Who's Afraid Of A Little Rotavirus? Part III

(Sorry our camera is still at Dana's house.)

It's been hard trying to post the last couple of days. In my last post I thought Rooney was getting better because he was holding down fluids and Mike was the one that was really sick.

The night I wrote that post was a difficult night. Mike was bogarting the toilet and Rooney stopped holding down his fluids and just wanted his Momma. After 2 shirt changes, I was finally able to snuggle down with Roonster on the couch (splatter from his vomit hitting my shirt got on my side of the bed) and we slept in each others arms. That was kind of nice. All day yesterday Rooney slept. I had to restart the 1 tsp of water every 10 min. and by the end of the day he had held down all his fluids. I was hopeful because Mike was feeling better (although he slept most of the day yesterday as well) and I thought Rooney was getting better.

Around 8 p.m. last night, Rooney stopped holding down fluids again. We restarted the 1 tsp of water every 10 minutes yet again and as of this writing he is holding down fluids. He is still sleeping alot and we spent another night on the couch in each others arms (this time it was so we wouldn't keep Mike up). He is so pathetic and sweet at the same time. When you look at his sad little eyes your heart just melts. Rooney is pretty sweet too!

On an even more pathetic note, as I was picking up our Designed Dinners last night, I got to see a rough cut of the infomercial I filmed about 2 months ago(King vs. Gigantor 4/4/06). Yikes! I hope it's hard for everyone to see themselves on film. I tried hard not to focus on myself, but lets be honest, that's all you really care about at first, right? I knew when I went to film this I still wasn't done losing baby weight but I had lost most of it so I was feeling alot better than I was a couple months earlier. Ugh I still had 10 lbs to lose to be at pre-pregnancy weight (wh/I have since lost) and they say the camera adds 10 lbs, right? I wish I could have worn a sign on my chest that said "Just Had Baby".

Anyway it seems this will be airing NATIONALLY (egads) soon. Thankfully I'm not a good salesperson so I don't have a ton of face time on camera, but I am there & visible.

Yay!

Who's Afraid Of A Little Rotavirus? Part Deux

Today is Memorial Day. It was the first clear day in at least a week and we were fortunate enough to have planned a little family BBQ for today. We had invited some friends and family, bought some food, asked everyone else to buy some food and then disaster struck.

Well disaster actually struck the Howard household last week. By Saturday night, when we were over to celebrate Natalie's birthday, some virus had hit 1/2 the family. As we were leaving Saturday evening Dana started to feel "Uh oh". I was confident that he would be feeling better by today and yesterday we proceeded with our plans for everyone to come over for the BBQ.

When we got home last night, from running errands, we noticed glass all over the ground by Mike's car. Seems someone really wanted Mike's car stereo and must have been in a real hurry because they smashed his driver side window, in broad daylight, while the car was parked on the street, very visible to all the neighbors. Well unfortunately, no neighbors came forward saying they saw anything. Typical. We should really make more of an effort to get to know them. We are somewhat familiar with the kids next door, solely because they are forced to come to our door about once an hour on the weekends and after school to ask for the basketball that came over our fence. The real kick in the pants about Mike's car stereo is that, even though the thief took all these chances to get this stereo, he must have realized he could only get the face plate off, which Mike found under the drivers side seat when he started cleaning the glass out of the car. Either that or the thief thought it was a snazzier stereo than it is and since I bought it for Mike I am potentially offended.

Anyway you can see where this weekend was going. It got a little worse this morning and moved straight to awful this evening. This morning Rooney woke up with whatever virus the Howard house is infected with. He was spewing, both ends, all morning and eventually we realized we had to cancel our sunny day, family, Memorial Day BBQ! Seems Rooney wasn't the only one afflicted however, Annie said Cuyler was up all night. Oh poor babies.

Rooney wasn't able to keep anything down and eventually I called the MD. I was advised to start him off, 1 hr after his last throw up, on 1tsp of water every 10 min for 2-3hrs. I could then increase it to about 1oz up to 6-8hrs and then I could give him rice and/or watered down formula. We followed the plan this evening and the good news is Rooney has stopped leaking and seems to be doing a little better.


The bad news is Mike is not. Right after dinner tonight Mike came down with the sickness and I am now outnumbered and scared.


HELP!

Rowdy Roddy Rooney

Well it seems Rooney's sleeping issues may have revealed themselves. Yesterday I discovered that Rooney's right front tooth was about to pop through. I was hoping for the incisor on his left side to come in first, to balance out the hillbilly look he's gained due to the right side incisor already popping. Oh well he makes a cute little hillbilly anyway.

Monday Rooney and I went over to Dana and Renae's to make baby food. I do not normally make Rooney's food, but Renae makes most of Felix's and we've talked about doing it for awhile. One of Felix's staple foods is millet. Rooney has not had millet before so Renae made him some to take home. Since Monday night I have tried to feed it to Roonster every day. I've tried about every conceivable way to serve it but after one bite he covers his mouth each time. Today he just put his pacifier back in his mouth. I guess nothing was slipping past that.

(This picture is from Felix's blog) We had a nice time and Felix and Rooney are too cute together. Playing WWF must be innate in boys also (not just men), because they were wrestling. It was all in good fun though and no one got too hurt. Also at D&R's Rooney stood up all by himself again. I do not know what it is about their house, that he stands, but he did and he was so proud.

Of course I forgot my camera.

Just To Sleep A Little Sleep

It's not that I have forgotten to post over the last couple days, I wanted to, but this kid has left us...
T-I-R-E-D!

Mike, Rooney and I have a pretty busy schedule during the week. Seems we're always rushing to something (work, playgroup or gym). However, the weekends are days we look forward to kind of just take out time, relax and maybe sleep a little longer. Well, not this weekend. Rooney is going through something. I don't know why it is, but he is constantly waking up. He's absolutely exhausted, throwing himself around, falling over in his highchair but he is fighting sleep and when he finally does fall asleep he wakes up very shortly afterward.

At times this can be comical and sad but when it's 2:30 a.m. it is just annoying. We look like a family of the walking dead. Yesterday Rooney and I had plans to go to a playgroup. We ended up missing it because it took 2 hours to get Rooney down for his 1 hour nap. Normally I would have just gone and let him fall asleep in the car but we did have plans later in the afternoon so it was imperative that he slept at some point earlier in the day.

It's hard to be frustrated with him (except at 2:30 a.m.) because when he wakes up he's not a screaming mess. He just wants to be up moving around.

I would go on but I'm too tired.

Baby's Week Out

Whew this last week has been a real whirlwind for Rooney and I. Since joining the Moms Club, Baby Fun at the Fairwood Library and Parenting Support Group at Valley Medical our days have become quite busy. On Monday Rooney and I went to Fed Ex, the library and then to lunch with 3 other moms and their boys. Lunch was really good and we found it very interesting how 4 moms and their 4 babies, all under 8 months, found themselves to be the only party in the backroom of this restaurant. Truth be told, I think we may have been as thankful as everyone else though. Tuesday we took off again and met Dad at work for a 529 seminar,lunch and a trip to the bank. Rooney was so happy and not embarrassing the whole day. I was so proud!

Wednesday just the Roon and I went to our playgroup at the hospital. It was pretty warm that day, so I was glad to go where there was air conditioning. That whole playgroup was all boys, except for one little girl. Rooney crawled right over and hung out with her for a while. Ugh! Already my son is player. Like father, like son, I guess.

Thursday we got Rooney's new car seat installation inspected. Oh this car seat caused Mike and I alot of grief, bruises and sweat but it turns out we actually installed it correctly! Hey we are smarter than the seat! The Britax almost won, but with our combined intelligence, we did prevail. I picked up a few pointers from the inspector and as I am sure everyone suspected we were overcomplicating the installation. Rooney can now travel with assurance that he is in the safest seat in the car. With that assurance, he fell asleep on his throne, as we drove to a playgroup at our friends', Krista and Parker, house.

Today was the busiest day of all. We went for a morning walk with 3 other moms at Coulon Park. We had to wait around for a little while, because as I understand it, we are moms and we are never on time (surprisingly enough Rooney and I were). While we waited, Rooney got to try out his swinging skills again and hang out in the playground with the big kids. Once the ladies arrived we had a nice walk, but once it was over, the lad and I rushed over to the Friday playgroup to meet Krista and Parker for lunch. This restaurant was much smaller than the one we went to on Monday, so quarters were a little cramped, it was nap time for at least 3 of the kids (we went with another mom and her 2 kids)and most of us didn't get to finish our lunches. I have a feeling this will be the case more and more. After a short nap, Roonster and I hit the road again to Annie's for coffee, grocery shopping and his highness received a little manicure from his Aunt Annie. With all this traveling thank god gas is so cheap. Other than a snack attack hitting Rooney very hard on the 7 minute drive to Starbucks, the day went well but this week has left us all exhausted.

Who's Your Momma?

Today was Mother's Day. My first official Mother's Day. We did not celebrate with any grand gestures, but had a great day as a family.

This morning Rooney (with a little help from Dad) made his Momma breakfast in bed. At 7mo. old, Rooney is already, quite the little cook.






I had a great breakfast, got to drink 2 CUPS of coffee, and we all lounged in bed for a little longer than we normally would. Of course, Rooney is the best present ever, but the boys (Courage & Rocco pitched in) and took Mom to do a little shopping.

My mother started the tradition several years ago, of giving pieces of Fiesta Ware to Annie, Renae & I (for being a great Aunt) for Mother's Day. Today, the boys, continued the tradition and took me to purchase a few new pieces to add to my collection. We also went shopping for new annuals for the front yard. We purchased several Wave Petunias and Mike, Rooney and I did a little work in our yard this afternoon.



Rooney was really the entertainment.





Today was a really beautiful day and it was so nice to spend it with my family but before it's over we wanted to wish a Happy Mother's Day to all the Mother's reading this blog!




Whew what a day.

King Of Swing

In the last post I mentioned that Rooney rode a swing for the first time. Unfortunately for me, I forgot to being my camera. Fortunately for everyone else, one of the other moms, brought hers and captured this picture for us.

Thanks so much Sherry.

Feelin' Ducky

Wow the last couple of days have been a whirlwind of firsts again! Well maybe not firsts...new things. If you read the last post about Rooney you know he was sick and he got Rotavirus for the first time (I was told he would get this more than once), last night, around 11pm, Rooney just decided to start clapping. That was exciting! He won't do it on command but I noticed today he did it when he was excited. Today Rooney also got to play at the park for the first time. We went to Newcastle Beach & Park as a Mom's Club activity.

This was a great activity! There was a tremendous turn-out and Rooney got to play in sand for the first time. He seemed to enjoy it quite a bit and thankfully did not try to put any of it in his mouth. We also got to put our hands in the cold water of Lake Washington and had a band of marauding ducks around us (good thing he got the flu booster). That was all very exciting for Rooney, but I really think he enjoyed the swinging on the swings the most. Another first.

I thought when I was sitting in the MD's office, on Friday, for 2 hours, I had made a tooth discovery in Rooney's mouth. I was fooled a couple months ago, so I did not think too much of it. Well today I confirmed that a 3rd tooth is finally starting to make it's grand appearance. Mike still seems dubious so I'll map it on Rooney's Official New Tooth Photo when it has been confirmed by all parties.

You're probably wondering "What is the deal with all these bath photos?". Well, this kid is cute and seems to enjoy his baths.

Tonight we got Rooney a new duck bathtub so he could comfortably take a real bath.

I think he looks pretty comfortable.

On This Date...

Happy Anniversary Sweet Pea! Thanks for the best 2 years...so far.

Love,
Q

Who's Afraid Of A Little Rotavirus?

You may recall from the last post, me mentioning, that Rooney wasn't feeling his Rooniest lately. Well the feeling of non-Rooneyness continued for another 2 days and about a whole pack of diapers. When day 3 started (which was Friday) I decided to call the MD. I was not too concerned previously because 1. he was still eating & 2. he still seemed pretty happy (as seen in this photo). Friday was already a busy day, because as I'm sure most of the readers of this blog remember, Monday is Mike and my wedding anniversary. It's hard to properly celebrate these things during the week so Rooney's Aunt Annie was going to have Rooney do a little sleep over at her house Friday night. The plan was that I would drop Rooney off at her house Friday afternoon after she and I went grocery shopping then Annie would bring him back Saturday afternoon when we both went to Dana & Renae's to be there while Natalie got ready for her prom (can you believe it?!).

To burden the day just a little bit more, Courage was also scheduled to go to the Vet to get Phase II of anal gland cleaning done. Poor baby. Friday morning it was evident that Rooney was not feeling any better and possibly worse. His appetite had decreased (I took him off baby food Wednesday but continued just to feed him formula) and he had a very nasty diaper rash. The frequent diaper changes were traumatic for us both, but otherwise he was happy but was only running at half steam. I called the MD office, and after surfing the electronic operator, found the nurse line. Of course you have to leave a message, which is what I did at 9:30am.

At this point I called Annie and said I did not think it was a good idea if Rooney spent the night. We could celebrate our anniversary another day, or with Rooney, if need be. I thought we could still go grocery shopping though & planned to be at her house by 2pm. A couple hours went by and still no word from the MD. I needed to know if I had to take him in. I did not think he was dehydrated but I wanted to be sure. I called the MD's office again, chose the "Emergency or Setting Up an Appointment" option and got a live person. I told them Rooney's problem and she said she'd have a nurse call me back. Wait! I already went through that option. OK now I have 2 messages in. Finally, an hour or so later the nurse calls me back, she asks me alot of questions about how many dirty diapers have I changed, was there urine and why am I such a bad parent? OK she didn't ask the last question but the implication was there when I did not readily and precisely have the answer to the other questions. I guesstimated and after lecturing me on what to do the next time this happens, she felt Rooney needed to go in because he was at risk of being dehydrated. We were scheduled for 4pm.

In the hours previous to going to the MD, Rooney stopped pooping, had a diaper of all urine, took a little nap, ate and became alot more chipper so when we got to the office I wasn't so sure anymore if he needed to be there. We heard the MD was running behind but there were several babies in the waiting room and they all ended up playing with each other. It was really cute. This made the time pass easily until we finally got called in. While in the waiting room, Rooney had an indiscreet moment, so when we got into the office I had to change him, showed the nurse his awful diaper rash and then she weighed him again. Since our Wednesday visit, where I asked them to unofficially weigh him, he lost about 1 lb. I was concerned again. I was able to get a new diaper on Rooney but I was supposed to leave his clothes off so the MD could examine him. Around 5:50pm the MD finally got to us. By this point I had fed Rooney, played with him, made a blanket for him out of my sling (remember we've been waiting in there with Rooney practically naked) and he was trying to fall asleep. Mike had taken Courage to the vet (soon to pick him up) and I had received several phone calls on my whereabouts. The MD comes in and calls Rooney, Ally. Everyone screws up his name, so I didn't pay any mind to it- I was just glad the MD finally made it. Then I saw the chart & the MD had some kid named Ally's chart. I was heartbroken to say "This is Rooney, not Ally". Ugh they misplaced his chart. The nurse asked how long I'd been here & I said 1-1/2hrs (but later realized it was closer to 2hrs at this point). Seems they refiled his chart!

By the time they found his chart, we had been there 2hrs. The MD came in said Rooney has Rotavirus. The MD seemed to think Rooney was fine, wasn't dehydrated but any additional liquids we could get him to drink wouldn't hurt. The diaper rash was another story...we needed 2 prescriptions for creams to clear it up. Other than needing another nap, Rooney was already feeling alot better. It was a long day, many plans were canceled but both my boys (Rooney and Courage) were home from their MD appt's with good news, so I was happy.

If you are wondering about our anniversary celebration, Mike and I, were able to go out for a great dinner (thanks Annie). Also, by Saturday Rooney was feeling well enough to go see his cousin Natalie get ready for prom. Here's a few pictures:




Isn't she lovely?

S Is For Super Grover

Yesterday Rooney turned 7 months old! Wow who's a big guy? I wouldn't say it was a good day for him though.

The day started out well- we went to our Wednesday group at the hospital. Rooney has now moved up to the crawler group, which starts a couple of hours earlier, and I wasn't sure how easy it was going to be for us to get there. The time actually worked out well, since Rooney woke up from him mid-morning nap around 11am and we were able to make Rooney's MD appt right afterwards (the MD's office is also located at the hospital).

We had to get Rooney's flu shot booster yesterday. I don't know if he considered getting a shot a nice way to ring in his 7mo. birthday, but it was the best day to do it. I was also able to get Roonster unofficially weighed & measured (21 lbs 3oz and 30.5"). Unfortunately he wasn't feeling that great most of the day anyway and I don't think the shot made him feel any better.

Now that Rooney is an official BIG GUY he is trying to cut out his mid-morning naps. He will be absolutely exhausted, eyes fighting to stay open, throwing his body around because he's too tired to really move and he will fight to stay awake. So this morning after screwing around with this for about an hour I decided to bring him into my bed while I watched a little Judge Mathis, checked my email and finished my 1st cup of coffee. Well...Rooney was getting a little too interested in Judge Mathis so I thought it would be best if I changed the channel. If he is going to zone out to TV I prefer it be something more age appropriate and educational. Of course I turned on PBS and we were lucky enough to have Sesame Street on (thank god it wasn't Teletubbies or Barney!).

You know what...Grover is still cute and funny after all these years. Rooney really seemed to enjoy watching Elmo's World (which had Grover). It was really cute. Anyway I thought I finally had him asleep after watching this but that lasted about 1 minute and now Rooney is crawling around by my feet. He is super tired, and I'm sure we will all pay the price for this later, my 2nd cup of coffee went cold, but I was able to update his blog.

Happy 7 Month's Big Guy!

Smash Up

This weekend was a beautiful weekend in Seattle. Saturday it rained all day. I don't think it could be considered a spring shower since it went on all day and rained pretty profusely. However, the rain was beautiful and it just helped us appreciate Sundays' sunshine even more. Sunday was warm, sunny and it was just a nice day to be out and about and that is exactly what we did.

Sunday afternoon Rooney and I went to our friends Laura and Anna's house (Anna is Laura's daughter). We met them at a few of the groups we go to and we just think Anna and Rooney are cute together. It was nice to see Laura and Anna again and we got to meet Laura's husband Scott. I thought it was kind of funny because he looks enough like Mike that I think Rooney noticed. He is a tall, white guy with glasses and a deep voice (I know...this describes about 1/4 of the men on earth). Rooney seemed very interested in his comings-and-goings.

So Sunday was cruising along nicely and after our little playdate we were going to meet Mike in Kirkland to watch his football game. Before I got there I heard Mike made a touchdown and made the "play of the game". Of course Rooney and I were very proud. I'll be honest though, I don't really know anything about football, I had no clue what was going on, and I was glad that Malissa and Audrey were there to talk to. Of course all my yakking probably made it hard for Malissa to watch her husband, Todd, make his touchdowns. After the game the team went out for celebratory free nachos and glass of beer (they won but I couldn't tell you the score). We had a nice time, Mike got to hang out with some of his friends and it was capping off a beautiful day.

Even though I met Mike in Kirkland, we just took his car to the restaurant, so when we were leaving we were going to go back, get my car and go home. Rooney was getting tired and he was going to be pretty hungry soon. Just as we were backing out we hit something hard and it was kind of loud. I thought Mike had hit a concrete island in the parking lot. I wasn't really thinking it was a big deal but as I turned around I saw there was a car behind us and in the car was a girl with a very shocked and "What the hell just happened" look on her face. Of course she could probably be saying the same thing about us. After I registered that, my very next thought was that we got hit on Rooney's side! I jumped out, Rooney was fine and didn't even seem to notice. Then I looked at the back of our car and it looked ugly. The right side bumper and tail light took the hit. It looked pretty bad...until I looked at her car. Ooooooo let's just say the Subaru won the fight.

Here's the good news...1. no one got hurt. 2. We could drive our car still 3. I think we have pretty good insurance coverage (of course that could be changing if our rates go up) and 4. Mike should now have had his statistical accident & be on a clean slate.

Did I mention how beautiful Saturday was?