EGR is currently on her 5th course of antibiotics since November for her 3rd ear infection. Yes, it's been taking two rounds to clear them up. We've already been to the ENT once, prior to the current ear infection, and he said if she got another one in the next few weeks we should just schedule the surgery for tubes. It looks like that's going to happen now - BUT, not until we see the ENT again to look at her tonsils and adenoids. She's been snoring and having difficulty breathing while sleeping, sometimes resulting in apnea episodes during night and nap times. And, this last ear infection resulted from nothing - meaning, she didn't even have the nasty cold first like she did with the other two. That makes me think the adenoids are at work here, too. At any rate, we'll find out on Tuesday when we see the ENT. I'm already preparing myself to talk to Ella about surgery, and at this point I think I might be disappointed if he says we should wait on the tonsils. The apnea is downright scary, and there have been some awful throw up/choking in her sleep incidents that I feel certain are caused by her enlarged tonsils.
**Insert plug here for co-sleeping and responsive parenting; every step of the way with her has reinforced my instinct that responding to her cries is the right thing to do even if I can't figure out why she's crying. I can't imagine ignoring a crying child to find out she is choking on her own vomit.**
While this is a lot to process, I'm fairly calm about it at the moment. I know that if/when she does have surgery, I'll be a complete wreck but right now I'm most worried about preparing her for the experience. She understands so much, and she does so much better with new experiences when she knows what to expect.
The bright spot in all of this is that this time we caught the ear infection much earlier because she told us they were hurting! Yay for the ability to communicate in words what is wrong! Communication is huge right now. As much as her vocabulary has exploded since Christmas, her ability to put together sentences and use adjectives and possessive pronouns has been even more astounding. In little more than a week she went from using one or two word combinations to phrases and simple sentences. It's been unreal. Of course, like any developmental milestone, it disrupts bedtime. She has a hard time turning it off to fall asleep at night, except his time instead of crying at bedtime, she is talking herself (and me) to sleep. Sometimes she jabbers for a solid hour. I'll take it; one day I'll learn a lot from our bedtime chats. Right now she will tell me her favorite part of the day when I ask. One night this week it was cake (she had a cupcake after supper) and another it was Sissy (my mom's little dog that she "played" with that day - I later found out that "played" was more like "terrorized" but in her eyes, I guess it was play).
In the last few weeks she has started to love her Sunday School class at church. Kudos to her teachers, Mrs. Julie and Mrs. Susan, because they do a much better job teaching toddlers than I coud (or did, when I tried). She knows which days we go to church and she talks about her class, Jesus, and the other girls who go to her class. We put her Sunday School paper on the fridge, and I make sure that we talk about her lesson during the week. We have learned that Jesus gave food to people, God made wonderful things, and this week we are talking about God made the animals. When I asked her last night who made the birds, she said, "God!"
Our big news that most people probably know by now is that Ella is going to be a big sister - just ask her, she has a shirt that says so! I'm 17 weeks along now, so we have been talking to her about the new baby. She seems pretty excited; she understands that it's growing in my belly and we talk all the time about who can hold and kiss it when it's born. She knows that Georgia cannot hold it because she doesn't have hands, but she can kiss it. The other day she told me she wants to rock the baby; I told her she could help me rock it. I have a feeling that any issues we have with a new baby in the house are going to veer more on the side of EGR wanting to do more for the baby than she is able. I just ordered a book for her called "What Baby Needs" that talks all about babies and the things they do when they are tiny so that I can help her understand what to expect.
After a rough first trimester, thanks mostly to Ella and I both being sick for most of January on top of the usual exhaustion and my feeling like yakking every evening until I actually did at bedtime, I now feel good. At my last appointment I had them check my iron levels, and after sitting through the standard "faintness in pregnancy is normal" speech they confirmed that I am anemic again. I really didn't need the blood work to tell me that; I felt exactly like I did when I was anemic with Ella - and really, how could I have built up any iron stores after an anemic pregnancy and 19 months of nursing? Three days on iron pills, and I felt great. Now I just need to work on making a habit of exercising regularly again. I foresee that being a problem this time around, given our evening routine, but it might just get pushed back by half an hour or so.
My pregnancy calendar says the baby is about 5 inches long and weighs 5 ounces, and it can now here sounds outside my uterus.
This pregnancy is passing lightening fast given how busy life is with a toddler, but I'll try to update regularly.
