Dr. appointments galore! Mama and Munchkin update

After Mika's dr appointment, we went to see my Certified Nurse Midwife, Sharon. I was hoping she'd give me an ultrasound. But we got the second best thing - we got to hear the heartbeat on a doppler!! I was totally shocked! Munchkin is only 8weeks, 5days old and we were able to hear his/her heartbeat!! Normally you can't until between 10-14 weeks along. It was nice and strong, and such a beautiful sound! I was so excited I almost forgot the other things I wanted to ask Sharon, lol!! Our next appointment is in 4 weeks.

Then we went to the chiropractor and I got adjusted. Being up all night with poor li'l Mika this week has left me all out of wack! But I feel much better now. Unfortunately Zarik, who had to work, caught Mika's cold, so he's not feeling all that great.

Here are pics of Zarik and on a nice January hike with my mom


See the little baby head sticking out of the wrap?

Dr. appointments galore! Mika Update...

So today we (Mika and I) had some Dr appointments.

Today was originally schedualed for a reflux/prevacid check. It turned into a sickness update/reflux check. The flu poor Mika had is turning into a resperatory thing (so a cold) and I guess it's fairly common for it to do that. The pedi thinks the coughing will culminate Sat/Sun, and there may be more vomiting associated with it because of all the draining mucus and the coughing. That should be lovely, as we'll be in Cali then for a funeral. I can start giving her half-strength formula again today. She just had 2 oz w/half a scoop and some pedialyte/white grape juice to chase it down.

As far as the reflux goes, because of the vomiting plateau (even when everything else was getting better she was vomiting) and the fact that she didn't do her gaspy thing until 4 days off the prevacid (she wasn't keeping it down, why bother giving it to her) We are pretty darn sure it's reflux. Basically, with any illness reflux is aggravated and that's probably why she plateaued. So we're on the prevacid until her 9m appt and then we'll re-evaluate her, probably take her off for a couple weeks to see how she is, and if she hasn't grown out of it we'll go to a GI dr. I'm also going to start giving her acidopholus (doing research on this now) to help heal her body/give her body a break so she has a better chance of growing out of this in a month and a couple of weeks.

The shirt says it all


Our little "almost" crawler!

Worse than a fever (some TMI)

Unfortunately, the fever was just the beginning. Saturday morning we woke up to Mika vomiting all over herself and the bed. Three times. And a diaper full of diarrhea. We were going to take her back to the Dr, and we were going to get there right before they closed, but we got a flat tire on the way. So I called and talked to a nurse while Zarik changed the tire. We started her on pedialyte, gave her small amounts of of bananas and rice cereal (the baby BRAT diet) and waited about 16 hours before trying formula again. She did OK until about 4 in the morning, then threw up again. Luckily her fever was gone by this point. We continued Sunday and Monday to do just pedialyte during the day with some solids, and try formula at night. She started refusing the pedialyte and continued to throw up the formula. Tuesday I called the Dr since I was concerned she was still throwing up and now refusing the pedialyte almost completely. We saw her at 1:30. Mika was on the low end of dehydration, so she told us to try plain pedialyte with white grape juice, or really watered down Gatorade if she wouldn't take that. So far she likes the Gatorade. We were going to have to go to the hospital for IV fluids if she didn't drink 6oz or have a wet diaper by 8pm. Well, no wet diaper, but she did drink, so the Dr told us we'd watch her overnight, and if there was vomiting or no wet diaper by morning, to call and we may have to go in. Her diaper was soaked, which was awesome. Unfortunately, she had a coughing fit after having about 1 1/2 oz of Gatorade at 6am and that made her throw up. The dr said just to continue to watch her since it was the coughing that caused it, and if the coughing gets worse and keeps causing her to vomit, we'd have to bring her back in. Right now Mika is taking a nap and Zarik and I are trying to rest. It's been a loooooong weekend.

Mika's first fever :(

So my poor li'l girl got her first fever today. She woke up a few times last night coughing, but I think that was just because silly Mommy forgot to fill up the humidifier - oops!! She was a little fussy at the beginning of Bible Study, which was weird, then while I was talking for a few minutes, one of the gals held Mika and when she gave her back, said Mika felt hot. Now, Mika is a hot baby, period. She and Zarik (whom she gets her hot-bloodedness from) can't cuddle for more than a few minutes before they are both overheated and sweating bullets. But I noticed her eyes looked a little glassier than normal, too. So I took her temp when we got home, and sure 'nough, it was 102.3!!! So a call was made to the dr, who wanted to see her. So I drove 50 minutes to the north office (we normally go to the south office, but they were closed for the day) only to have her fever down to 99.7. Everything else looked good, so the dr gave me some things to watch out for, how to treat it, etc. Really, nothing The Baby Book by Dr Sears didn't already tell me. Then it was 45 minutes back home. *sigh*

Oh, and after checking in, I had to hand Mika to the receptionist and go toss my cookies. Gotta love morning - I mean all day - sickness. *double sigh*

Long Time,No Update

Mika had a dr appointment yesterday, mainly for a "weight check" since she had lost weight at her 6 month appointment. Her weight was awesome! 14lbs, .5oz!!! So she gained 2lbs, 4.5oz in a month on formula! Yeah! We can definitely see and feel a difference in her.

She has still been doing the gaspy thing, which, at the dr's request, I took a couple of videos of and brought in with us. The dr. told us that the chest x-rays we had taken were clear, so that is good news. She again quizzed me on how much she spits up, etc. The one thing I had noticed the last few weeks is sometimes she acts like she's spitting up, but swallows it back. So again, we are back to thinking this whole thing is caused by reflux. We are trying Mika on Previcid for 2 weeks, then going back in for a followup appointment. Basically, if the previcid cures the gaspy thing, we are pretty darn sure it's reflux and will go see a GI dr at that point to figure out how bad it is.

Otherwise, Mika is doing awesome!! She found her tongue this week, and is using it to make a LOT more sounds and combinations of sounds which is so cute! She is a really happy baby and now that she's slowing her growth spurt down she's back to sleeping about 9-10 hours a night, and we think she'll start weaning back further, so that'll be good!

As for me and our newest little one, we are doing great! Morning sickness found me last week, but I was expecting it. It's not that bad yet, but I'm not gonna jinx myself and think this is how it'll be the whole time! I go in for my next appointment the same day as Mika's followup, March 27, and I am hoping for an ultrasound so we can see a heartbeat! I am currently 7 weeks along (as of tomorrow!).

On a side note, it's snowing here. We already have about 8-10 inches and it's not slowing down! Zarik barely made it into work today, and we have no idea if we're going to get to go to the Hockey game we were planning on going to tonight. :( But yeah for snow!! I love it as long as I'm cozy inside! ;)

This picture was taken at a playdate at Focus on the Family. Mika's "playing" with her "friend" Ellie.