allergies

Allergies and Veggies

The past several weeks have tested the parent patience levels like no other. While I won’t completely speak for Craig on that, by I personally feel incredibly burned out from the fighting, sickness, and overall day to day, more so than other times of hardship with the kiddos.

Good thing they are cute!!

The girls are still allergy ridden and not sleeping well overnight, after probably six months of decent sleeping in their room. We believe Reagan might be having some form of night terror or bad dream, as she will wake up fully screaming for us and then not remotely let us settle her back in her bed. Once in our room, she’s asleep in seconds, indicating maybe she wasn’t entirely awake for the episode. She also has no desire to go to sleep in her bed and has hour long meltdowns as we try to convince her to lay down and fall asleep, especially in days she is so overtired and her sisters are already asleep.

The allergies continue to plague our household, with a number of different nights resulting in a kiddo coughing so hard they throw up all over their bed, or our bed. After numerous doctor visits for a variety of different ailments, we continue to try new methods to help the girls feel better. The two, double ear infections for Harper and Reagan are insistent and want to stick around, with Harper on her second round of medicine and Reagan on her third!! We’ve also tried a steroid for all three to help with the throat cough, that all doctors visits have assured us is not remotely sitting in their lungs, and while it didn’t seem to make a difference right away; it appears to help a little on day two.

We’ve rotated ailments between kiddos enough that each one has been home without sisters at least a time or two this summer. I have to say it: one toddler at a time is WAY EASIER…even a sick one!! I tried to do something special with each when sisters are not around to disrupt, whether that’s playing with a fun toy and not having to guard it, getting a yummy lunch, or just having one-on-one time. If I am being honest, I find a little hardship in knowing that one three-year-old at a time would be so much more fun and enjoyable, allowing me to better appreciate moments and handle the fits and maturing, than daily trying to do so with all three, which is often less than enjoyable and stressful.

Harper was greatly enthused to go to the doctor by herself the first time, since 90% of our one-kid doctor visits over the past three years were for Reagan or Emerie. Reagan seems to be the toughest patient of the three, likely because she despises her ears getting cleaned out (I mean no one enjoys that…). Emerie is always excited to see Doctor Winkle for her eye and enjoyed seeing Doctor Magnesun for her broken nail in the door. Enjoyed might be a tad strong of a word for that visit, but she chatted throughout her appointment and didn’t shed a tear for the clean out. She did give lots of smiles for the stickers and paper bag with her name on it full of gauze and sterile water.

Another beautiful thing about kiddos close in age, or ones that have the same birthday: insurance! When more than one kiddo requires a medication but receives them a day or two apart, insurance responds in the “mind blown” shock that no, we cannot pick up two of the same medicine and the prescription is already filled. Craig has argued several times now that the second prescription is for a DIFFERENT kid and I’m guessing this denial will continue in the years to come. Just another thing to deal with…

While nights over the past month are long, with upset littles and tired parents, we do have shiny, daytime moments worth documenting!

For example, we’ve greatly improved on the please and thank you responses this summer. Occasionally we even hear a please may I, although that is rarely between the I wants and I need demands that normally transpire.

The toddler discussions are turning into fun banter. I really enjoy picking them up from daycare and chatting with everyone on the 10 minute drive home. Here’s a sample of some of the toddler thoughts:

Playing with sand

Me: so where do you guys work? Can you tell me?

Emerie (without missing a beat): I work at Costco!

Me: Oh yeah? What do you do at Costco? Drive a forklift?

Emerie: No, I have a cart and I take things off the shelf and put them in it.

Me: Oh, like a personal shopper!

Reagan: I work at Daddy’s work. I work there. I throw things in the trash can.

Harper: I work at Daddy’s work too. I color on paper.

Another drive home centered around dinner options:

Harper, “I want vanilla pasta with blue and raspberries for dinner!”

Emerie and Reagan: “and chocolate for taste!”

I still don’t know what “blue” tastes like but apparently it’s delicious. We have other chuckling moments at home, such as Reagan randomly exclaiming from the living room, “Guys, are you kidding me? Are you KIDDING ME!?” and turns to look at me with a “they took ALL the blankets. Those guys.” So dramatic!

There are other typical kid moments, Emerie is especially good at their delivery. One evening she had a good sized booger gravitating down her top lip; she looks up and says, “I picking it. I don’t need a tissue; I wipe it on my pants.”

The girls now fight over boogers and throw total fits when a sister wipes that mess on another. This seems to happen mostly during car rides and occasionally at home. Thanks to this summer’s allergies, everyone has excelled at blowing their noses and demanding tissues throughout the days.

One night while watching Snow White- the part with the mean queen and the impending poison apple- Harper comments “she not very nice! Daddy needs to lock her in the closet.” Can you tell we’ve watch Tangled recently, when Rapunzel locks Flynn in the closet in the beginning? Other “ass-whipping” comments occur on a number of less than nice Disney villains as well. Harper still reminds us when a fellow sister needs one.

Not all drives from daycare have the happy chats- some days we get reports of naughtiness that result in no beloved lollipop. Harper learned this detriment one day after a note she bit her sister for the second or third day in a row! (No idea wtf was going on with her that week!). The brutality of it all, that mom wouldn’t give her a celebratory lollipop to enjoy on the way home like both her sisters. The screaming, throw-your-hands-in-the-air attitude was definitely over the top on her part, but you know what? She hasn’t had a bad report since that day so it made a decent impact.

Not a happy Harper.

The daycare was closed for three days this past week to prepare for the coming school year and get a deep clean. Grandma Sue came up to save us from the long, five day weekend with minimal napping, allergy ridden, grumpy toddlers.

The first day we took advantage of the break in rain and ventured out to the valley to the “you pick” farm for some veggies. It was two years ago since we last came out, and what a difference! Toting one year olds around last time meant the wagon, which was also full of picked vegetables and goodies, and resulted in the littles running all directions whenever released. This time around, with our three and two bonus friends, everyone mostly explored the place and ran around, following directions pretty well for the most part and helping pull peas off the vines and potatoes from the dirt.

  • Fireweed fun
  • Potatoes!
  • Harper
  • Emerie
  • Reagan

Some battles occurred over the big zucchini’s and every HAD to have a picture with their own. In their defense, they are half a batch of zucchini bread I made the next day, so it was worth it.

The wind picked up after a while but luckily no rain. The kids stayed warm by continuously running across the fields and they really enjoyed playing with the farm animals . The goats and pigs were very friendly and more than happy to give kisses and run in circles. It was a good trip, minus the triple fighting on the drive both directions!

The second day off was spent with friends, running errands and visiting the trash man and much of day three at home playing with a new tea set, kinetic sand and a lot of Duplo block construction. No naps for all three days and we somehow managed to survive!

Next adventure is berry picking, which we put off from this past week because of torrential downpours. We hope to get at least one afternoon in before fall arrives.

❤

Outnumbered

One of my main mental night anxieties is how to handle the kiddos in the middle of the night when all three need something at once. No granted this has been an anxiety for the past three years, the response to when it actually happens just changes as the kids grow. When they were smaller this usually related to putting a lost binkie back into a wailing mouth or hurriedly comforting an upset little before the other two woke up, probably a handful of times every night. For a while this constant worry sort of sat on my chest each night after everyone was in bed, the anxiety of how to handle comforting everyone when there are three of them and only two of you.

Now that we are in the toddler stage, nights with triple upsets usually result in an adult snoozing in the nursery armchair, whispering comforts and reassurance to whoever keeps waking up while attempting to get some of your own shuteye. Not ideal but very manageable compared to years past and the girls are now much better at laying back down in their own beds.

Matching masks! It’s very hard to keep 3 wearing a mask while you walk across the hospital!

Then there are nights like one last week. We guessed it was going to be a long night, but had the kid wrong. Over the last two weeks Reagan and Harper have been fighting double ear infections and on meds to clear it; as of day seven, Reagan all of a sudden was complaining about her ear again and running a high fever. Knowing a follow up doctor visit was necessary the next morning, we prepped for a long night with an upset toddler.

On queue at about 10 pm she woke up unsettled and we plopped her into our bed, knowing her ear hurts and she would wake up the other two at some point during the night. Within an hour or so, and after finally dozing off with her, Emerie continued a throaty cough that resulted in a puke covered bed and conversation between her and Craig about a possible bead she swallowed in her tummy (or lodged somewhere making her cough).

This prompts and unplanned ER visit to ensure nothing is lodged in the ever important airway. Don’t worry, she wasn’t having any difficulty breathing (thank goodness!), BUT was coughing so hard and throwing up and continuously, leading us to believe she might need more intervention to rule out the possibility.

Triple doctor visit

The ER wait was extremely long, with a lot of folks frustrated in the waiting room at midnight. Craig ended up bringing her home and we managed to get all three kiddos into the pediatrician’s office the next afternoon after an unsuccessful attempt at a walk in clinic with all three in tow. Good news was nothing was obstructing the airway, bad news is allergies and long lasting ear infections are a thing. We left that appointment with a new medicine for Reagan’s double ear infection (since the Amoxicillin wasn’t working), a note to continue Harper’s Amoxicillin that was working, and instructions to keep an eye on any changes in Emerie’s cough that might indicate the bead was obstructing. We also left with the knowledge that all three had crystal clear lung sounds, indicating seasonal allergies. In fact, the flemmy cough all three have is presumably from the cottonwood shedding their “summer snow.”

While bedtime boasts the worst of the flem time, we did have one day where all three coughed for HOURS. I had an epiphany the following day that additional allergies might exist with tiger lilies, since a beautiful flower bouquet was sitting on the kitchen table. There’s a reason hospitals don’t allow tiger lilies in their flower deliveries, and after removing it from the house, the extreme kid coughing lessened a lot. So chalk one point up for mom figuring that out! Who knew!

So combine all these fun issues with a full moon and BAM, it equals out to a very long week. Thank goodness the cottonwood should be less soon! All this also slightly terrifies me…since July is not usually a month of sickness. What will winter this year look like?!

❤

Reaction

Yesterday evening was an interesting night. Craig got home about 8 o’clock from taking Emerie to the pediatrician at Providence.

It was a typical day, the kiddos a bit fussy but manageable from teething, with Harper still holding on to her terrible cold cough. We did a good amount of table time, full of snacks, vegetable melts, a beef and vegetable purée (NOT well liked), and some yummy peanut butter.

After the peanut butter we decided on bath time, because well, it was everywhere. Reagan managed to rub it all over her head, Emerie had it absolutely everywhere, and Harper all over her arms and face and binkie!

Everyone enjoys playing in the bath together!

After bath time Craig noticed Emerie had a bunch of little bumps all over her back, arms and legs. I thought it was goosebumps, but it didn’t go away with pajamas. We’ve done peanut butter before, so I didn’t think it was a reaction to that, but wasn’t sure what it was.

After going back and forth with the pediatrician call line about four times, they told us to bring her into verify she wasn’t reacting to peanut butter. At no point was her breathing labored or we obviously would have immediately drove her to the hospital. I’m not aware of any family peanut allergies, but better to be safe than sorry. I definitely don’t enjoy allergic reactions that need Benadryl!

Bedtime routine became a little out of whack without Craig and Emerie, but we survived. Harper went to sleep relatively easily and Reagan fought it to the death, falling asleepu about the time they got back home.

Thankfully, the doctor doesn’t think it is a peanut allergy or reaction. Thank goodness!! She just did a ten day stint of Cefdinir for her latest ear infection and that is probably the culprit. Apparently the reaction takes time to build up while in one’s system, which is why she didn’t breakout until the end of the dosing. She was on this med because she kept fighting and puking up the Amoxicillan, so the next ear infection might get pretty interesting. Or maybe we will not see any for a while, or a cold for that matter. Is it summer yet??

Luckily she doesn’t seem super itchy, which is a definite blessing. I’m very hopeful Emerie will be feeling better and not itchy from all this soon, and that Harper’s cough will subside. It would be nice to enjoy the birthday party and not simply have a grumpy, snot fest. I guess we will see!