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.

[nggallery id=30]

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.