TIDWTF - March 31, 2011

Things I Don't Want To Forget

(it has been far too long since I have done one of these)

-In the past few weeks Rachel has gotten 2 new teeth in. This brings our new total up to 9 teeth! (5 on the bottom and 4 on top)

-Rach continues to be an awesome, non-picky eater! She has yet to meet a vegetable that she doesn't like; the latest one we gave her was asparagus last weekend and she did great. She absolutely LOVES all of the homemade soups that Grandma has made.

-When Rach is eating something she really likes (yogurt, soup, cookies...) she makes the most adorable "Mmmm" sound. Cracks me up!

-Rachel's vocabulary keeps growing each and every day. The list of words that she knows and can identify is super long. You can ask her to bring you any number of things, toys, books, etc and she will bring you the right one. Rach is also adding a bunch of new words that she can say too. More often now she tries to repeat words after we say them.

-Rach still is not a full-time walker yet but she has been practicing and is getting much better. She had been taking one or two steps here and there for a couple months now but in the recent weeks the amount of steps and walking distances have noticably increased. The first one that I can remember was on Monday March 7. I had just gotten home from work and was in our living room with Rach, Grandma, and Grandpa. Rach was standing at our coffee table and wanted to get to something near the front door. And just like that, off she went. She must have taken at least 6 good steps all by herself. We were so proud and I was so glad I was there to see! Since then she has continued practicing and working on her confidence at home for me & Matt, at Grandma and Grandpa's, and at daycare.

-After all of the February/beginning of March sickness drama we enjoyed 3 glorious weeks illness free! Unfortunately this Sunday Rach woke up at midnight with a fever and has had a cold/virus this week. She had the fever most of the day Sunday and then it returned while she was at daycare Tuesday. She has a stuffy, runny nose and a yucky cough. She hasn't been sleeping too good at night but has at least been napping during the days (too bad Mommy can't nap during the days too! :) Luckily she does not have another ear infection and does not need antibiotics again, yay!

-Rach is seriously the happiest little sick kid I have ever seen! She does have her moments, like when she is tired, she is tired, and she does want to hug and cuddle a bit more than usual, but overall she is still amazing! And the energy levels...my goodness! Especially after a really good nap, wow, she is just go, go, go! It is so great to see her happy and playing even when she is sick. It does however make it interesting when she is playing hardcore and then sneezes and you have to basically chase her down to wipe her nose!

-Rachel is still such an affectionate little girl and I love it! I think it's safe to say that at least once a day either me or Matt or both are given a hug and/or kiss from her, just because. While she is sick this week we have had to do a lot of nose wiping and Rach honestly does not like it one bit. She cries and fusses and tries to squirm away from you. BUT most of the time after I am done wiping her nose she gives me a kiss without me even asking for it! In my head she is saying, "I hate having you wipe my nose Mom, but I still love you." She also loves to give hugs to her favorite toys: Puppy, Mickey, and Timmy. It is so cute to watch her pull them super close and give them a big hug! She always does it with a sweet smile and sometimes even a little giggle. Also, if I am holding Rach and Matt and I kiss, Rach then leans in and tries to join in the kiss too! She is such a little lover!

-Timmy, oh Timmy. Last Friday Rachel and Matt went to Target together and Daddy bought Rach her very own stuffed Timmy. It is little, but so is Rach. If you are reading this wondering, "who in the heck is Timmy??", well then, woah you are missing out. Timmy Time is a show on the Disney Channel that Rach likes almost as much as Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. (I swear my child does not sit around and watch tv all day!) It is all animals and there is no talking, just the animal noises. Rach gets such a kick out of it!

-Even with the addition of Timmy, it is safe to say that Puppy is still #1 with Rach. Puppy is her BFF. Timmy has quickly taken the spot as a really solid #2 with her, but alas, it appears that no one can dethrone Puppy from #1 BFF status. (Awhile ago when we first realized how attached to Puppy Rach was we went out and got a second puppy, just in case. Well during the sickness ordeal during February I actually got 2 more puppies, again just in case. It also makes life easier for me when Rach is sick. I change her sheets, jammies, blankets, etc practically every day when she is sick and it seemed silly that she would keep the same germ covered Puppy day after day. This way I can easily have time to wash them and she still always has a clean one. We just have our own little litter of Puppies now!)

Sometimes We Are Silly

As I had mentioned before we all took turns with the stomach virus that Rach had. Matt was the last to get it. He started feeling sick on a Saturday night and stayed home from work on Sunday. While he was trying to rest on the living room couch I was trying to entertain Rach upstairs for most of the day. For the most part Rach is pretty good at being able to entertain herself (I hope this shows that she will be creative and have a good imagination) and she loves hanging out with her Mommy.

Rach was playing very contently on our bedroom floor with her big blocks and I was able to get some laundry put away and do some organizing/cleaning in our room. We still had Rach's little infant bath tub stored in our room. It was standing up against the back wall and Rach went over to it and pulled it down. She then began pushing it around upstairs. She would push it from our room, through the hall, and into her room, and then back. She did this quite a few times. Then she began putting toys, puppy, and a few various other items in the tub and pushing them around. Silly girl, but she was having a good time and I was able to still keep an eye on her and be productive at the same time. Win win.

When she got tired/bored of pushing the tub around upstairs she stopped with it in the middle of our bedroom floor, right next to her blocks container. Rach then took her toys and puppy out of the tub and began putting a few blocks into the tub. Next, our silly girl climbed into the tub and began to play and build with her blocks in it! This cracked me up! She was so cute and so content! I swear this kept her busy for a good chunk of time.

I love watching her play with her blocks too. She really understands how to work them to get them to connect and build. It's amazing to see how much she has grown already in such a short period of time. She just got the blocks for Christmas and she started off just wanting to knock down everything that Matt and I would build for her. Now, in less than 3 months, she actually wants to build her own things (yes, she does still need some help sometimes pushing the blocks together totally, but not all the time). I know I sound like a broken record, but I think my daughter is AMAZING!!! She is the best!!!

(Sorry the pictures are not the best. They are from my cell phone and I don't think I had quite enough light when taking them.)

Catching Up On Pictures

After all the sickness and drama we had been dealing with I got behind at posting pictures of our beautiful girl. Here are some from the middle of March 2011, mostly during the conference basketball tournaments and before March Madness. Rachel showed equal support for both the Spartans and the Irish. Daddy even worked on teaching her to say "Irish" and it is so cute!

Rach in her ND jersey with her basketball. Such a pretty face!

Wearing Mommy's State hat.

Drinking her milk wearing Mommy's State Alumni hat.

Hanging out with Mommy on the weekend. The most beautiful baby ever!!

Part 2 of our sickness saga

Alright, picking up where we left off (if you haven't read Part 1 of our sickness saga scroll down to the previous post & start there). So it is Saturday morning 3/5 (Rach's 14 month bday!) and we've given her the 2nd dose of the new antibiotic. It's been a couple hours since Rach drank the small bottle and she is acting hungry again, hooray!


I go to change her diaper before feeding her again and find an icky diarrhea diaper (I think I forgot to mention that Rach had been having some diarrhea Thursday and Friday while she was refusing to drink so not only were we worried that her ears were still infected but we were also worried about her getting dehydrated.) I was initially figuring this was still just related to that and a side effect of being on antibiotics. It turns out that this was not the case, instead Rach was having a horrific reaction to the 2nd/new antibiotic!


Saturday morning was filled with diarrhea and vomiting! Rach vomited up the second dose of the antibiotic. We gave her tummy some time & she was definitely hungry so we gave her some milk. She vomited. We tried water. She vomited. We tried Pedialyte. She vomited. We tried Cheerios. She vomited. We could not get her to keep anything down. It was heartbreaking to watch! Poor Rachel who had spent the last 2 days practically not eating was now definitely hungry and wanting to eat and now we can't get her to keep anything down. The diarrhea was also continuing this entire time and definitely seemed grosser than before.


Luckily our pediatrician has Saturday hours and we were able to get her back in. We saw a different dr than Friday, one that we liked better. She told us to stop the 2nd/new antibiotic and this time gave Rach the antibiotic shot to hopefully take care of her ears. She had us schedule a follow up appointment for first thing Monday morning to see if the shot had worked or if Rach would need a second shot. She did show some concern about the vomiting and diarrhea and asked that we bring in a stool sample to Monday's appointment just to check it.


Saturday afternoon after Rach had taken a good long nap she looked a little better and was hungry again. It had been many hours since the evil antibiotic and a few since she had last thrown up. Here is our sweet Little Bear happily devouring her bottle late Saturday afternoon:

Unfortunately about 90 seconds after I took this picture she vomited, again. Seriously, my poor baby! Matt was at work, but luckily for me Grandma and Grandpa are saints and were on their way over to help. My hope was that they could entertain Rach (or vice versa) and I could tend to the enormous pile of laundry covered in vomit. Oh yeah, Rach must have gone through about 6 pairs of pajamas that day, not to mention the towels and burp cloths we grabbed in a pinch to clean up, one of her puppies, and multiple outfits of Mommy's. Fun times.

Grandma and Grandpa got there just as I was finishing cleaning up and changing Rach's jammies again. And Rach, well poor Rach just looked sick and beat. She was tired and clingy/cuddly. We spent the rest of the night Saturday working on gradually introducing fluids (Pedialyte) back into Rach's system in tiny amounts at 10-15 minute intervals. What an ordeal! Luckily she kept the Pedialyte down this time and by the time I put her to bed it had been multiple hours of her being hydrated and not having vomited.

Sunday 3/6 we spent a quiet day at home and I worked on gradually getting Rach to drink her milk again. She definitely had an appetite and did fine with her milk. She was also able to eat some small meals like yogurt and Cheerios. She napped well, played, and was a bit more animated. The only remaining issue was that the icky diarrhea continued all day in practically every diaper. But all in all it was a good day and I was hopeful that Monday's ear recheck would go well.

Monday 3/7 Rach woke up after a better night's sleep and looked pretty good. She was still acting a bit tired and clingy/cuddly. She was in good spirits despite still having the icky diarrhea. We get to the doctor's and get some good news: Rach does not have a fever and she has gained 2 ounces since Saturday! (I think I forgot to mention that in the course of a week with the not eating, not drinking, vomiting, & diarrhea Rach had lost a little over a pound. This might not seem like a lot but when you are talking about a 14 month old that is only 23 pounds to begin with this is a lot! As a frame of reference, it took Rach a whole month to go up from 22 to 23 pounds but only a week being sick to lose more than that.) So you can imagine that the good news was music to my ears!

Next, the doctor checks Rach's ears. More good news: the infection is much better in both ears and there is just some lingering clear fluid that we just need to wait for nature to take its course and clear up, nothing that is enough that it should bother her much. No second shot is needed! Hooray!!!

The doctor asked about Rach's eating, drinking, sleeping, and diapers. I let her know that we are making progress in 3 out of the 4 areas except that we are still dealing with the icky diarrhea. I had brought in a stool sample per the doctor's request on Saturday. The doctor was concerned about the icky diapers and wanted to run a quick test on the stool to make sure that there was no blood in it. Just upon looking at it she stated that it didn't look too bad and she didn't anticipate any issues. However, after running the test we found out that it came back as testing positive for having blood in it. One step forward, two steps back, this has been how our month has gone. The doctor informs me that they need to now send the sample out for further testing and that we will not get the results back until Tuesday or Wednesday. I am told that the blood is due to one of two causes: either 1)a fluke, her bum is so irritated from the lingering rash and diarrhea that there is a bit of bleeding, or 2)she has a stomach infection now that could have been caused from the antibiotics and will need to be treated. Great!

The doctor stays pretty calm and doesn't give me too much info other than that they will let me know when they have the results and we will go from there. I drop Rach off at home and head to work after explaining everything to Matt. Luckily it is Monday so that means Rach will be with Matt in the morning and then Grandma and Grandpa the rest of the day.

Of course I am a little concerned that we are still not out of the woods and decide that its best for me to be as educated about what we might be dealing with as possible. Bad idea! If I have learned anything from this last month it needs to be this: Dr. Google is NOT your friend!! Stay away from the internet!!

After a quick search I learn just how super serious this stomach infection is. In an irony of ironies it is caused by antibiotics but is antibiotic resistant. There are only 2 or 3 meds that are used to treat it, expensive meds at that. Even with the meds there is no guarantee of it being cured. It could be cured but take months (like 9 - 10 months) to do so with multiple treatments and the person is considered contagious, ie cannot go to daycare, for the entire time. Oh yeah, its highly contagious, even to your pets. Even if it is "cured" the person is still highly at risk for it to come back in the future, especially if they are ever on antibiotics again. Or it could and has been fatal. Oh yeah, people have died from complications of it. Seriously?!? I'm sure you can imagine what this little Google search did to me. It made me ILL. (My hands are actually shaking a bit now just having to type about it and think about it again.)

Of course my mommy mind goes to the worst places and I begin to freak out. I am devastated that my angel could have this. I am terrified that we could have to go through this and she could/will suffer. I am heartbroken at the thought of heaven forbid losing her. I do not want to exist in a world that does not have Rachel. End. of. story.

I'm not going to lie, Monday I was a shit employee. I know that really sucks coming from an HR person but I was a mess. My head was so cluttered. My heart was so broken. My stomach was so upset. I cried at my desk. I tried to pull it together when Matt called and asked about what I had read, but no such luck, I crumbled again. Luckily for me, Matt and my amazing parents were strong and had words of wisdom. By the time I got home Monday night I had gathered myself and knew that no matter what I had to keep it together and be strong for Rachel.

I don't know if I can accurately put into words what Monday and Tuesday were like, as a parent, waiting for potentially devastating news. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. It was a hell of a time trying to concentrate at work.

Finally, Tuesday afternoon around 2 PM the doctor's office called. The moment of truth was here. The test came back NEGATIVE!!! Rach didn't have the stomach infection! Thank you God!!!

I did ask about the likelihood of a false negative and was told that they would do a recheck stool sample next month at Rach's 15 month appointment (so keep your fingers crossed). The doctor mentioned that the diarrhea could still be a lingering effect of all the antibiotics Rach was on or it could be a simple stomach virus, a flu bug. Little did I know we would shortly learn the answer.

The next day, Wednesday 3/9, I started to not feel so good while at work. I took a half day and came home and proceeded to feel like crap! I stayed home from work Thursday too since I was still sick. Over the course of the next 4 days (Thursday through Sunday) myself, Matt, Grandma, and Grandpa all dealt with the stomach virus. I have never in my life been so happy to have the flu!! We finally had our answer. Poor little Rach just had gotten hammered in that on top of still fighting off her ear infections she had also caught the stomach flu.

Thankfully during the days that I was home sick Rach started feeling much better. She was eating, drinking, and playing normally. She was back to being a happy ball of energy and babbling up a storm. Here is a pic from Wednesday of her shooting some hoops with her Daddy. She is really good now and so funny to watch! She cheers and claps each time she makes a basket and looks to make sure we are clapping, but she doesn't clap when she doesn't make it.

I am happy to report that the last week has been pretty much uneventful! Rach is still doing great! I am so looking forward to having our second healthy weekend in a row with her. Thank you God for once again answering our prayers and for taking care of our sweet girl. Rachel Bear, Mommy loves you more than you will ever know and it hurts my heart to see you sick, sad, and unhappy.

SO much to catch up on!!

It's been 12 days since I last posted and that's because I just couldn't. Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse, crazier, sicker, etc they did. I have SO much to make sure I write so that we don't forget and I'm pretty sure that this will have to be more than 1 post but I at least need to get started now.

The last time I posted was Wednesday 3/2 and Rach was starting to do much better. She was getting her energy back and really seemed like her old self. Wednesday night was also night #10, the last night of her antibiotics for her pink eye and double ear infection.

Thursday 3/3 seemed like it would also be a step in the right direction. Rach looked good and had a good deal of energy. Here's a couple pics of her playing with her bff Charlie.

Her appetite was a little less starting on Thursday, not wanting to drink all of her bottles and not really interested in food, but she was still her happy self. Matt and I had teeth cleaning appointments Thursday afternoon so Grandma and Grandpa came to hang out with Rach for a bit and noticed the same thing: still happy and playful but not really into eating or drinking. At this point we were hoping this was just that she was having a picky toddler day and it was no big deal. She continued the same way throughout the rest of the day/night.

Thursday night she had a rough night sleeping (also had Wednesday night) and seemed less like herself Friday morning when I saw her before work. I was hoping this was just due to being tired. However Friday 3/4 mid-morning I received this text pic from Matt:

Rach was super cuddly, very tired, and was now refusing to eat or drink. Oh, and she also had a fever. Starting to put two and two together from the last 48 hours I start thinking, "here we go again," her ears must still be infected and bothering her. (Case in point, this is only Rach's 2nd ear infection, but her 1st one last year, was a doozy, taking 4 weeks, 2 liquid antibiotics, & 2 antibiotic shots to clear up).

We were able to get a late Friday afternoon appointment at the pediatrician's. (The beauty of the office having 8 pediatricians is that its easier to get appointments, the downside is that for last minute sick appointments you don't always get a choice of who you get to see. Out of the 8 drs we have seen 6 and out of the 6 we like 5 of them. Unfortunately Friday's appointment was with the 1 dr that Matt & I do not care for.) Rach was checked from head to toe and it was confirmed that yes, both of her ears were still infected, boo. We also found out that Rach now had a yeast infection from the first antibiotic (gotta love that even at 14 months old the poor thing has to deal with a downfall of being a woman).

We mentioned to the dr about the last time Rach had the ear infection and asked about the shot but the dr said that the shot is a pretty strong antibiotic and they only use it as a last resort. She instead prescribed Rach a different liquid antibiotic for the next 10 days. This 2nd antibiotic was new one that Rach had never taken before. Rach also got a cream for her yeast infection. Below are a few pics are our little trooper while we waited for the pharmacy to fill the prescriptions. (Another nice thing however is that the pediatrician's office has an in-office pharmacy so you don't have to take your Rx, drive to CVS, wait, and drive home.)

The new antibiotic had to be taken 2x a day instead of one so Rach got her first dose Friday night when we got home. Wow, was that a struggle! Rach is usually great about taking medicine but man did she fight us on this one! We were able to get a very small amount of milk into her Friday night and she actually slept pretty good other than waking up super early Saturday morning at about 4 AM. She was crying and we figured she was probably hungry since it had been about 2 days of hardly eating anyting. I gave her a small bottle which she chugged and we were so happy our little girl wanted to drink again!

Unfortunately we couldn't get her to go back to sleep. We tried letting her cuddle in bed with us but by 5:30 AM we gave up and decided to start our Saturday. We gave Rach her 2nd dose of the new antibiotic and it was a super struggle again! This is where things started to go downhill & fast.

To be continued.......

TGI...M ???

Yes, TGIM, Thank God It's March!!! February was not a kind month to the Phillips family. We dealt with Rach's rash for weeks, her pink eye and double ear infections, my sinus issues, Matt being out of town for a week, multiple doctor visits, and then just to end the month on a high note my sinus issues got worse and both Grandma and I caught Rach's pink eye! Oy vey!

We did manage to have some fun over the weekend though. Matt and Rachel spent a nice Friday together and then we all got to spend some family time together Friday night. Saturday morning we all got up, got packed, and ready to go. Matt had plans with Uncle Chris out in Grand Rapids all day and would be spending the night there so Rachel, Charlie, and I packed up and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's. We spent Saturday doing some shopping and had lunch at Panera. I've got to say, Rachel may look like Daddy but she is a lot like Mommy on the inside, the girl is a great shopper! She is always so happy and content. She did a great job helping me pick out birthday gifts for her cousin Chloe (who is 5 TODAY, Happy Birthday Chloe, We love you!!) and she enjoyed sharing a turkey sandwich and smoothie with her Mommy at Panera.

Rach was full of energy on Saturday and really seemed like she was back to her old self. It was so great to see! She just played and played and played and passed out pretty easily at bedtime. Unfortunately she woke up at 3:30 AM pretty upset. I think that her pack and play there is a bit too small for her now and that she just didn't remember where she was when she woke up. So I just brought her into bed with me and we were both able to get some more sleep. Below are a few pictures of my little Sleeping Beauty in bed with her Mommy on Sunday morning.

Sunday started off good and had the potential to be a great day. We enjoyed a nice breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa and then headed back to meet Matt at home. Unfortunately right before dinner time I became pretty certain that I had caught Rach's pink eye. We spent the rest of the night trying to clean and disinfect to make sure I couldn't give it back to Rach and that Matt wouldn't catch it at all.

I stayed home on Monday since I knew I would be contagious until I had been on the antibiotics for 24 hours and headed to the doctor. Grandma also went to the doctor on Monday to confirm that she had it too and to get her own eye drops. Grandma and Grandpa did still come over to spend time with us and watch Rachel, which I greatly appreciate! This allowed me time to do more disinfecting and laundry and to go on a grocery store and post office run.

Right now we are just crossing our fingers that Grandpa and Matt don't catch the pink eye from Grandma or me.

I know that I have said it before, but I will say it again, our little Rachel Bear is THE sweetest little girl around. She melts my heart and I hope she always stays as loving and sweet as she is today! The latest examples of this: Monday afternoon Grandma was helping me put my eye drops in (yes, I am almost 30 years old, I have given myself shots, and have given birth but eye drops freak me out!) so I am laying flat on the couch and made a little noise and winced afterward and my sweet angel stopped playing, walked up to me, and gave me a big kiss on the cheek! How sweet is this girl?!? Then Monday night we were upstairs cuddling after her bottle and before bed when Matt got home. He came up to say hi and goodnight to Rach and as soon as I handed her to him for a hug she took her binky out of her mouth and gave her Daddy a big kiss! Pretty sure even Daddy gets a little overwhelmed at how sweet and loveable our baby girl is! We are so lucky and so blessed!!