WARNING: Carbon Monoxide

I had planned to post a happy retelling of Christmas in Ohio tonight, but a run in with a gas issue with our stove and then a computer that didn't want to connect to the Internet derailed my plans.

Around 7:00 p.m.the carbon monoxide monitor went off in Lainey's room. There's no gas source in there, so we assumed it was just an issue with the detector. Mark took it down and stuck the one from the guest room in her room. About 10 minutes later, it went off. And kept going off. Long story short, after a visit from the fire department and gas company, it was determined there's a blockage on our broiler, which I'd used to make dinner. We were never in real danger. Per the fire department team the carbon monoxide levels weren't high enough to make us sick. Our landlord is supposedly getting it fixed tomorrow (we'll see about that). He was actually a pretty big jerk about it and got mad that we called 311 to talk to the fire department. He said we should have called him first to let him investigate. Ummm...no. I'm not messing around with something like this. And unless he has a CO reader and expertise, I'm not trusting his opinion.

At the moment, it's 2:07 a.m. and I'm about an hour and 55 minutes into trying the extinction method to get Lainey sleeping at night again. This is not fun, but we're out of options. It's been over 5 weeks since she slept through the night. She had a three week bought with various illnesses that just completely destroyed her sleep routine. After getting used to us cuddling and rocking to comfort her during all the sickies, she didn't want to go back to the old ways. We had her to the point where she would sleep in her crib (as opposed to our bed) as long as Mark or I slept on the floor next to her. Not really a sustainable situation. So, with music playing in my ears and blogging on my phone, I'm desperately trying to distract myself from the shrill screams of "Mommy" coming from my sweet girl. Sorry, honey, this is for your own good, too.

Anyway, I promise to get around to posting Christmas pictures and details from our Ohio trip (which, glory of glory, did not involve a trip to urgent care for a sick Lainey). But, maybe not tomorrow...I think I'll be kind of tired...

Merry Christmas!

"Don we now our gay apparel"...or not.

Merry Christmas from Mark, Kylie, and Lainey

Consider this your Christmas card from the Brandi household. I sat down to begin the design and ordering process of holiday cards about two weeks ago at 9:00 p.m. (because when else would I do it). As I started sifting through designs and photos, I got crankier and crankier and thought, "why am I forcing myself to do this?" The spirit just wasn't there. So, I flipped over to Toys for Tots and donated the money I would have spent on the cards. Then I got a bowl of ice cream and watched 30 Rock, before stumbling off to bed.

I feel a little bit like a loser for not sucking it up and getting the cards ordered and out (especially when we received a beautifully designed card from our friends, the Mackies, who have a brand spankin' new baby boy and a 2 1/2-year-old to chase after). But, I just decided to be selfish on this one. Merry Christmas to me--the gift of time to just veg out. Maybe I'll do Valentine's Day cards...but, don't hold your breath.

Happy Holidays to all our friends and family! You are much loved and thought of every day!

The Fun Doesn't Stop

Well, now I've had my experience at Northwestern Prentice's triage. Because I was induced with Lainey, we went straight to the birthing room (and after hearing all those women last night, I'm leaning towards another induction).

I was having a different kinda' party last night battling a nasty case of the flu. I honestly had no idea how dangerous the flu is for the pregnant set and almost didn't call the doctor. Luckily, as I started feeling increasingly worse yesterday, I finally checked my "when to call" list. Hmmm...all my symptoms were on the list. So, they sent me in and I hit the hospital around 7:30pm. I sent Mark home with Lainey, because "this could take at least an hour or two." Famous last words...11 hours later I called Mark to say I was in a cab coming home.

I started quickly spiraling down at the hospital with fever climbing up. Even though I was shaking with the chills, the nurse stripped me of my coat, blanket, and even my socks to get my temp down and get the baby's heart rate to slow (must not have been too comfy in my tummy for the little one). About an hour later, the doctor came in a gave me some heated blankets--I could have kissed her! Total heaven. But, heaven was brief, because I started having contractions. In went an IV. After a few more tests (EKG and chest x-ray) I was finally left to rest at about 3am and discharged at 6:45am. My nurse and the on-call doctor were awesome. And by 1am, I was the only patient, so I got extra attention.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, poor Mark was battling Elaine through another rocky night of sleep (no need for further explanation. If you read this blog, you already know--our kid doesn't sleep) and looking up flu and pneumonia in pregnancy and freaking himself out. I think he ended up with less sleep than me.

So, our weekend is effectively shot, while I try to get back on my feet. Errands postponed, plans canceled (sorry, O'Grady's), and our place looks like we've been robbed, because we're just letting Elaine run wild.

Just another day in the life. I do think at this point we're owed an illness-free Christmas. Santa, are you listening?

What a week...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Before I get into this past week's events, let me start by saying we had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was awesome. We drove to Moline Tuesday afternoon, Elaine sleeping peacefully for the entire three hour drive. Fully recovered from her ear infection, she slept soundly through two nights and napped long both Wednesday and Thursday (as did I). The picture above shows our happy, healthy, and rested little family right before we headed to Mark's sister's house to enjoy our delicious Thanksgiving dinner (that I didn't lift a finger to prepare). It was the most relaxed and rested I have been since before Elaine was born. It was bliss.

And as I'm thanking Lonnie and Rebecca for their hard work on the meal and reveling in my state of rest, Mark comes into the kitchen with Lainey and says, "I think she feels warm."  She did feel warm. But, she'd been running around with her cousins and was cutting a molar. Surely, if she did have a mild fever it was just the tooth. Right?

Fast forward to 1:00 AM and an unhappy little girl with a temperature of 101.5 degrees that would continue to climb over the course of the day. Once again, we made a holiday trip to the urgent care center to get her checked out and see if maybe another ear infection has cropped up. The doctor looked at her ears first and said they looked fine. They took strep and flu cultures--both came back negative. I'm thinking, okay, so she has a virus. But, the doctor second-guessed himself and decided to diagnose antibiotics just in case it was her ears. Against my mother's instinct, we went ahead and filled the prescription and started her on the meds. By Sunday morning, when she still had a fever over 102 degrees, we decided to take her to her regular pediatrician who confirmed her ears were fine and she just had a virus. She had us stopped the antibiotics and said these things usually clear in 72 hours (which the fever did almost to the hour).

But, we still had a problem. Lainey couldn't go to daycare until she was fever free for 24 hours. Neither Mark nor I could possibly miss work on Monday. Now on my third day averaging about 4 hours of sleep, I had spent much of the morning crying and stressing over how to get in touch with an emergency nanny, knowing the service provided through our daycare didn't take calls until 9am Monday morning (and also knowing the last time we used this service, we were very unhappy with the woman they sent). Finally, through my sniffles, I asked Mark, "do you think your mom could come for a few days or is that stupid?"  It was not stupid. And, Lonnie, my wonderful mother-in-law got in her car that Sunday afternoon and drove the three hours to Chicago to be our savior. And acted as if we were doing her a favor. Knowing we had Lonnie around to care for Lainey allowed me to unclench a bit and enjoy the four hours of sleep she let me get that night. Lainey had a fun Monday playing with Grandma, and Mark and I went to work without feeling guilty about leaving our sick daughter with a stranger. Thanks again, Lonnie! It really meant the world to us!

So, with our little peewee feeling all better, you'd think she'd hop back on that sleep wagon. Alas, not so much. It has been a very, very long week. Maybe she's just trying to keep me primed for when the new little one arrives. We were all geared up to do a little "crying it out" again tonight (we have to do this after most of her ear infections to get her back on track), until...

...Lainey and I got home and couldn't get into our apartment because the lock was broken. I'm not going to get into the whole background on this situation, but when our landlord still didn't have the door open for us at 6:30pm, I sent a text to Mark at work and told him to take a cab home, because we needed to get Lainey somewhere for dinner. Mark finally arrived at 7:00pm (no cabs to be found downtown) and we rushed off to a nearby restaurant. By the time we had our food it was 7:30pm--Lainey usually eats at 6:00pm and goes to bed by 7:30pm, so I'll let you imagine her temperament at this point. But, I have to hand it to her, she behaved pretty well considering. I don't think I've ever seen her eat so fast in my life though--and my girl knows how to put down her food. She's sleeping peacefully now, and I'm hoping it lasts through the night. But, if not? I'm not letting her "cry it out." She can come sleep in the bed with Mommy and Daddy again tonight. She deserves some extra cuddles.

I'm hoping the weekend looks up from here (even though both Mark and I brought home bags full of work for the weekend, and we have a very long personal "to do" list to accomplish). But, it IS the holiday season, so I'm going to try to keep the bah-humbugs away and put the "want to dos" ahead of my "have to dos." Looks like that laundry may not get folded again this week...

Dude Looks Like a Lady

For some unknown reason, Lainey has started calling Mark "mommy." I'm still "mommy," and if you ask her "where's daddy?," she looks for Mark. So, she knows the difference. But, no matter how many times we correct her, and much to Mark's chagrin, she continues to greet him with an enthusiastic "MOMMY!". We'll see how long this lasts...

Here's a picture of our girl and her mommy getting in some story time...

The Week in Review...

It's been a LOOOONG one...

SATURDAY/SUNDAY:  Our week of fun kicked off last Saturday night, when Mark got hit with the stomach flu around 9:30pm. After getting him settled in bed (and cleaning the bathroom), I headed off to the guest bedroom for the night. I was taking no chances on catching another round of that nastiness. (Mark did offer to sleep in the guest room, but I insisted. I knew from just going through this that he wasn't actually going to be doing much sleeping and deserved to have the t.v.)

I tried to keep Lainey out of the house much of Sunday morning, so he could get some rest. We had a pretty good time running some easy errands and playing in the park. Her cold seemed to be a little more pronounced than the day before, but she was in good spirits and active as usual. VERY active, so I was pretty wiped by the end of the day and looking forward to a nice, solid night of sleep...

MONDAY/TUESDAY:  Tired...so, so tired. Elaine woke for the first time at 9:30pm. Then a little after 10pm. By midnight I knew what I was trying to deny...Elaine was battling her umpteenth ear infection (damn cold). I managed to dose her ibuprofen in the near dark, while rocking her in one arm to keep her calm so she didn't wake her sick father. I got a good three hours of sleep out of her, before we were back up again at 3am...and that was the last I saw of my bed.

Mark stayed home Monday to finish his recovery. I started Elaine on her ear drops (we should buy stock in the pharm company that makes Ciprodex) and took her off to daycare. Although not 100% and short on sleep, she was happy and talkative and no worse for the wear  She almost made it through the day before spiking a fever at 4pm. Mark picked her up, and I managed to snag an 8pm appointment at the pediatrician. At this point, we actually don't have to take her in when she gets and infection, we just start the drops, but because of the fever, we were going to need a note for daycare.

Mark stayed home Tuesday morning with her and I took the afternoon shift, because neither one of use could afford to miss a full day. We probably could have gone ahead and sent her into daycare though. You would have no idea anything was wrong with her. She was very full of energy. So full of energy that evidently she didn't need much sleep, because...

WEDNESDAY: Lainey is up and ready to rock at 4am. After trying to calm her back to sleep with no success, Mark rose at around 4:45am and let me go back to bed, since I hadn't had a full night's sleep since Friday. Not that any additional sleeping was had, because Elaine is so talkative and has no volume control, but the gesture was appreciated.

So, you can imagine both of us we're ready for a good night's sleep Wednesday night. And we were getting it. Until we are roused at 2am by our landlord's shouts outside. Mark stumbles out of bed to go to the bathroom and I'm cursing our landlord in my head for being so inconsiderate, until Mark comes running back in and says "Kylie, get up. The garage is on fire." Turns out it was the garage across the alley from ours, but the flames were pretty massive...enough for three fire trucks. We were only up for about 20 minutes before it was clear that we were safe and there was no need to evacuate. But, we couldn't exactly just go back to sleep, because the firefighters were using our backyard to access the alley and fighting a fire isn't a quiet activity.

Elaine slept through it all. Of course she did. The first night she didn't wake at least once since the past Friday.

THURSDAY: But, she did wake promptly at 5am! What is going on?!!! Is she experiencing a daylight savings throwback this week? I let Mark stay in bed this time and attempted to keep Lainey quiet, so he might actually sleep. Now, we generally don't let her watch t.v., but I thought it might keep her peaceful. Wrong. She was giving commentary of everything on the screen..."BALL! BALL! BALL!...BEAR! Hi, bear! Hi, Bear! Bye-bye bear!...Lion! Rrrroar!" And so on and so forth. It was adorable, but could have been so much more so at 6:30am.

FRIDAY:  So, here we are...FRIDAY! Another early morning, another failed attempt at trying to get her back to sleep. But, we made it. Lainey's snug in bed, Mark and I are lounging on the couch, and relaxation is being had. We did have dinner reservations (cancelled because of Lainey's ear infection), but tonight I'm very happy with pizza and pajamas.

I am sooooo looking forward to next week...

Ten Fingers, Ten Toes

We got to take a peek at our little one today! Everything is absolutely perfect! And this tiny darling was much more cooperative than Lainey at his/her first major photo shoot. The technician practically had me doing handstands trying to get Elaine in the right position for all the vital shots, but this baby only required a few rolls from side to side to get everything we needed.

We stuck to our decision not to find out girl or boy and didn't see any give aways on the screen. Now only 19 weeks to go until due date time!!!

Sweet, little profile

Two, tiny feet