the potty.  We began potty training when Abby was over 2 1/2 years old.  She loved being a big girl and peeing on the potty.  Every time she did, she received two stickers.  One to put on her chart, and one to put on her shirt.  It worked great.  She eventually just went potty and didn’t need to receive the stickers anymore.  Pooping, on the other hand, was a different story.

Abby would sit and sit on the potty and never go nor try to poop.  It always seemed liked 5 minutes after she got off the potty she would poop in her pants.  We could not figure out how to get her to do it on the potty.  We had prizes for her, which she saw and knew about, that she would get if she pooped on the potty, but this also didn’t seem to work.  Nothing we did as parents could get it through to her that she needed to poop on the potty and not in her pants, especially since she wore big girl underwear and not pull ups (we only do pull ups at night.)

Then, it seemed like one day after we got back from the beach, Abby just decided “now is the time.”  She was the one who decided.  True, she still wanted to receive her prizes for pooping on the potty, but that isn’t what got her to do it.  Since we got back, Abby has been great about telling us when she needs to go poop, and she does it on the potty now.  She hasn’t had a pooping accident since we got back from the beach.  She now has quite the collection of matchbox cars for all her effort.

Way to go Abby!  We are so proud of you!

We decided to take a picnic to South Park to let Abby play at the park. We stopped at KFC and got fried chicken to go to eat at the park. We found a great spot that wasn’t being used. The playground with pavilion we usually go to was being used by a party. We didn’t really think about the fact it was Saturday in the summer and there would be parties at most of the pavilions. We were able to find a pavilion with a playground surrounded by trees. It was great because it was wonderfully shaded so both kids to be out and enjoy the weather without getting over heated. We had so much fun and Zach enjoyed looking at the trees and being outside. There were three memorable things that happened while at the park that I want to go into more detail about.

First, Abby rode the swings. We have been trying to encourage her to pump the swing on her own. We pushed her to start her off and then told her the pump her legs up and down. We kept saying up, down,up, down. She started doing it and was able to keep the swing going for a little while without being pushed by either of us. She only did it for a little bit before she got tired of trying and just wanted pushed. We are so proud of her.

Secondly, while we were at the park Abby used the porta-potty for the first time. I was amazed how easily she used it. I would have thought she would not have wanted to use it since the potty part is so open and you can see what other people have left. She did comment on how someone had pooped in there. I was so proud of her. She went on the potty instead of having an accident.

Lastly, when we were leaving the park she picked up a small rock from the ground to keep. She loves rocks.  We started to drive home and all of a sudden she said, “Stuck in my nose.” Immediately Dave pulled over and I went back to see if the rock was in her nose. Sure enough she had stuck this small rock up one side of her nose. Why oh why would she do that? Luckily it wasn’t too far up that I was able to work it out by pushing it from the outside and once it was starting to show I pulled it out. No doctor’s visit needed. Needless to say we will not be allowing Abby to pick up anymore little rocks and taking them with her due to this.

It is a tradition in the Outer Banks to go mini-golfing. There is a place on just about every corner that are elaborate and busy (as well as a “Wings” on just about every corner). “Hey kids look, Big Ben and Parliament.” We decided to take the plunge and try mini-golfing with our 3 year old daughter and our 1 month old son. What an adventure!

The place was great. We rode a train to the top of the hill where we started our mini-golf adventure. It was a treasure hunt adventure kind of place (seeking gold). Abby loved the train and wanted to go on it again at the end, which of course caused a problem since you can only ride it once (needless to say a full blown tantrum erupted when she couldn’t ride it again). But back to the actual golfing. The place had small plastic clubs for the little ones. Great idea! Abby loved hitting the ball.

The first hole we successfully showed her how to play mini-golf. She hit her ball from the starting point and then waited for mommy to go. She even left her ball where it landed and then when it was her turn she tried to hit it in the hole. She was successful after about 3 or 4 tries. After this point, it was hard to keep her from not only picking up her own ball and moving it around, but ours as well. We had to pay very good attention to where our ball landed because we have to place it back there after Abby moved it. Every time we told her to hit her ball in the hole she would pick up her ball and move it to right next to the hole and hit it in. We were very forgiving of this since she is only just about 3 (the end of this month she will turn 3). We were able to make it through 14 holes with everyone in a great mood and playing well. Dave and I were doing about even the entire 14 holes. It was going to be a close ending.

Then, the inevitable happened. Abby tripped and fell on one of the holes, hit her head and the mini-golfing was all over. Crying and eruptions of all kinds proceeded to happen. She wanted to ride the train again, she wanted to keep playing (but not really), and she wanted to keep her pink golf ball that she had already thrown down the 18th hole to return the ball. It was a mess getting back to the car, but once we finally got in the car and left things began to return to normal.

I would definitely do it again. Oh yeah, Zach slept in his sling the entire time we played. Slings are the most wonderful thing on a trip like this. Much less of a hassle than a stroller. He is doing so well on this trip thus far. Let’s keep it up.