Mommy Dearest

Now Jacob is no respecter of persons.  He doesn't care if you're Courtney, a 20-month-old toddler who has a propensity towards screaming at high pitches and doing a hard-core head banging dances to whatever music is on the radio (provided she doesn't jump on him).  He doesn't care if you're some stranger dropping by to say hello.  And he even wouldn't care if you were some big shot like the Pope or the Queen of England.  He treats everyone the same.  He quietly endures us all provided we don't do anything to hurt him or annoy him.

At least I thought this was the case with Jacob until this evening.  For the first time ever, Jacob showed a preference towards someone.  The boy doesn't even really smile yet - on purpose anyway.  He just goes about his business happy to be held by whomever chooses to pick him up and love on him for a few minutes or hours.  It's all good to him.

This evening after his evening round of medications and the standard gag/puke/gasping fit, Jacob was laying in KC's arms and I came over to check on him while he was in his fathers very-capable hands.  As I began speaking to KC, Jacob turned his head, looked at me, and proceeded to push off KC's arms and twist his body towards me almost twisting out of KC's hands.  For a little boy who doesn't even have the muscle strength to hold his own head up yet, Jacob seemed awfully determined to be in the arms of his mother.

Of course I was MORE than happy to comply with his wishes and we proceeded to have several minutes of mother-son bonding.  How could I not?  His wish is my command and that darned little boy has me wrapped tighter and tighter around his little finger each day he's alive! Ah yes! It's good to be mom!

Recharging my Batteries - Nap times

I won't lie.  Today was almost completely unproductive.  All those late nights have finally gotten to me and so I got almost nothing done. 

KC and Courtney sleeping April 2009

Once the kids were taken to school, I had one hour to tidy up the house before the dietitian came over to check on Jacob's progress and to see if any changes needed to be made to his diet.  She got to experience first hand his gagging fits and seemed quite disturbed by the whole incident while I sat there with a towel under his chin just trying to catch all the saliva and bile he was throwing up.  She mentioned that she would see if she could put in a good word for us to get the liquid Prevacid rather than the tablet form or see if we can be put onto some other form of medication.  It would be nice, but I'm not holding my breath. 

About an hour after she left, Courtney was kind enough to decide she wanted to take a nap and she went down without incident. Plus, bless her heart, she slept for 3 hours!!!!! I'm lucky if this little girl will stay in her bed for 30 - 45 minutes on most days.  30 minutes after Courtney fell asleep so did Jacob while I was rocking and burping him.  He'd been fitful all day, so I just let him stay on me and the entire house got a 3 hour nap.  It was blissful.  We were awaken by Elisha coming home from school at 3PM and the normal everyday after-school life began.  But it was nice to accomplish nothing but get a nap in today.  It was a great battery re-charger.  I'm hoping that it will have recharged my batteries long enough to get through this weekend. Yay!

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Bang! Bang! You've Been Shot! - RSV shots and immunizations

Why is it that everything seems to take four times longer than it used to 2 years ago? 

2 Years ago, I was working out 3 1/2 hours a day, lost 75 lbs, my business was on tap to break six figures in sales and I could fill most of the orders in 3-4 hours a day, I was in the Young Women's Presidency, carting  Nathan and Elisha to all of their various activities, and a full-time mom.  Now, 2 years (and 2 more children) later, there are days when I'm lucky to get changed out of my PJ's before KC comes home from work in the evening.

Today was one of those days - and I had KC home helping me out!  It was shot day for Courtney and Jacob.  Courtney came first.  Because of Jacob's birth in October, we missed Courtney's 18 month visit (and shots) with the pediatrician.  When things finally calmed down, it became very apparent that I couldn't put off immunizations forever and a date was set.  When we pulled into the doctor's parking lot this afternoon, Courtney assumed it was another "Jacob visit".  When I told her that this visit was just for her - today was "Courtney Day" she squealed with delight!!!  I didn't have the heart to tell her she'd hate me by the end of the visit. 

When we unstrapped her from her car seat, she quickly ran to the front of the office building where they have large buttons for persons with disabilities to push in order to have the front doors automatically open.  Pushing the buttons and watching the doors open is one of Courtney's favorite things to do at the doctor's office.  So, she immediately ran to the doors, pushed the button, ran through the first set of doors, pushed the second button and ran through the second set of doors.  Then, she ran to the other end of the lobby where the other children were playing and cozied up to one of the kids like they had been friends for decades.  It was the cutest thing!  We let her play in blissful ignorance until the nurse called her name and Courtney proudly ran to the nurse to present herself to be whisked off to her room.

Once there, she new the procedure.  We undressed her and took her to the scale to be weighed (nearly 30 lbs), she laid down to be measured (35 1/2 inches), and then we brought her back to her room to wait for the doctor.  As we were waiting, I made the mistake of telling Courtney that Daddy and I had had our shots yesterday and I showed her the hard, red bump on my upper arm from the flu shot.  One look at my arm and you could immediately tell from Courtney's face that she knew EXACTLY why she was there.  Her face changed to shock and horror, she grabbed her thighs (where past needles have been inserted for other immunizations) and ran screaming to the other side of the room.  It was all down hill from there and she didn't even attempt to be sweet for the rest of the visit. 

She took the 4 shots to her thighs like a trooper and screamed for only a few seconds, which was quickly stopped by letting her know of the Allred family tradition:  She who gets shots also gets ice cream!!! 

She quickly got dressed after that revelation, we stopped off at another office for Jacob's first Synergis (RSV) shot - 1 shot in each thigh (ouch), once a month for up to 5 months - picked up Nathan from school, then stopped at the local Dairy Queen for Courtney's much anticipated ice cream - Chocolate extreme blizzard!! 

Once she had some ice cream in her belly, those nasty ol' shots were a long lost memory and she was onto bigger and better things like, say, playing in the melting snow!!! :)  By the time we'd made our 3 stops, it was already nearly 5PM and our day had slipped away.  Hmmmm.  I guess I'll try to be productive again tomorrow.

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