Ethan and Kona

Ethan LOVES dogs.  All shapes and sizes.  When we are at the park he runs up to a dog and pets it (gently and nicely, I might add).  A while back he claimed a stuffed dog out of Micah and Joel's stuffed animal basket.  We named the dog Kona.  About a month later he claimed another small stuffed dog and I named it Hilo, which Ethan promptly dubbed "my udder (other) doggie". 

Kona's new bed.

So today we went to Costco and we had the boxes left.  Ethan dragged it into his room and put Kona in it and declared it was his bed!  That wasn't enough, however:

He had to sleep there too!  Needless to say he stayed in that bed for about 15 minutes.

Our first "cast"

We went to see a children's orthopedist at Children's Hospital. Let's see that brings the count to ....7 children's specialist for our family. When we checked out today after the appointment they give you a print out of all your next appointments at Children's. There were no less than 4 upcoming appointments with various specialists, all for Ethan.

They took more x-rays with a better machine and I was able to see the break clearly. A horizontal zig-zag across the bone. It is on his left ring finger in the bone closest to his hand. They almost put a cast on it but since he is so young it would be hard to keep it dry. Instead they wrapped it up with co-flex tape. He has to wear it for 3 weeks.

On the up side, it seems as though this hasn't slowed him down in the least. He's been very happy and playful. I pray it heals correctly!

Fractured Finger

Today, we had the first incident of a broken bone amongst the children in our household. I am amazed that with 3 boys, it has taken this long. However, it has only taken our youngest 20 months to now enjoy this claim to fame.

Yesterday I was outside with Ethan talking to a roof estimator and he was happily playing in the yard on a large rock, climbing up and down. He stumbled a bit on the way down, I guess falling on his hand the wrong way. His left ring finger is black and blue and bruised at the base of the finger. We went in to get x-rays today and the doctor thinks it is fractured so he has a splint taped on with a sock to cover it so he doesn't rip off the splint. We also have instructions to see an orthopedic physician at Children's early next week.

Micah and Joel were super excited to see the x-rays of Ethan's hand. Micah was the doctor's helper when she was putting the splint on his hand. Micah said "wow, we've never had a broken bone in our house before!!" Was that more than just a touch of jealousy? Micah does have the record as being the first to have stitches... although I'm sure Ethan won't be far behind.

Superstar

My friend used to talk about her 2 year old smacking the ball off the tee when he was 2 years old. I could just never comprehend that. Until I had Ethan. He walked into the yard last week, picked up the ball, set it on the tee, (by himself) and hit the ball. With no one helping him or showing him how. Since then he has been crazy for baseball. He'll go outside and drag the bat out by himself. He loves and and every kind of ball. In fact it was his first word.

Blogging?

I've been reflecting alot lately why I stopped blogging. Facebook maybe? At the end of the day I'm so exhausted all I have the brains to do is stare at FB and type out a sentence. Ethan is just one big ball of kinetic energy. Constantly go go go go. More so that out other kids.

Case in Point:

As you can see, nothing is safe anymore. We have to keep the chairs pushed away from the table. He pushes the chairs around, but he hasn't figured out (yet) that he can push the chair back up to the table. Shhhhhh, don't tell him.

In fact the other day I found Ethan in his crib with only a diaper on, his jammies on the floor, completely zipped up. He really is Houdini.

The other reason I find it hard to blog is blogger can be so annoying. I will probably be switching over to Wordpress.

Super Sunday

Ethan came down with yet another ear infection last week. I think he's had about 5 since August so we have a referral to go see an ENT at Children's. Everyone I've talked to says that tubes are wonderful, so I'm wondering what the downside could be? A couple of days later, he's on antibiotics and still running a fever, then throws up. Great, a virus on top of it all. Guess who he decided to share it with? Why do they have to share everything with mom? So now I'm down for the count and have to miss out on the Superbowl. The thing I'm sad the most about is missing out on Micha's spinach artichoke dip. And pizza. Oh, yah and friends. :-) Three things I don't get very much . So Micha, you'll have to make it again when I'm not hanging out in the bathroom.

The time leading up to the superbowl makes me sad, because it was the last time I saw my mom. We had a huge superbowl party here that year because the Seahawks were playing and my mom was here. She died a few days later.

Random Stories

Ethan came down with a double ear infection yesterday. His fever spiked to 104.5! I'm so glad I had called earlier in the day and scheduled an appointment. Our clinic is open on weekends for urgent care. Its really nice that they have that so you can take your child to see a pediatrician and not some random doc. It also turned out our regular doctor was even working! I love our pediatrician. I love her so much its getting to the point where I might not tell you her name if you live locally. =) It's getting harder to get in to see her. When she examined Ethan she said she hoped he had an ear infection with a fever that high. If he didn't she would want to do more tests--she didn't say it but I suspect spinal tap. Whew, I'm so glad it was just the ears. She had me give him a double dose yesterday evening and by this morning his fever was completely gone! Gotta love Omnicef!

The other day Joel climbed into bed with us in the morning. He was holding Aaron's hand and kissing it. He gave Aaron a big smile. Very sweet moment. Then he reared back and hit Aaron on the mouth as hard as he could! So if you ever come over and Joel wants to wrestle, then you know that he really likes you!

We started a sticker chart for Joel. He is still tantruming and we think he's old enough to be tapering off, especially since his verbal skills are so good. If things don't go how he planned or someone messes with the plan he had in his head he will throw a huge fit. We're working on him verbalizing why he is upset instead of screaming/yelling/crying to get his way. So we told him everyday he didn't throw a fit he would earn a sticker. Once he earned 4 stickers we would have movie night. So tonight we're watching Finding Nemo. I'm sure once we're done with tantrums with Joel it will be just in time for Ethan to start up. Joel started at 15 months.

I just finished You'll Never Nanny in this Town Again by Suzanne Hansen. I found it at the library and thought it looked interesting. Its the memoir of a gal who was a nanny in Hollywood in the late 80s. It was an interesting, quick read but not one that I would recommend. Good for an airplane and you need a mindless book.

Cranio-Facial Clinic Visit

We took Ethan to the Cranio-Facial clinic at Children's to see a Cranio-Facial Pediatrician, Dr. H. The doctor spent a lot of time with us, asking about Ethan's health history and examining him. The upshot is that she thinks there is a problem with his palate, but the only reason we would do anything about it is if it causes speech delays. It isn't bothering him enough to gain enough weight, so we wait until 15-18 months when his speech develops. Then we bring him in for a speech sample. We might still do a swallow study to see if there is a problem with swallowing. They inject dye into some liquid and feed it to him. Then they can tell where it goes in his body. Dr. H wanted to talk with his regular pediatrician, Dr. B, before doing any more tests. I like how thoughtful Dr. H was and concerned, but not wanting to rush into anything. I also like that she would talk with Dr. B, since Dr. B knows more about his overall health history.

More Health Issues!

I am bound and determined to keep up this blog! This is the longest I have journaled at anytime in my life! The problem is that I have a hard time keeping up with downloading pictures. I dont post because I think "that would look good with pictures", but then I don't take the pictures off the camera so I don't blog.

Anyway, I am going forward from here, pictures or not. I will back track to this summer and post photos when I can get around to it.

Today I took Ethan to the allergist. We suspected he was allergic to eggs and the doctor confirmed our suspicions with a skin test. He was also tested for milk and peanuts which came out clear! In fact, we got the green light to try out some yogurt. I'm still leary of putting him on cow's milk when he turns a year. I just don't want to have to think about spillage around the house. I have enough to worry about. He was also skin tested with the flu vaccine because it contains egg in it. He tested clear for that so he was able to get the shot. This now makes 3 people in our house with epi-pens. Micah, me and now Ethan. (Did I mention that I'm now allergic to crab, lobster and shrimp? Its a real bummer because I really like sushi and most of it contains crab.)

Good news is the doctor said to continue feeding Ethan baked goods which contain egg since he has never reacted to that. He just needs to avoid the really "eggy" dishes like soufle, quiche, boiled, eggs, fried eggs, etc. The thing that will get hard is the cross-contamination issue with pans and such. It seems like he is pretty sensitive. The reason our suspicions were aroused is one time, I fixed scrambled eggs with some sausage and vegetables. I purposefully didn't give him any eggs but picked out the veggies and meat to feed him. He immediately broke out in hives around his mouth, presumably from the tiny bits of eggs left on the veggies. I would hate to see his reaction if I fed him a bite of eggs!

Next up tomorrow: a visit to the Cranio-Facial pediatrician at Children's. He's been having milk come out of his nose when he nurses. His regular ped didn't find any cleft palate (or is it palette? Julie?) , but she wants him to get checked out because its so unusual for a baby his age.

Ethan

5 1/2 months old

Ethan has been gaining weight like a champ! I am so very thankfull for Prevacid. It has literally changed my life. I can now wear the same clothes for one day. I don't have (new) carrot and prune stains on the carpet! I have a very happy baby! He's even getting some chubby cheeks!

On the other hand, it looks like he may have an allergy to amoxocillin and/or eggs. Sigh. Drug allergy would be pretty easy to deal with, but eggs? I sure hope not. We'll know for sure when we can get in to see the allergist.

I can't end on a down note. We got back Micah's latest blood test results and it looks like he might be outgrowing his allergy! This is a big blessing!!

Is this really possible???

STOP THE PRESSES!
Ethan made it through an entire feeding period with NO SPIT UP!!!

YES!

And he was very happy this morning, too, playing, talking and smiling.

Thank you Lord! What a simple pleasure of life, not having spit up all over you, your floor and the baby!

********************
In other news...
The other day Micah decided he wanted to make his own Baby Einstein video. He decided what music to use (Beethoven's 5th) and what toys he wanted to use. He made a list of all the toys and taped it to the wall. I was the cameraman, but he directed and starred in the show. Joel was the unintentional "co-star". Once I figure out how to upload videos I will post it here.

Update on Ethan

So I need to post some pictures. I just have not had time to download any pictures! It doesn't help that the amount of pictures on the camera keeps growing. I need some sort of blue tooth device for my camera where I just set it beside my computer and whamm-o they instantly appear on my computer.

Anyway....Ethan is now 7 months. He has two bottom teeth, he can sit alone and roll over both ways pretty proficiently. Between 5 and 6 months he only gained 1 ounce. He had a cold, so the doctor suspected it was because of the sickness that he wasn't gaining weight. She said to watch his reflux and come back in 6 weeks. Well after 3 weeks I had had enough and I took him in last week. He was throwing up (none of this dainty spit-up) about 5-6 times every feeding. I was changing clothes about 1-2 times a day because they were drenched, not because I got spit on once. Let's not even talk about Ethan's clothes. Sometimes as I held him, he would spit up and it would miss my shoulder and back completely and land on the floor a foot or more away. And the stains on the carpet are just lovely now that he's eating carrots and such.

In 3 weeks he had gained 6 ounces. Which is better, but not great. He's now on Prevacid, which doesn't come in a syrup form. It comes in these tablets that dissolve on your tongue, and you're not suppose to chew them. Yah, try telling that to a teething 7 month old! So I would have to split the tablet in half for his dose, which would crumble into powder. I had to guess as to how much "half" was and save the rest for his next dose. Then I had to dissolve it in water. Half would stay in the syringe and not budge. Ugh. So if you're still reading this....it was just hard.

Enter the marvelous compounding pharmacy which saved the day! We have to pay out of pocket for this service, but it makes my live MUCH easier. The compounding pharmacy makes Prevacid into a syrup and even added watermelon flavoring. He's been on the syrup for 2 days now and I already see a difference. He's been much happier (except for teething) and spitting up MUCH less.

I'm just praying that he will start gaining weight. He is a long and lean baby. 90% for height and 25% for weight. When he was born he was 100% for weight (10 pounds); so you can see how much he has fallen on the growth curve. Right now he only weighs 16 pounds. That's what Joel weighed at 2 months!

Update on Ethan

Ethan is now 4 months old and weighs 14 pounds 10 ounces. He is all smiles, even when he's crying, you can usually talk him out of it and get him to smile. We've finally been given a good (early) sleeper . Only problems we've had: he has pretty bad acid reflux. All newborns have this to a degree; but his is particularly bad. His weight gain has not been great, partly due to this (remember, he started at 10 pounds). So, I'm off dairy and we've upped his Zantac dosage all of which is helping.

His newest trick is rolling from tummy to back. He's still not sure he's doing it because when he does he has this stunned look on his face; "How did I get here?"

Ethan also had his first taste of cereal yesterday. He liked it, opened his mouth wide each time. I remember Joel kept his mouth tightly shut. Then when I did get some in joel's mouth he would spit it out at me. Ethan gobbled it right down! Incidentally, I was going to wait another month to introduce solids. However, a new study by the APA came out saying that delaying solids until 6 months doesn't do anything in preventing food allergies. So I decided, why not? Maybe it would help with his acid reflux.

This picture is hilarious. Right when I snapped the picture a clash of thunder echoed outside. Ethan was unphased, but big brother was a tad bit worried.

Foreshadowing?

This is a picture that we have in the boys' bathroom. I bought it when Micah was a baby. Now that we have 3 boys I think it is quite appropriate!

Here is Ethan on his 2 month birthday. I tried to catch him in a smile, but my shutter speed is not quite fast enough. His eyes shut and turn into half-moons when he smiles, its the cutest thing! We call him "miracle baby" because he has turned out to be the best sleeper of all of them. Thank the LORD! I did pray for that and I am SO glad that prayer was answered! Ethan and his thumb have turned out to be best friends. I'm so glad they found each other! At his 20 week ultrasound we saw him sucking his thumb, so it was an early relationship.

Elise, do you recognize the outfit? =)