Category Archives: Dave

I think I need that Daddy guy back here

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Apparently I was mistaken when I thought that Cate’s cold was mostly over and done with. Yesterday when I picked her up at Patsy’s, she was coughing what seemed like an excessive amount. Patsy mentioned that she’d been coughing like that since she woke up from her nap. Huh. Weird.

We had to go run an errand in Redmond (not getting into details, but y’all? There is a customer service employee at Bank of America that I am sincerely hoping gets fired after all the crap she put us through), and Cate fell asleep on the way back. No biggie, I figured she was just bored, and she only slept about 15 minutes.

She was unusually cranky that evening, which should’ve struck me as odd, seeing as how she had taken a three hour nap that afternoon, and then also had a short power nap in the car. She even got mad during her bubble bath, which is usually one thing guaranteed to have her happy and laughing. I couldn’t get her to eat very much, and the coughing had never let up all evening. All of that should’ve been big ol’ red flags for the night ahead.

Last night, she woke herself up having a coughing fit at least four different times. Oh, and I think I forgot to mention this, but I’ve caught her cold, so I had taken NyQuil to get myself to sleep, and the constant wake-ups left me feeling not just loopy and tired, but also sort of hung over.

This morning I tried to get her to take some Motrin and she coughed so hard that she barfed it right back up. Righty-o. Off to the pediatrician, then!

The doctor said that the coughing was related to her asthma, and she gave her an oral steroid right there in the exam room (which Cate was not a fan of, and oh my lord, it took a long time to get it down with all the gagging she kept doing) and two puffs of her albuterol inhaler. I could tell she was better almost right away; while we were still in the doctor’s office, I noticed that she could sometimes go an entire minute or two without coughing! Wow! By the time she got home, she actually talked a little bit and smiled, which I hadn’t seen from her all day.

I called Patsy to let her know what was going on, and she said that if I wanted to bring her over so I could take a nap, that was fine. After all, if Cate’s cold is contagious, all the kids got exposed yesterday anyway. This is one of the reasons I love Patsy so much. How many people volunteer to take on a sick toddler? So that’s what I did, and I came home and took a looong nap. It was glorious.

Cate’s pediatrician said that if she isn’t 100% by tomorrow, I should bring her back to the office for another dose of the oral steroid. I’m hoping that with the dose she got today, and the increase of her albuterol (which we’ll be doing for the next few days), she’ll be back to her normal happy self before tonight.

peekaboo!

I miss that smile.

Oh, and I really miss Dave right now. I sure could’ve used my night owl husband for some relief last night.

P.S. Unrelated: today is my mom’s very last chemo treatment. Hooray!!

all by ourselves

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Dave flew to California yesterday for work, so I’m officially on Single Parent Duty until he gets back on Friday evening. To be honest, I was pretty nervous about this because I’ve never been on my own with Cate for such a long time. In fact, I’m pretty sure this is the first time she and I have ever been alone overnight (unless you count when I was pregnant, which I don’t). The last time Dave went to California, we went with him. The time before that, I had my mom and then Cat and her mom stay with me.

So, the first day on our own? Was not so bad. Cate is clearly still feeling a little crummy from her cold, and there were a few tantrums, but it was mostly fine. One of my big worries was how I was going to take a shower with her around. I’m weirdly protective about my showers, it’s like my sacred little 20 minutes of pure uninterrupted Me Time. Obviously, Me Time is out the window this week, and that’s fine, I can adjust. I decided to let Cate play naked in our bathroom while I showered (she loves Naked Time, and she loves to empty out my make-up basket; I figured it was a win-win), and then afterward, I’d give her a bath.

Well, it turns out that she didn’t like that plan so much. As soon as I closed the door on the shower, she started screaming. She came over and banged on the door for me to let her in. So I did, and even though there are no fun bath toys in our shower, she had a blast. She liked playing with the bubbly water on the floor of the shower when I rinsed the shampoo out of my hair. And since I already had an extra bottle of Baby Wash in the shower (leftover from the days when Miss Puke-A-Rama often required us to take joint showers), I went ahead and soaped her down in the shower with me. See? We saved time AND water. Score one for efficiency.

This morning, Cate went running down the hall screaming “Daaaaddy!!” because she loves to wake Dave up. When I explained that no, Daddy isn’t in the bed because Daddy had to go bye-bye, we had a few tears. Poor kiddo. I have a feeling she’s really going to miss him this week.

I will too, for what it’s worth.

happy Father's Day

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This weekend has been pretty fun. First of all, I think we might’ve found a place to live in Raleigh; we’re still waiting to find out for sure, and I really hope it works out because there aren’t any other houses that Cat saw on Friday that would really work for us, and I’d hate to ask her to go house-hunting twice. (But I know she will if I ask, because she loves me, and she’s quite possibly as excited as I am about this move.)

Saturday morning was sort of hectic, since we had plumbers and garage door repairmen here (ah, home repairs, how I won’t miss you when we’re renting). But Cate was in a fantastic mood and we had a great time playing; then she took a three-hour nap, and woke up just as I was leaving to go to my book club with my girlfriends. The book club was awesome. A few girls cancelled, so it ended up being me and three girls who are all engaged. (Linda’s getting married next month, Erin’s getting married in August, and Kris is getting married next March.) So there was all kinds of wedding talk, which was pretty hilarious, and it made me so glad that I’m not in the middle of planning a wedding because hoo boy, that was a stressful period in my life.

Oh, and for the record? Coming home to your husband bathing your 16 month-old toddler and seeing them having their own little conversation and splashing and laughing? That is heart-meltingly awesome.

This morning, since it’s Father’s Day, we let Dave sleep in. Well, I tried to let him sleep, but Cate had other ideas. We had to come upstairs a couple of times to change her diaper or get dressed or whatever, and every time she’d tear down the hall to our room shrieking, “Daddy!!” So, eh, what can you do? After he got up, I let him keep Cate entertained for a while and I went outside to mow the lawn. All two acres. By myself. Because I’m a good wife like that. Also because it’s a beautiful day, so it was no big hardship on me to spend two hours outside.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father’s Day to Dave and all the other amazing dads out there who read this. (And to my own dad too, who doesn’t read this site, but I guess I ought to throw it out there just in case he ever does.)

pre-Civil War homes and alcohol, what could be better?

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Guess how Dave and I spent our first night away from the baby? Go on, guess!

We had a lot of fun. We toured a couple of the old antebellum houses, checked out downtown Natchez, ate some great food, stayed in a nice hotel. And oh yeah, the cocktails. It was pretty awesome.

And I only cried about being away from Cate once, so I think I did pretty well. According to my sister, she was an absolute angel the entire time we were gone. She has totally bonded with my sister – Tracy makes a funny face or talks to her, and Cate just cracks up. I think she has already established her Cool Aunt status. I imagine they’re going to be inseparable when Cate is a little bit older.

We got up this morning, toured one more house (for the locals: Longwood, the big unfinished octagonal house that is totally haunted). Dave and I both got carsick on the way home – kind of strange since I was driving, and I don’t usually get motion sickness, but it hit me both on the drive down and on the way back. Blah. So we’ve been all dopey on Dramamine since we got back.

And as much fun as our little getaway trip was, I absolutely could not wait to get home to this little face.

I mean, seriously, can you blame me?

more health stuff

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The thing I mentioned yesterday about my eyes that I thought was just allergies? Yeah. It’s pink eye. I suppose it was inevitable, what with all the snot that’s been flying all over the house for the past couple of weeks. Ugh. So gross.

I managed to get in with Dave’s doctor today, since my doctor is in Bellevue, and I have a rule about not going there during the month of December. The Christmas traffic coming and going from the mall is insane no matter what time of day you go. Also, my doctor’s office pissed me off when I called by insisting that pink eye is just viral and they wouldn’t give me any eye drops for it because all I need to do is wash my hands more frequently and not touch my face. WTF? Has anyone else ever heard of this? Not the part about hand-washing, because I already knew that (and my hands are already chapped from the amount of soap and Purell they’ve been subjected to this winter), but I thought you always got eye drops for pink eye.

Anyway, since my eyes were killing me, and Dave’s doctor’s office is right here in the boonies, and they could see me less than 2 hours after I called them, they won. It was kind of weird because the doctor looked several years younger than me, and I’m not really used to that. But he gave me a sample of the eye drops so I didn’t even need to go to the drug store to get a prescription filled, so what can I say, I’m a big fan of his work. If my doctor’s nurses stay as bitchy as they were today, I may just have to switch primary care doctors.

Later I took Cate to the pediatrician to get her checked one more time before we leave. The doctor said that since her nose is still full of gunk, and this has been going on for almost 2 weeks, he’s giving her one more round of antibiotics. So fun. Also, she’s snoring like a lumberjack when she sleeps (I’m not kidding, you’ve never heard a baby snore like this), so we’re also going to add in some children’s Claritin to see if it’ll thin out some of the stuff in her sinuses. We’re already using a humidifier in her bedroom and those Pediacare plug-in things that put VapoRub steam in the air, so I don’t know what else to do.

I have to admit that I’m getting more and more nervous about the idea of getting on a plane with her on Friday. The pediatrician said that in addition to the Claritin, I can also give her half a teaspoon of Benadryl as needed. I’m interpreting that as permission to drug her before the flight so hopefully she’ll sleep most of the way and the pressure won’t hurt her ears too much. Don’t judge me, if you happen to be on the plane with me on Friday, you’ll most likely be thankful.

P.S. The in-laws left early this morning. It was really nice to have them here, although hopefully we won’t all be suffering from The Plague the next time they visit.

NaBloPoMo Day 5: blarrcchhh

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Dave and I both seem to have caught Cate’s cold. I suppose it was inevitable, what with the baby snot flying everywhere all over the house. And my guess is that it isn’t as bad for us, since we’re adults and have some basic comfort measures at our disposal – like, we can blow our own noses, and we’re both pretty comfortable pushing the recommended Sudafed dosage to its absolute limits.

Still, if this is what Cate has felt like over the past few days, I’m really glad we opted to take her to the doctor on Saturday rather than ride it out until today. Poor kiddo, it’s pretty miserable.

And now I’m going to try to actually get some work done, since Cate is finally taking a nap. More tomorrow.

our house is not that fun right now

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Dave has been sick with a horrible cold all week, which means I’ve been spending the week torn between nagging him to wash his hands ten thousand times a day before he picks up the baby, and fervently praying that Cate and I don’t catch it from him.

So far? I think I’m catching it. I’m fighting it off pretty well: drinking tons of fluids, taking vitamin C and zinc every few hours to keep my immune system boosted, and doing saline nasal irrigation several times a day (which is really disgusting, but I’ve found that it sometimes can successfully fight off sinus infections, so why not give it a shot?). It’s funny because if we didn’t have a baby, I’m sure that I would’ve surrendered a couple of days ago and just declared myself sick and that would’ve been that. But now I’m all, “oh HELL no, you’re not taking me down without a fight, cold germs!” I ain’t going out like that.

Cate seems to be fine. She’s a bit snottier than usual, but I think that may be because she’s been crying a lot more since her second tooth just broke through. Poor baby.

Today, Very-Sick Dave, Almost-Sick me, and Weepy-Bitey Cate headed off to our local district court to get Cate her first passport. Fun! As you might have expected, it was a fully dramatic trip involving two separate trips to the courthouse because in spite of all my planning, we were unprepared for everything we were going to need. Who knew they’d only take checks and not my debit card? So off to the bank we went, where I learned that they will, in fact, print off a sheet of three personal checks for you. Isn’t that nice? I had no idea that service existed. And it’s only a $1 fee per check, so that’s a lot better than a $5 money order. (It was either that or drive ten miles back to the boonies to get the checkbook which lives in my purse, not my diaper bag. And, dude. No way.)

I’m not sure when we’re going to the UK to visit Dave’s family, but I wanted to get all of our paperwork in line so that we can go whenever we want. I also had to get my passport updated, since it still had my maiden name on it, and also featured a pre-gastric bypass photo of me that I will be quite happy to never see again. Luckily mine can be done through the mail, no courthouse trips necessary.

But if Dave isn’t feeling better by tomorrow, I’m sending him to the doctor. The last thing I need is a husband in the hospital with pneumonia.