She can breathe clearly now the crap is gone

Natali is MUCH better now. The breathing treatments are really helping. We are going to continue them even after we think she is cured, just to make sure.

Each of the last two mornings has been great for her. No congestion. Very little coughing.....and no wheezing.

Natali truly seems happier. This afternoon she was "talking", laughing and making faces at us for over an hour.

Her personality does seem to be a good mix of the two of us. She loves to laugh, yet is content just laying in her bed staring.



Finally, I bought Natali a new traveling shirt. It was a bit expensive, but I couldn't find anything like it online, so I had to buy it at the DFW Airport employee store. At least I know that she will never be embarrassed by seeing another baby wearing the same shirt.

Natali is happy...and mostly healthy...and I'm very thankful

I am a cautious person. True I strap myself into a metal tube with two jet engines on each side a few times a week....but for the most part I live a very reserved, cautious...boring life. I don't like taking chances.

Prior to Natali being born I was very worried about having a sick kid. I don't know why. I thought about down syndrome, muscular sclerosis and more. I was so worried we would not have a healthy child. I was relieved when Natali came out normal...well mostly normal...she does have Kelli's nose. But I digress.

Often I just stare at Natali, smile and sigh. I'm very happy we were fortunate enough to have a healthy, happy and beautiful child.



For a while Natali was fine with me spraying saline drops into her nose. Now with two oral medications and the nebulizer, she is more fussy. If ANYTHING other than a bottle or pacifier comes near her head she pushes it away. We have learned how to trick her into taking the medication though. I hold her and bring the pacifier near her mouth, Natali then opens her mouth, Kelli swoops in and uses the injector to squirt the medicine in Natali's mouth. We repeat as needed.

She doesn't mind the nebulizer too much. Natali likes when I blow on her face, so the nebulizer is like a continuous breath.



Sure Natali has a minor respiratory problem, but it's nothing compared to what some parents have to deal with.

It's been almost 8 months since Natali came into my life, and I am still in awe of her. I'm sure I always will be.

 

Bronchiolitis again

Natali was not a happy girl yesterday.  Her coughing fits were so bad they were causing her to throw up.  Then she started wheezing really badly and she didn't want to eat.  Darren called and made an appointment with the doctor and I came home early so he could go to work.  We had a late afternoon appointment with the doctor and they tested her oxygen saturation.  Normal is 98 and Natali was at 87 when they first tested it.  She watched it for a minute and it went up a little, to 92.  So, they got out a nebulizer and did a breathing treatment in the office.  The doctor says this may be either the beginning of asthma or she has bronchiolitic airway disease, which is better to have because it will go away eventually.  The asthma likely will not.  Asthma is more likely if there is a family history.  I didn't think there was, but my mom says my grandma and my uncle both have it.  We'll see.  I just want to get her better now.  The doctor gave her a prescription for an antibiotic and a steroid and we are having a nebulizer delivered to our house today to do our own breathing treatments.  They usually deliver it the same day, but our appointment was so late yesterday that they delivery place was closed.  I hope it comes soon because Natali really needs it.

After the doctor yesterday we went and picked up her medications before coming home.  Once we got home I fed Natali a bottle and waited to see if she would keep it down.  She did, so I went ahead and gave her the medications.  Then she threw everything up.  I sort of panicked at that point.  Not only did I have a vomit covered child and carpet, but she didn't keep down any of her medicine.  I had no clue what I was supposed to do at that point.  Thankfully I have a sister and sister-in-law who are both nurses.  I had conversations with both of them.  I feel very lucky to have medical professionals (and mothers) in my family.  They are a big help in these situations.  I got Natali cleaned up and immediately put her to bed.  The rest of the evening was more of the same.  We really could have used that nebulizer.  Oh well, we survived.  Natali did surprisingly well overnight.  She had a coughing fit around 3am, but otherwise she was fine.  She is much happier this morning, but still very wheezy.  I'm hoping we get that nebulizer soon.  I got a call from the delivery service this morning confirming my address for delivery, so hopefully it won't be too long.

In other  news, Darren and I aren't big fans of our pediatrician.  He is very good at his job, he just isn't a very personable guy and he isn't very forthcoming with information.  He even seemed to get upset with me when I said I had given Natali some Tylenol earlier in the day.  He asked what I was treating because I hadn't taken her temperature.  I said I didn't know I just thought it might make her feel better since it's the only thing I can really give her.  He said I need to be careful because Tylenol can cause liver damage.  I was a bit annoyed.  It's not like I'm constantly dosing my daughter.  It's the first time I've given it to her in over a month.  He kind of made me feel like an idiot, and I definitely am not.  I am very tempted to change doctors.  The only thing the stops me is I absolutely love his nurse.  She is the one that does most of the things for us, all the normal shots and stuff.  The doctor doesn't do much but look at her.  Changing doctors is hard.  There is another doctor in the same practice that I really liked when we met her at the hospital, but I wonder how easy it is to switch doctors within the same practice.  I don't really want to go somewhere else because I really like the location of this practice too.  I think Darren and I will have to discuss it some.  If Natali keeps having problems and we have to go more often I think switching would be a good idea.

Oh, and Darren thought he wouldn't get a flight yesterday and he would just be back home to help me, and then he got sent to Canada at the last minute!  Of all places to get sent when you really don't want to go anywhere, they sent him to a place that makes it harder for us to even communicate with each other. :(  Hopefully he will be home today, but he might not be.

Still coughing

Natali is still coughing....going on two months now. It's not as much as she used to cough....but it's still there.

The coughing is worse in the middle of the night when she is in a deep sleep. Giving her a little water helps....most of the time.

The Doctor still stated it was normal and nothing could be done.

In the morning when I give her the first bottle of the day there is a 30% chance she will get a coughing fit bad enough to cause her to spit up all the formula. It upsets her for a bit. I'm going to switch to the "Sensitive Stomach" formula for her first bottle.

She can stand for about 5 seconds pretty regularly. Of course she only does it once. As soon as she realizes she is standing unassisted she will hold on to us or something else from that point on. She just needs a little more confidence.

Her crib gymnastics are getting extreme. She will spin, roll over. wiggle around and I swear she did a back flip once. Yesterday I walked in to see her in the corner banging the old baby monitor receiver against the side of the crib. Yeah I took it out.

I took Natali to her first aviation museum yesterday. Admission is free since I work for the company that owns the museum...I'm sure this was the first of many visits.



On a personal note, I turned 34 this week. Kelli asked what I wanted. For the first time in years I can't think of anything. I have a beautiful wife who laughs at my silly jokes, supports my choice in career and let's me claim her as my own. We have a wonderful healthy baby who happens be just as beautiful. We have a house we call are own. I am set....and very thankful.

Natali WANTS to crawl

Natali is learning to crawl. Kinda like learning to drive a manual transmission. She knows she needs to go forward, but she is still learning to use the clutch. Bad analogy eh? Bleh. Short, cute video makes up for it.

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1tG_woMwp8

Seven months later

Seven months the world was changed forever. Time has flown by.

Natali is progressing well. Very little crying nowadays. She eats solid foods like a champ. She is doing pretty well with finger foods (disolveable treats). Sleeps through the night without a problem....when I am home anyway.

She wants to walk. If I hold her hands and scoot away from her she will pick up her legs and walk toward me. Natali really enjoys standing. The saying, "You must crawl before you walk," isn't true with her.

Natali could sit up long before she could roll over. I think she will try to walk before she crawls...or at the least go from crawling to walking in fast forward.

Her latest thing is standing up. She loves to stand on her own....leaning on something of course.

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Less than a month until the big vacation. Lots of planning to do. Kelli and I are going to make a list of what we need. We are debating renting a car when we get there and buying what we need there, versus buying it ahead of time. If we do that I might take an earlier flight so I could get the car and assist with getting Natali (and the other nieces) from the hotel to the airport and then from the hotel to the cruise ship.

 

 

Natali's new game

We have mentioned in the past that Natali took quite a while to figure out how to roll over.  We saw her do it for the first time at about 5 months, and she very rarely ever did it.  I guess she figured she didn't need to roll over.  Well, all that has now changed.  She won't stop rolling over!  We put Natali down for a nap and she is immediately all over the place in her crib.  She likes to put her feet up on the crib rails and push herself around in circles.  She has also decided that rolling over is great fun.  Of course, once she rolls over onto her stomach she rarely rolls back.  Instead she just starts whining and we have to go put her back the way she was and then she immediately starts rolling again.  This typically goes on for about 20 minutes or so before she finally falls asleep.  Its amusing and totally annoying all at the same time.  Of course, as I type this we have had a breakthrough.  She rolled over onto her stomach and stayed that way.  I sat her waiting for her to start crying, but she never did.  She stayed that way for a few minutes and then just fell asleep that way.  It's the first time she has slept on her stomach in several months.  She used to when she was little, from about 1 month to 2 months or so, but once she started lifting her head up more she wouldn't sleep that way anymore.  It always used to make me nervous having her on her stomach, but it doesn't now.  I figure we are past the point where I need to worry about it.

I do worry about her getting stuck in her crib though.  With how mobile Natali has become there have been a few times that her feet have been stuck through the crib slats.  It makes me nervous that she is going to hurt herself.  We thought about possibly getting one of those breathable crib bumpers, but I don't think that will be any better.  It seems like it would probably make things worse.  If her foot got stuck up underneath the bumper it would be harder for her to get loose than if it is just stuck through a slat.  I am pretty sure if her foot is that stuck she won't struggle to the point of really hurting herself.  She will likely just stop struggling and cry for help.

In baby food news, I ended up buying 2 jars of baby food.  I bought a jar of turkey and a jar of ham.  I was told Natali can start pureed meats now, but it seemed like a lot of work to make myself and I wasn't sure if she would like it anyway, so I bought the little jars just to try it with her.  Darren was suddenly became concerned about preservatives in the food, but the ingredients list just says turkey, water, and cornstarch.  She eats store bought food at daycare anyway, so I'm not sure where this sudden concern came from.  I wonder if he is concerned enough to make her food himself?  I think probably not.  We will have to take store bought food with us on our upcoming cruise too.  I think trying to bring our homemade food would just be too much of a hassle.  It's really going to take some thought and planning though.  Anyway, back to the prepared meat.  Natali loved it!  She downed the turkey very quickly.  I was pretty happy about that.  I guess if she likes it that much I will have to figure out how to prepare it myself.  The cost of baby food really adds up quickly when you buy the jars.

Back in the skies: Flying with a 6 month old

Natali hasn't flown anywhere all year. Crazy for the daughter of a pilot. Sunday we took a trip to see Grandpa.

True we could have driven the 4 hours to his house like normal people. But I only have two weekend DAYS (both Sundays) off this month. Driving wasn't an option.

Since it was a day trip we only packed clothes and supplies for Natali (in a small diaper backpack) and a computer bag with our Ipads. That's it.

Even with just two things...we used up 5 security bins since I was a "normal" person and not a pilot. The first trip through Dallas I left our Ipads behind. Thankfully it wasn't busy and no one stole them. Ugh.

We flew on American Eagle to Hobby from Dallas on a ERJ. We were a little worried her car seat wouldn't fit. Nope fit fine. Any parents worried about a Britax car seat fitting on a regional jet...they at least fit on ERJ's.



I rented a full size from Hertz. Hertz is my second favorite rental company. They are great as they post your name on a board with the car your rented if you join their club. This makes it easy to get in and out. I prefer National as I like to pick my own car. Hertz assigned me a Toyota Camry. Boring...but fine.

We spent the afternoon with my dad. He had not seen Natali since she was two months old.

Natali was a little fussy as she wasn't used to her Grandpa.



She didn't sleep much at all. With her awake we trotted off to lunch.

Natali sat in a high chair for the first time last week when we ate dinner with Eric, Angela and Marin. She did fine so we were fine with her sitting in one again.

Off course Natali is Miss grabby hands. Eh.

After lunch Natali crashed. Slept a good two and a half hours.

The flight back was out of Bush Intercontinental. On the way we stopped by too see my mom. Hard to believe it's almost been 11 years.

Bush is a bigger airport than Hobby. We were glad travel is light on Sundays...all the damn bins. Would have been less in the summer as we would not have been wearing jackets.

With that done I will say this. While it's perfectly legal to carry children under two on your lap while flying, it makes me uneasy. I've been through moderate turbulence (few people have been through severe...if people ended up in the hospital it was just moderate). I know how much things can get tossed around. We aren't planning on bringing a car seat for our flight to Miami in April. Kinda uneasy about it. Currently pondering alternatives.

Pink eye

Natali has conjunctivitis (pink eye).  It's a pretty mild case, but we got some ointment for it anyway.  The doctor said to wait to use it since the pink eye might go away on it's own.  I used it once last night and this morning she seemed fine, no crusty eyes.  Yay!  Daycare is a wonderful thing for working parents, but I could really do without the germs and sickness.  I mentioned to the doctor I was glad she was at least only part time and he said it didn't matter, "part time daycare, still full time germs".  Nice.  Well, I'm glad she's only part time anyway.  It's really nice to have Darren able to stay home with her for 2 days each week.  Of course, the days she is sick and he is out of town make it harder.  I had to take a sick day on Friday so we could see the doctor.  Hopefully next time Darren will be around when she is sick, then he can take a sick day.  He has a lot more sick time than I do.  I only get 5 days a year.  I have never needed to use them all, but I have a feeling I might need them this year.  I've already taken 2 days, so only 3 left for 9 months.  At least with my job I can make up the time on a weekend if I don't have days left, but that is harder now too.  With Darren staying home during the week he is often gone on the weekend and I can't work anyway.  I tried it last weekend when we were up against a deadline.  I took Natali up to work with me for a couple of hours.  I put a blanket on the floor with her toys and she sat and played for a long time.  I had her bouncer chair too, and she spent some time in that as well.  We made it 2 good hours before she decided she had enough.  Luckily that was about all I needed to get the important stuff done.  A lot of times there is work that I can just take home and do, so that is helpful.  It's easier to work at home with a baby than take her and all her stuff out of the house.

During the last month or so Natali has become Miss Grabby Hands.  She will grab at anything and everything she can possibly reach.  This has led to a few incidents of slobbered on papers and one entire cup of Diet Coke, with ice, being dumped on her and me and the couch.  We have to be extremely careful with her now, and she isn't even mobile yet!  I am really concerned about what happens when she starts crawling and walking.  Our entire house is a child hazard, and we have yet to do any childproofing except for baby gates (which were put in because of dogs, not kids).  Things may get really interesting here in the next couple of months.  I think we will end up just childproofing as we see a need.  Natali will quickly let us know what we need to put away or secure when she starts moving.

Making baby food is still fun.  I have learned a lot and Natali is doing well.  She still eats the jar food at daycare and I'm fine with that.  They have fed her a few things that I just can't bring myself to make (green beans).  Between here and there she is getting a wide range of foods and is eating fairly well.  We recently started her on the little cereal puffs and she is finally getting those in her mouth with regularity.  Yesterday I bought her some larger puffs, shaped like cheetos.  The package said they were good for crawlers, which is about her age.  I was concerned about choking at first, but they still dissolve, so it's not a problem.  Natali really likes them.  I think she prefers finger foods to being spoon fed.  I will have to see what else I can give her.  I'm not too sure what else is ok at this point besides pieces of banana.  I will probably try that with her today.  Suggestions on other items are happily accepted. :)

Wednesdays are the worst

Natali has the most "issues" on Wednesdays. I think it's her growth spurt day seeing as she was born on a Wednesday. Today was rough. She was awake from noon till 6PM. I could not wear her out and she would not go to sleep. After 3 4-5 ounce bottles plus a bowl of pears...she finally went to sleep....after being swaddled.

These were taken during hour 5.....at least she is happy...

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The Dogs suddenly care

Natali is talking more and more everyday. Lots of "Da Da Da Da" and "NoBama".

I was out of town over the weekend. Kelli reports that Natali doesn't sleep anywhere near as well when I am gone. Saturday night Kelli said she got up every two hours to comfort Natali. I haven't had to do that in months.

Beyond that she is really wanting to walk. She will stand up for 10-15 minutes holding my hand or leaning on the exersaucer. While holding my hand she will kick out a leg and try to advance herself forward. Progress!

The daycare assumed Natali couldn't sit up on her own and had been putting her in a boppy chair for weeks. Kelli dropped Natali off last week and just plopped Natali on a mat. The daycare employees were shocked at how well Natali sat up. I think she has been sitting up on her own since she was 4 1/2 months old.

She started eating those little dissolvable treats a week or so ago while her grandma was here.

At first she could never put them in her mouth. Once they are wet they become sticky. Natali had them stuck to her face, hands and exersaucer. None in her mouth.

Now she can pop them in her mouth like no one's business. The dogs have taken notice of this new food and surround her exersaucer begging for food.

Natali hasn't been on a plane in months. This might be rectified soon. Might take a trip to visit her grandpa soon.

Below are photos from Grandma's visit and one of the dogs taking extra interest in Natali.

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