The plight of the working parent

So I mentioned in the last post that Alaina didn't seem to be feeling well. Her fever spiked at school on Monday so she got sent home. I stayed home with her for three days because her fever kept bouncing around from 100 to 104 degrees. Poor baby was so miserable.

Just absolutely pitiful!

We suspected that she developed a virus but it also seemed like she was teething. She was totally miserable Tuesday night and had a really hard time sleeping. She wouldn't go to sleep until after midnight and then she was up again from 4:45 until 7. Throughout the day she just wanted to be held. We had to load her up with Hyland teething gel and teething tablets, Tylenol, and Pedialyte popsicles.
I did love all the cuddles. I really just wanted to concentrate on soaking up all the time with her, even though I knew I was getting further behind at work. Being mindful of positive experiences. :)
When she wasn't beastly, she was really very sweet.

Fortunately, Chad was able to also take Wednesday off so I was able to fit a week's worth of meetings into a couple of hours that afternoon while he took care of her. We also got to take a nap when Alaina finally went to sleep.

On Thursday morning before I left for North Carolina, we noticed a few spots developing on her face and chest. I figured it was from the high fever/virus but consulted with Dr. Google to make sure it didn't seem like chicken pox or something else contagious. However, due to the recent fever and the fact the spots weren't bothering her, she had been fever-free for 24 hours, etc. we concluded it was likely roseola. By that night it had really spread. He thought it was pretty concerning to see but I thought it just confirmed my suspicions. A few days later, Alaina's cousin Avery had a high fever and she also developed the rash. She already had an appointment scheduled with her new pediatrician and she confirmed that it was roseola. This is now the second time that Alaina has gotten Avery sick. Oops.

Roseola rash

I was obviously pretty nervous to leave Chad alone with a cranky baby but they did awesome while I was in Charlotte.

He even successfully took her (alone!) to the farmer's market and grocery store. Color me super impressed!

They did so well, in fact, that Miss Alaina decided to start walking the first day I was away from home! Fortunately I had seen her take about 3 steps on Monday or else I would have been really sad. It was still sad to have missed her really taking off. Chad said she was just sitting in the living room and suddenly she stood up without assistance (we've never even seen her do that!) and just started walking toward the kitchen. He said he was shocked because she looked like she had been walking her whole life. Here are a couple adorable videos.

So we all survived my four day trip. It was nice to not have all of the anxiety that I experienced the first time I went away. And Alaina was super excited when I got home--screaming my name before I even opened the door from the garage to the living room. That was a wonderful welcome! She wouldn't let me out of her sight and at first, she just wanted me to hold her constantly (no problem!). We had fun playing together while Chad made dinner. She is so obsessed with shoes, it's pretty hilarious.

While I know every parenting decision has it's ups and downs, the last week reminded me how tough it is to be a working parent (clearly stay at home parents have their own challenges). On Monday, a friend posted a recent article about how the number one rule for success for women in academia was "don't have a baby". I found it fascinating and depressing. There were aspects of it that really resonated with me. Given that I had to take the first part of the week off to stay home with a sick child, I was certainly feeling the pressure of missed meetings and impending deadlines. But my job is the one that is salary, I'm not paid in June anyway...(wait, so why have I been going to work...?), and it's flexible. So of course I would be the one to stay home. But it's tough. I am so behind. Like seriously, two years behind. I can barely keep up with the things that must be done in a day so writing/publishing has taken an extreme back seat and it weighs heavily on me every day. I know there are moms (& dads!) out there who do it and I am still so in awe of them.

But I actually feel really fortunate to be in academia. It's the flexibility in my job that allowed me to go on maternity leave without filing official paperwork, losing salary, etc. and to stay home with Alaina when she is sick or has doctor's appointments. My department is extremely family friendly and I know how lucky I am for that. But the other piece of the working parent gig is that it was while I was away at a conference that Alaina really started walking. It is really tremendously difficult to do both things well. As I mentioned above, I'm working on it. Working on being in the moment when I am with Alaina and working on...well, work, when I'm at work. And trying to give myself lots of patience and leeway in both.

Just my imagination

At first I thought it was a fluke. But it turns out that Alaina is already developing her little imagination, creativity, and imitation. When she comes home from school, I enter all of her information into the Baby Connect app (I know, it's crazy that I'm still tracking these things...!). A few weeks ago, Alaina started taking my cell phone and the paper they send home and she sits down and "studies" the paper and then taps on my phone. It's adorable. She also 'pretends' to talk/babble on the phone. We really have no idea where she would have picked this up because we are never, ever on the phone for voice calls (yea, sorry about that; it makes me a less than stellar friend or family member, I know...). Anytime I have taken a call, it is generally on speaker so that my hands are free. That was a habit I developed from the pregnancy-related carpal tunnel syndrome. So perhaps she has seen the other kids do it at school? Either way, it's pretty hilarious.

I messed up the phone camera so the first video is only a couple of seconds long. I couldn't get a good video after that. However, in the one below, you can see that she does it with a lot of items.

Tonight we also caught her pretending to put lotion (/sunscreen) on. A girl needs to stay moisturized!

She is so funny. She still isn't walking consistently but that doesn't stop her from getting into things. :) Her current favorite is the dogs' water bowl.

Her eating is still hit or miss. As I hear often happens, she actually eats great at school. Like, it's to the point that they comment on it when we pick her up in the afternoons (Alaina sure loves food! Alaina went completely crazy about watermelon!! Yea, yea, she comes by her love of food honestly!). At home though, sometimes she refuses to eat most anything and other times we feel like we are just throwing food at her and she gets it eaten before we have turned around! This is especially the case with most any fruit and with macaroni & cheese. She is so her mother's daughter.

Her table manners still need a bit of work, though.

Clearly she is also still working on her judgy face. Must continue to practice being nonjudgmental (but don't judge her judging!).

Poor little thing wasn't feeling well this afternoon. She had a low fever and just wanted me to hold her/cuddle all day. I totally loved the extra snuggles, especially since I will be gone to a conference Thursday-Sunday. But I hate that she isn't feeling well again. Her first top tooth is breaking through right now so I hope that is all that is going on. She really needs a couple of weeks to just be fully healthy!

Father's Day

We had a nice, laid back father's day today. Alaina and I let Chad sleep in and we made a cherry-pineapple breakfast cake for him (aka dump cake, but hey, I figure if a danish is breakfast this qualifies!). Alaina was actually very interested in the food preparation. I think she's going to enjoy baking. In this house, she will definitely get some kitchen skills. Chad's father's day present was honing steel for his chef knife. It looks like a sword to fight off future suitors!

To celebrate today, I've compiled a few pictures and videos of Alaina hanging out with her daddy. She may be a mama's girl right now but I can see that changing right before my eyes. We love you, Chad!

Crazy bath time hair

Baby loves nectarines

But really? Who doesn't? I love this shot of the dogs in the background, too!

Puny baby

For sweet pea, this week has been so up & down, health and otherwise. That's why it has taken me so long to get back to the blog. On Wednesday I got a call that A had a fever of 101 so I went to pick her up from school. She had been coughing since Memorial Day and had run a low-grade fever. We just thought it was a combination of allergies and teething. But when I got her home from school, she was wheezing as well so I made an appointment for Thursday.

Thursday, Alaina seemed great. Because of the school's "24 hour (fever-free) rule" I kept her home and we hung out. We even had lunch with Drs. Beasley and Wingate. :) She was so excited, she missed her morning nap.

We had a few hours before her doctor's appointment, so I stopped in work to do a few things and let A hang out. Let's be honest, the only real reasons I went to work was because there was a parking space open right in front of our building and it had been awhile since some of the faculty, staff, and students had gotten to see A.

I accidentally left my phone in the car and right as I was about to head home so that A could get some rest, a friend stopped me to say Chad was trying to get in touch with me because there was a storm moving in our direction. His work was sending people home so he was going to pick up the dogs and meet me in my office. The psychology building is a safe building during storms. We hung out in my office until the coast was clear. Our county got a tornado warning but fortunately, the storm was about 20 miles from us. Baby A took the time to explore my office and take a good nap.

Following the storm, we had just enough time for Chad to run the dogs back home and make our appointment. A's fever had gone down the night before but I was still a little concerned about her wheezing. The nurse and doctor were also wary. Her pulse-ox was a little low, but wasn't terrible. They started her on a breathing treatment right away, though. At first A didn't really mind the nebulizer but she started getting antsy and nervous. We explained everything that was happening and validating her concerns, which I think was helpful.

The pediatrician came back and said that it could be a viral infection, walking pneumonia, or asthma. We talked about what to look for in her breathing and were prescribed an albuterol inhaler. She also ordered a chest x-ray and a blood test. As you can imagine, A was not a fan of either of those things. By the time we got home, poor thing was pretty exhausted.

However, the next morning she seemed to be doing a lot better. The nurse called and said the results were all negative and they thought it was probably just a virus. However, they were concerned that she was still wheezing and coughing so, in addition to continuing the inhaler, we also started a round of prednisone. Both of those can cause yucky side effects like irritability and nervousness. I had heard they can also increase a kid's appetite but A wanted nothing to do with food once she started them. So she pretty much vacillated between extreme grumpiness and sunniness.

Here are a couple of adorable videos of Miss Sunshine.

Speaking of sunshine...mine & Chad's 10 year wedding anniversary was Friday night. Unfortunately for us, there was more bad weather predicted and this time we heard that Stillwater was in the "crosshairs". As soon as we got home from work, we loaded up the car with our tornado preparations, got the dogs together, and quickly cooked a frozen pizza. It was kind of a mess--2 dogs, 2 adults, and a baby have a lot of stuff and a lot of logistics had to be worked out (finding a spot in the basement, keeping everyone happy, accessing weather information online, etc.). Every May/June, I think long and hard about starting to save for a tornado shelter in the garage! By the time tornado season ends, though, it's generally not on my mind. Maybe someone should remind me in January. :) This year, I had the added concern of having family living in Oklahoma. The tornado that hit El Reno got a little too close to Yukon. I am glad Kris is at least smart and is getting a shelter installed this August. We were all very fortunate that the storms bypassed us. I am always so thankful.

We had a good weekend, though. On Monday, A started her first day of the 1-year classroom. She has been going to visit on occasion but this was her first full day. They said she did really well. Her mid-day nap was short and she ended up falling asleep outside on a bean bag chair. Poor thing. On the drive home, my usual chatty little girl didn't make a peep. Chad and I were chuckling because she was just so tired. However, then she proceeded to throw up all over Chad's shirt. I kept her home from school again today and she seemed perfectly fine. She ended up sleeping a lot yesterday evening and today but it's still unclear if this was just a quick virus or if it was the stress of the new class and new food (she had some sort of breakfast pizza that we wonder about along with a salad and crackers with cream cheese and raisins...). She slept until 9 am and then had a 2.5 hour nap so hopefully that will help her recover. I was hesitant to feed her much at first. We started with pedialyte and then moved to crackers but she was pretty mad I wasn't feeding her fast enough! We ended up having a really nice day today. Hopefully we can get back on schedule tomorrow, though. I've been out from work for basically a week.

Memorial Day Weekend

I am dreadfully behind on the blog. I should be posting another update tomorrow but I thought I'd go ahead and share some photos from Memorial Day weekend. Alaina went back for a second visit to see the botanical gardens here in town. She enjoyed showing Avery around. :) 

Alaina also got to meet Jasper & Madeline's little puppy cousin, Stella. She is a super sweet, very playful puppy. Madeline isn't a big fan of dogs (she thinks she is a cat so this makes a little sense) so that made for an interesting day of introduction. Stella was great with the baby and with the dogs! She is super fast!

And here are a few additional pictures from before Memorial Day.

I think Alaina looks very judgmental here. Along with staring and pointing, we already have a list of habits that need to be broken!

Alaina has become very interested in shoes. She loves to put my slippers on her feet and she tries to put her own socks and shoes on...even over her footed sleeper.

Although she hasn't taken more than a few random steps here and there, she really gets around fast! She is also SO chatty.