It's been a while

January 3, 2009
Funny how a blog can stress you out. Every time I look at mine, I think "Man, I need to update this". Since I wrote last, we had Skyler's birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc - and we are headed into Spring. I guess that is what the holidays do to you. So here is a recent update of how things are with our family. 

It seems that some evil force has come along and taken over the health of our family. We can't manage to be healthy  for more than a week before someone gets something new. Well, the big one happened to Skyler. Right before going back to school, she somehow got a staph infection. Specifically, MRSA (or - "Mersa"). This is a staph infection that is resistant to many types of typical antibiotics. If it goes untreated, it can affect other parts of the body, like the blood, internal organs, the heart, etc. Skyler started out with bumps all over her torso that looked like spider bites. We had them checked at the doctor and he confirmed that they were bites, not chicken pox etc. Well, within 3 days, they were all looking more like boils, and one had abscessed to the point of being about 1" diameter. That day I had to pick her up from school, cuz she was crying about it hurting so bad. The doctor said MRSA, and gave her the "big guns" for antibiotics - saying that if they didn't work, she may have to be admitted for stronger ones and to have them drained. Thank God, they seem to have worked. Now we just get to watch her and hope she doesn't get them again. (fairly likely...)

Now for her sister. (I swear I am not trying to post such a negative blog!) We have been told that Alexa is not tracking well with her eyes (that of a 2 month old, when she is 4 months old). Her deviation is off. When we first noticed anything, her pediatrician mentioned possible lazy eye (strabismus). So I prepared myself to be given exercises, a patch even possible surgery to correct it. However, upon going to the Opthamologist, the doctor said that her vision, eye health, and even focus are good. But she can't track and stay with something. So the next step is an MRI, which scares the crap out of me - for one to watch my baby have to go thru that, and for two, to hear the results. But they have to check for any neurological/brain abnormalities - one possibility being SOD - Septo Optic Dysplasia. It is when a section of the brain is missing - causing anything from eye development delay to - well... the list is long, and includes other developmental delays. So if you are reading this, please keep your fingers crossed for us and send your prayers our way.

I must end with some positives, because although we have had a rough start of the year, my beautiful family is the greatest! Way back in November (on Thanksgiving to be exact), Skyler turned 3 years old. We had a party with all her friends, then at school, then with family - you know the drill. She had a blast tho, and just loves saying that she is 3. Between that and Christmas, she is STILL saying that she wants to open more presents. Christmas was a total blur - way too much to do and way too many presents. By 10am, Sky was full of candy and needing to take a break from the piles and piles of her presents. By noon, we were on the road to San Diego to go see family, and by 4pm, she was opening presents again. It was a lot of fun tho and it went by way too fast. She is currently trying to get back in the groove of going to school. With the break and getting sick, she was home for 5 weeks - way too long. We have had a couple weeks of "I don't wanna go to school!", but she seems to be getting better. Now I just need her to understand that we can't go to Disneyland everyday, just cuz we have a pass. ; )

Alexa is getting big SO fast. She is smiling all the time and I find myself just being a goofy mom all day so I can get her to smile or laugh. She is also rolling over - to tummy and back. After reading my last blog, it's fascinating to me that things were so tough while she was colicky. It was absolutely terrible - for all 4 of us. But sure enough, as everyone said it would, a switch went off at 3 months and she completely stopped. She goes to bed at 6pm and sleeps til 6am. Now we are on to the next "thing" - there is always something new to work on with a baby. For a long time we were working on getting her to take a bottle, and now she's pretty good at it. Not great - but good. Now, I have forced myself to give up the swing and swaddle for naps. Boy is that hard - because it is basically giving up 2 hour naps. So we are doing some "sleep training" - letting her cry for a while, in hopes that she will learn to put herself back to sleep. Ugh - it's just torture!! I didn't have to do this with Skyler, but I also didn't have another child to take care of. I just hope it will pay off in the long run. 

Here are a few pictures from the last couple months. I even posted a photo of Sky when she was a baby to show much she and Alexa look alike.

Alexa - 4 months

Skyler - 6 months

Sistas hangin out

Silliness on christmas morning after too much candy

Sky building her first gingerbread house