PEDI PULSES

Little things I discuss every day and which seem to be quite helpful.

• For a painful, red, broken-down-skin diaper rash, it is helpful to mix some antacid like Mylanta with a regular diaper cream to help calm down the rash. 

• Newborns all grunt, turn red, and strain while pooping. They have a hard time learning to push it out while relaxing the rectum, so often push against a tightly closed rectum. Every now and then, they really are constipated, but the best way to tell this is when they finally DO push out small, hard pellets instead of mushy poo. Also, of course there can be problems if a newborn rarely or never produces any poo poo. This can signal a major GI or other system problem.

• When you can hear your child breathing through partially obstructed nostrils, like in a cold, or can feel rattling in the chest, this doesn’t necessarily mean they are wheezing. It is difficult to tell if a child is wheezing without a stethoscope. Wheezing is a high pitched whistling sound often produced on expiration and coming from the smaller airways deep in the lungs. Often, what parents call wheezing is really mucus in the large bronchi, which is in general, ok. 

• Often, when kids pull at their ears or even complain of ear pain, it may signal a throat infection. The pain is transmitted near the inner ear.

• Strep throat very often shows up with headache and stomach ache. The primary reason we treat strep is to prevent secondary infection of the heart and / or kidneys. The bacteria can occasionally travel and infect these areas.

• Fever, in itself, is rarely dangerous unless your child has a major metabolic or neurologic disease. It is still desirable to treat it with anti-fever medicines but mainly because it makes the child feel much better. For a temp below 101, most kids feel ok and it isn’t necessary to treat it. In fact, the fever helps “burn up” the viruses or bacteria causing infection. Keep in mind, however, that fever can signal a major underlying infection / illness of course. ESPECIALLY if the fever is in a baby. This should always be checked out.

Gatlinburg and the Park

We had the wonderful privilege of spending this past weekend with the Taylor's in a cabin in Gatlinburg. It was a few days of food food and watching Ella and Marley play. Then we came home and took a walk to the park, where we took some pictures. Here are some highlights, in no particular order.

I fell down the stairs of the cabin at 5 am, while holding Marley. Thank you GOD she fell in my arms and did not get hurt at all. I, on the other hand, broke my toe. Small injury from big fall = good news. ps ignore my ugly toe nails

Ella does not enjoy merry-go-rounds.

the train was better. - that is her new cinderella dress, which she wore the ENTIRE time...with glass slippers of course.

thats how she rides and loves it

the sweetest thing I've ever known...and I'm sure in the world

my husband has a mullet right now. he grew his hair out just to cut one. he is weird and lives on doing things like this. So of course I had to do my part and take his sunset mullet picture.

flying

Keeping Up and Falling Back

I am constantly amazed at how other mothers get so much done.
I have a few blogs written by people I do not personally know that I always read because I always get great ideas from them. But...I am in shock at the amount of things these people do...
One of them has 4 children all under 8 and is constantly personally customizing and crafting away every little thing in the house. PLUS, the house is always neat and clean in all the pictures! WHAT?
I cannot finish the one little tiny chalkboard picture I started 2 weeks ago to put on my mantel. Everything is 1/4...or 1/16th done around here. Kevin and I have started a wonderful routine of putting both girls to bed at 8:00 every night (it used to be like 1030...how on earth did we survive? I'll never know.)...you would think since this change I would get more done. But no! I am always way too tired to get anything huge done. Sometimes I'll finish some laundry or dishes but between locking up, turning everything off, making bottles, placing monitors in their night-time places, getting on jammies, brushing teeth/bedtime routine, etc....I am ready for bed before I can get out a paint brush.

And need I even get to the task of keeping the house clean? When I wake up, Marley is already awake...who am I kidding..Ella AND Marley wake ME up every morning. So the routine starts...change them both...remind Ella 8,000 times that I don't understand the whining language, try to get Marley to lay and play with her floor toy (insert mommy guilt here for putting her right back down on her back to interact with a toy and not me in the morning), make Ella's breakfast, turn on Ella's movie, get Ella something else random she has decided she wants this morning, figure out why Marley is crying / screaming at me....wait, I need to eat something and would really like to make coffee........
2 hours later....oh crap my coffee is cold in the pot....what's for lunch? I'm starving and....I haven't cleaned anything yet. In fact, the pile of junk is now a bit higher and there is another pile's worth of cheese and crumbs on the kitchen floor and.....

So back to my frustration at other moms. WHEN do they sit and make those crafts with their kids? WHEN do they polish their floors with some kind of magic floor wax? and WHEN do they make all those wonderful custom unique things for their houses?

I feel like I'm just barely keeping up most days...and when I get even a little behind...like missing house chores last wed because I was sick...things seem to just spiral out of control until it seems impossible to regain order.
Why does any of this matter in the scheme of things?
All I can say is, it is how we feel in all those little moments of our lives that make up our happiness or discontent  and living in a cluttered, non-orderly environment makes me perpetually irritated.
What is a girl to do about this? I have yet to figure that one out.

My space before kids was always neat, clean, organized, and perfectly styled to my liking.

I think I'll trade spic-and-span for this, though.