Bronchitis!

Well, I guess we are lucky that we made it 18.5 months before Ashley got sick enough to need antibiotics.  Her fever from the weekend seemed to finally be gone Monday after she took a 3 hour nap, however, Tuesday she woke up with a cough and a low-grade fever.  Today, she woke up and was coughing for about 30 minutes, so I decided to take her in.

She was so out of it that she didn't move for the exam.  I knew something was wrong when they took her temperature and she didn't care (usually she'll cry) and then Dr. Kalenowski checked her ears and she didn't even move!  Last week she screamed and squirmed when he looked at her 18 month exam.  Her ears were clear (she was pulling on them last night) but he could hear congestion in her lungs.  I said I could feel it when I was holding her.

He sent us on our way with an antibiotic of Amoxicillin.  Luckily, it's berry flavored like her ibuprofen.  So even though she'll fight me on it, she'll usually take it once she realizes it's not horrible tasting.  He was nice enough to give us more than we need since she's so good as spitting it out.

I think she's enjoying the sick treatment as I'm letting her eat while watching TV and she's having noodles (from soup) and a juice box (she seems to love straight juice)!

Flying Home from Maryland

Well, our flight home was less than fun.  Ashley was tired and still sick so she was pretty crabby in the terminal.  I'm sure everyone was less than thrilled to get on  a plane with us.  However, once we got on the plane, she was pretty happy.  She sat and watched her youtube videos and Winnie the Pooh and when she got crabby about 90 minutes into the 2 hr flight, she fell asleep.

Unfortunately, right before she fell asleep, the pilot announced that they had to hold back since there was a lot of traffic at O'Hare airport due to the stormy weather.  When we finally we descending, something woke up Ashley (a man coughed and that seemed to have been it), so she woke up to what I imagine was ear pain from the pressure changing.  So again, she screamed during the descent.  This time, it lasted longer as it took forever to land.  Luckily, I had a good grip on her as she thrashed around.  When we finally landed she took her milk and calmed down a bit.  Then we got more bad news, there was lighting and we had to stay on the plane until the weather was clear.  Fortunately, they allowed us to walk around, so I paced the aisle with Ashley and she remained calm.  As we finally arrived at the gate 3.5 hours after take off, we let everyone else get off first.  Many people made nice or funny comments about Ashley's screaming.  I'm sure they were all just happy she was good for most of the flight since she was so loud beforehand.

When we finally got off the plane, our stroller was missing!  My first thought was that someone stole it!  But then they said they just didn't bring it up yet.  It was one stroller for the whole flight and we had been sitting there for at least 15 minutes already.  We waited 10-15 more minutes and after 2 calls for the stroller, it finally arrived.  We ran out as the next flight couldn't board until we were out of there!

It was a crazy day and we decided we will not be flying again with Ashley any time soon.  18 months may possibly be the worst age to fly with!!  At least she got to spend some time with her grandparents, great-grandma and more!

Saturday Night Fever, well, actually, Friday night

I wasn't feeling well myself, so I took some Nyquil and headed to bed and told Pete he was on Ashley duty since I would be out of it.  I thought it would only be waking up from moving around and being in a new place, but poor Ashley woke up with a fever!  Pete tried to wake me, but I was so out of it from the Nyquil, he got his mom to help.  Ashley's temp was 102.8 under the arm, which means you add a degree, so it was 103.8!  You could feel the heat radiating off her body just being close to her!

After a dose of tylenol she slept a little and woke up crying around 3:30am.  This time she woke me.  I couldn't believe how hot she was.  After throwing up on Grammy from crying so much, she seemed to calm down.  We gave her a dose of Ibuprofen and everyone went to bed while I tried to get her to sleep.  She slept another hour from 4:30-5:30 and then she was inconsolable, but fortunately her fever seems to drastically drop.  I took her down to watch TV.  Luckily, Sesame Street was on some sort of morning marathon.  She finally fell asleep in my arms around 7:30am.

She slept for a few hours and then woke up and watch TV with poppy and barely moved a muscle.  She spent most of Saturday sleeping and relaxing and even had a burst of energy and was playing in the afternoon.

Unfortunately, Saturday night she was starting to show signs of dehydration (not wetting diapers, not crying tears).  I said if it didn't change quickly, we would have to take her to the ER.  We decided to inject pedialyte in her mouth since she refused all fluids.  She was mad, but after 5-6 syringesful, she seemed to be acting better - she cried a tear and even grabbed for her sippy cup.

After eating some apples, mac and cheese puffs (her favorite) and drinking from random cups (I had a buffet of cups  and snacks for her on the counter) she seemed much better.  She went to bed and had a good night's sleep.

She woke up Sunday acting like herself.  She still appeared to have a low-grade temperature, but that could have been due to teething as her molars are coming in.

It wasn't fun to have Ashley get sick on the trip, but it was definitely nice to have extra helping hands!

Spring time in Maryland!

Well, we didn't expect to be traveling to Maryland for warm weather, but it was a nice bonus!  When we arrived on Thursday we walked out of the airport and didn't need coats!  It was close to 70 degrees on Thursday and even warmer on Friday.  It was nice to get some fresh air and let Ashley run around in the yard.  She even took a nap in her stroller while on a walk with her grandparents.

First Time on an Airplane!

Ashley did pretty good on her first flight.  She was happy and ran around in the terminal to get her energy out.  Once on the plane, she sat in her seat and was pretty relaxed.  We kept her entertained with her favorite youtube videos and new toys.  The flight was fast and arrived early.  Unfortunately, Ashley wouldn't take a drink on the descent, so she started screaming.  At least that was only the last 5 minutes or so of the flight.

All in All, not too bad.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ashley and I made valentines this year...but then later we were at Target and she yelled "Olivia" and started freaking out.  I turned to see what she was yelling about and there were shelves of valentines and she saw the box with Olivia the pig on them (one of her favorite shows).  So, we had to get them - and what do you do with 24 valentines?  Mail them to family and her few friends :)

Happy Valentine's Day!!

More Teeth!

As Ashley had her moth open today, I noticed that her 1st set of molars are in!  She's had 8 teeth come through in the last 4-6 weeks.  And those molars were barely poking through the other day.  Her cuspids are barely showing yet - so it looks like she's missing teeth :)  No wonder she was having problems sleeping!

Primary Teeth Eruption Chart