Dewey Update, Sickness, & First Haircut

There is a lot of news to update today...with some of it not being necessarily good.  In my last post, I mentioned that the girls were a little sick.  Things continued on for the rest of the week and after listening to Calleigh cough a bunch of times during the night on Friday, I decided to take them in the next morning, including Brady.  He's had a few boogers and a little coughing although no fever whatsoever or else I would obviously been in right away at his young age.  I really didn't think he needed to see the doctor but since we were taking the other two, I figured he might as well get looked at too.  As we were preparing for our mid-morning appointment, Duncan looked at Dewey and noticed that part of his wound was gaping open and he should get him in to the vet right away.  More on that fiasco later.  So I was off alone to the pediatrician alone.  First up was Brady.  He weighed in at 10 lbs, 9 oz which means he gained 9 ounces in just about 9 days which is really good. He's already surpassed the girls weight at two months at only 5.5 weeks.  He's gunning for Acadia who was 12 lbs, 1 oz at 2 months.  Of course, we'll be in Nova Scotia when he hits 2 months on August 8 so I won't be able to get his weight for a few days after that.  Anyway, the doctor checked him out and said he was fine.  As I expected him to say, he has a little nasal drip which is making him cough.  Not much we can do about it except give him some saline drops and get a humidifier.

The girls, on the other hand, both have ear infections again.  They had them back in February.  They had given no indication of any ear pain whatsoever.  The doctor said that the respiratory symptoms they've been having probably triggered the ear infection.  So there you go.  We're now on a 10-day dose of Amoxicillin once again.  As the doc said, better now than when you're on vacation.  Amen to that.  At least the respiratory symptoms are clearing up.

So yes, the other big news is Dewey's situation.  Duncan took him in to look at the stitches.  They looked at them and said they should be kept in until Monday (today).  Duncan pointed out the part where the stitches had come up and the skin was gaping open.  They talked to the doc and they said, no, it was fine.  Just leave it as it was.  Duncan was skeptical but we went with it.  That bring us today. Unfortunately Duncan had a very busy work schedule today so that left the job to me.  You don't need an appointment or anything and here I was stupidly thinking it would be a 10-minute operation.  We went after naps and it was pretty busy so we ended up waiting a good 20-25 minutes to get back into the room.  They then took Dewey back to remove the stitches which took another 15 minutes.  Finally, Dr. McAbee himself comes into the room and says he doesn't like how it's looking.  You think??  I'd post a picture but I wouldn't want to gross some people out.  Dr. McAbee was concerned that it may not heal and it may get infected.  The test for MRSA had been negative but there was some other infection it had tested positive for but the pills were supposed to take care of that.  He asked if he was still taking them.  I told him my tale of how they gave us a second prescription even though he was already taking it.  It turns out that I guess we were supposed to use the second bottle when the first was gone.  Nice of them to mention that when we returned the bottle to them.  The main issue of why it hasn't healed is because Dewey had been licking at it through his shirt.  We've tried different things like putting on his life jacket and putting a splint like thing on his neck so he can't get back there.  That was just yesterday we came up with that one.  It seems to be working.  I just hope it's not too late.  Dr. McAbee said it would probably take a good three weeks for the skin to grow back together.  We'll just have to wait and see.  Starting next Wednesday, he'll be kenneled there while we're gone so I guess they'll be the ones keeping an eye on him.  Honestly, I got the distinct impression from the doc that it's quite possible this could be his swan song.  Dewey's, that is. Not the doctor.  Although it will probably be our swan song from his practice either way.

We did a little photo shoot to pass the time waiting for Dewey to get the stitches out.
Thanks to Grandma for the new outfits!

You can't tell in this picture but Aubree actually looks like Rudolph right now.
She's very sensitive to insect bites and one got her on the nose.

Admittedly, I probably didn't get as much as I should have out of my conversation with Dr. McAbee because as we spoke, Brady was crying and the girls were running around the room like wild banshees.  As were were leaving the building, I scored at least three of these: "Wow.  You have your hands full.  Bless your heart!"  Yes, indeedy. A crying baby, two wild girls, and a dog with a gaping hole in his side.

There's been positive things happening too, thankfully.  On Thursday, we refinanced our townhouse that we live in.  We've been wanting to do it for the last year or two but didn't think it would be possible with the current market but it turns out we were able to.  We did it all through Quicken Loans on-line and I have to say it was an amazing experience.  Awesome customer service and it took less than two weeks start to finish. We did a 15-year mortgage and got an interest rate two percentage points lower than what we had.  The monthly payment is only around $120 more than what we were paying and we're knocking nine years off the loan (we had 24 years left out of the original 30).  We did have to pay some closing costs but all in all, it was very worthwhile.  The neat thing is that they send someone to your house for you to sign all the papers so you don't even have to go anywhere.  We had Ron and Elaine take the girls since we remembered how long our other two closings went but this only took about 10 minutes.  Very nice.

We went to the bank to get the check for the closing and the lady whips out two lollipops and says "Can they have these?"  I'm mean, what are you going to say to that?  Pretty hard to say no when they have a visual.  Calleigh was thrilled but Aubree had no idea what to do with the thing.  I think her quote was "It doesn't work."  She was trying to bite it not realizing you had to suck on it.

Ron and Elaine had actually taken the girls a little earlier than the closing so I took advantage of my free time to go to Ross to see if I could find some new comfy dresses.  I came to the realization that I rarely buy clothes for myself these days (it's more fun buying stuff for the girls) so I decided to see what they had.  Of course, I'm in between sizes right now but the dresses are usually roomy enough to work now and when I've lost the rest of the weight.  Brady was sound asleep as I found nine dresses to try on.  Wouldn't you know, just as I get into the dressing room, he wakes up and starts to wail.  There was no calming him down while he was sitting in his car seat, although I tried for as long as I thought it was possible until someone complained.  So next I tried picking him up but also trying on the clothes at the same time.  I discovered that's very hard to do.  I suppose I should have just left but there was no way I was going to just leave all the dresses there because who knew when I'd be back and I'd probably never find them again.  I was tempted to just leave and buy all the dresses to try on at home and return what didn't fit.  But I tried to press on.  Finally, even though it wasn't time for him to eat, I pulled out the goods as a last resort.  So there I sat in the dressing room in my undergarments and nursed the babe.  But as soon as I was done, the wailing started right up again.  In the end, I purchased the rest of the dresses I hadn't tried on and hightailed it out of there.  I did discover, just before leaving the store, that I had let my phone and key fob on the dressing room.  Doh!  And yes, I do have to return a few things that didn't fit.

After our respective visits to the doctors on Saturday morning, Duncan and I took the girls to a new (to us) park in Maitland to have a picnic and take a nice walk.  We unfortunately had to miss church again but we wanted to get out and do something.  The timing worked out that I had to feed Brady as soon as we got there so Duncan took the girls for a walk while I fed him in the car.  About 15 minutes later, back to the van they come and I can see Calleigh is all bent out of shape.  She's crying and crying and Duncan tells her she's going to have to just wait in the car.  We don't even know why she's crying.  She just is.  About two minutes later as she's still having a fit, she says she has to go potty and then proceeds to pee all over the floor of the van.  As it turned out, she was standing right over the Baby Bjorn which soaked it all up.  It's machine washable so you don't have to freak out the next time you see Duncan donning it.  Needless to say, this put a severe damper on our picnic plans and we had to relocate the whole operation to our dining room table which doesn't quite have the same picnic appeal.  Oh well.

Sunday we had a momentous occasion in that Calleigh got her first haircut.  We decided to just get the ends trimmed off to keep the hair healthy.  I also needed a haircut so I figured we could go together.  As it turned out, all five of us went.  I went first and the girls perched on a nearby chair to watch.  The hairdresser marveled at how cute they were just sitting on the chair.  I said, "Give it a minute it.  Wait for it...." Aubree pinches Calleigh.  "And there it is."  That didn't last long.  The hairdresser next to me was freed up and so we tried to Calleigh to sit in her chair instead of waiting for me to get done.  But she would have none of that.  Finally, I remember the lady saying out of the girls' earshot that they had lollipops.  I quickly told Calleigh she could have a lollipop after her haircut.  Voila!!  She says "Okay" and hopped into the chair in two seconds flat.  The haircut only took about five minutes and we now have our memento of hair from her first official cut.  I have to say official because you may recall that she took a few snips from her hair herself a few months ago.

Can you decipher this word as to where we went?

After the haircuts, we made a stop at Lowe's to get a new light fixture for our kitchen.  The bulbs in our fluorescent light keep burning out so we decided to just get a new light this time.  We're very pleased with the results (I should have taken a picture) and I have to say, it's VERY bright in the kitchen now.  Some of the dirt is a little more obvious now on the downside.  It's funny because now that we watch House Hunters you find yourself thinking, "Let's spend a little more money on a nicer fixture because it will really ad resale or rental value to the place."

This morning, I finally purchased the Sit and Stand stroller I've been on the lookout for.  I found it on Craig's List a few days ago and this morning it all went down in a Walgreen's parking lot.  The lady, Stephanie, whom I bought it from, was really nice.  She just moved her from Miami and said she's been bored.  She has two older boys(who are with their dad for the summer) and a 2-year old girl.  It's possible we may get together with them at some point.  The stroller is a Joovy and I got it for $50.  It's in great condition so I'm very happy.  The idea was that Calleigh and Aubree could both stand on the back but the way thing have been going the last week, I have a feeling that plan has some serious loopholes in it.  They'll be at each other in the first five seconds.

In Brady news, he slept in his crib for the first time on Friday night. I finally made the move up to his room.  Time for him to get accustomed to sleeping flat on his back.  All went well with him falling asleep.  I have a noise maker right next to the crib and have it set to the heartbeat sound.  I kind of feel bad that we didn't get him his own personalized CD music like the girls have (I miss hearing "Brady, you're one in a million.") but maybe that will still happen.  At any rate, the heartbeat seems to work well.  When he woke up for his five or six o'clock feeding (frankly, with all of Calleigh's hacking in the other room and my getting up with the girls one or two times, I can't remember exactly what happened with Brady.) I ended up taking him downstairs to his swing since that's where he seems to fall asleep the fastest after those dawn-ish time feedings.  Saturday night we slept downstairs again because we stayed up late watching a movie and I didn't want to put him in his room by himself (I know we have the monitor but I'm not ready for it yet).  Last night it was the room again and it went fine.  And that's where I am right now.  I'm happy with my sleeper chair that I got.  I'm finding it quite comfortable.

I love the little positions they put their hands in while they're sleeping.

The other person enjoying Brady's crib is Calleigh.  She took her nap in it on Saturday and Sunday.  Since naps are so few and far between for her, hey, whatever works!  I hope when we get back from vacation, he'll start taking his naps in his crib so Calleigh will be booted out.

Alrighty, I know there's probably more left to say but I seriously need to get to bed here.  It's a shame that I feel most awake when I should be going to sleep.  Go figure.