The Never-Ending Story of Us: Happy Valentine's Day, etc.

Happy Valentine's Day to Everyone!

Here I've been just slacking off the blog thinking I had nothing much to update, and now that I'm here I feel like I have tons to report!

Just a few days after my last post when Andrew got his 12-month shots, we took our first visit to the Emergency Room. Andrew had a weird day, just not his usual self, and before we put him to bed, we took his temp and it was 103.4. I went into panic mode and we headed to the ER. After several hours, we were told that an inner ear infection, in combination with his hefty 12-month vaccines had caused the high fever. They gave him some Tylenol and a prescription for Amoxicillin for the ear infection. We headed home, only to have Andrew wake up at 4am with an equally high fever. Being inexperienced and uninformed parents, we headed back to the ER, where the same people were still on shift, and told us that they should've told us last time we were there that if his fever continued to be high, to give him Tylenol or Motrin, wait and hour, and take his temp again. If his fever didn't go down, or went up, then we should come back to the ER. Good to know. We headed home around 6am. What a day! Additionally, I discovered Andrew had TWO new teeth coming it at once, and I'm sure that added to the fever issues. Poor guy. Andrew did run a slight fever for a few days following, but improved with his medication.

Andrew & Daddy in the ER

The day after Andrew finished his antibiotics, I noticed a rash on his belly. Within days, he had a full-body rash; arms, legs, face, back... everywhere. It didn't seem to bother him, or make him itchy, but I was concerned, so we got an appointment at the pediatrician. Apparently strawberries (which we had recently started giving Andrew) can cause reactions in children his age, and the Resident that saw us thought that was the cause and told us to no longer give him strawberries. When the Attending came in, she immediately said it look reminiscent of chickenpox/measles, and was likely a reaction to (..you guessed it!) his 12-month vaccines. She said it should go away on its own, but to keep an eye on it, and come back if necessary. It took about a week, but it completely went away, and he was finally back to his old self. Those 12-month vaccines are a doozy! New/expectant parents, BEWARE! We would advise spacing out the shots and not getting them all at once; it's a little overwhelming on the little one's systems.

This was at the beginning before the rash got bad.

About a week or two after that, I came down with an extremely sore throat (4th time I'd been sick since December), and I ended up at the ER one Sunday because I could hardly swallow. (For never once in my life going to the ER, we sure made up for it; 3 times in a matter of weeks). They tested me for strep; the rapid strep test came back negative but they were going to do a culture that wouldn't be back for a few days. The doctor I saw said she was going to treat it as if it were strep regardless of the results, because my throat obviously had some issues going on. I was given a 10-day (4 times a day!) course of antibiotics. FINALLY [knock on wood] we are all feeling healthy again!

Andrew has only gotten one new tooth since the two that came in at the beginning of January. He is now only taking one nap a day instead of two - I can't decide if I like that or not yet, ha! I think any day he'll be walking. He does a good job of walking with Matt or I holding just one of his hands. Still not much of a talker yet, but we know he'll get there! He loves to turn the pages of books, and has almost mastered drinking out of sippy cups! We thought the day would never come!

I've been really bad about taking pictures lately, but here are a few!