April 10

I only had one spit up incident that required a wardrobe change today, instead of the three I had yesterday. So that automatically makes today better than yesterday, right? It was a long day, though.

It started with loading all four kids in the van before 7:30 this morning for an 8 am doctor appointment to have Caleb's ears re-checked after his ear infection two weeks ago. Caleb had a very low-grade fever, probably related to the cough he woke up with this morning, and the doctor said that his ear was improving, though not 100% better. My take-away is that I really need to focus on boosting the immune systems of all of my kiddos, because the sunshine and warm weather aren't helping them improve like I'd hoped.

I weighed Eli before we left, and he was 10 pounds exactly.

One week ago, he was 9 lb, 13 oz, so he's only gained 3 oz in a week. That's not great. However, I will attribute the slow weight gain to the copious amounts of spit up we've seen this week. I'm not going to let myself get too concerned.

Then I loaded all four kids back in the van and drove back across the river to drop Caleb off just as school was about to start. We headed home and I had enough time to nurse Eli, change my clothes and give him a bath after he puked all over me, get Eli to sleep, and make a fresh batch of elderberry syrup before it was time to feed the girls early lunch and put them down for early naps.

Meanwhile, Chris left work to go be the Mystery Reader in Caleb's classroom. Caleb's teacher sent us this picture:

Caleb was so happy and surprised to see Chris, and he and his friends loved The Book with no Pictures.

Both girls were sound asleep by noon, and after I ate my lunch, Eli and I even managed to nap together for about thirty minutes. Then it was time to wake my three sleeping sweeties and drive back across the river for a follow-up appointment with an ENT.

You may remember that just over a month ago, we to Lily to see an ENT because of her persistent ear infections. Well, the doctor we ended up seeing was not very helpful, wouldn't answer my questions, and prescribed a course of action I wasn't happy with. So we ignored him and saw the chiropractor instead.

I initially scheduled to follow-up to verify that the chiropractic care was working. However, when Lily got another ear infection after five sessions with the chiropractor, I realized that we legitimately needed to see the ENT. I had the foresight, though, to cancel my follow-up appointment with the lame doctor and schedule one with a new doctor instead. That was today.

Lily snacked on an apple while she waited to be seen.

I knew right away that this doctor was better because Lily allowed him to examine her, while she refused to cooperate for the last doc. Ultimately, this doctor wants us to have tubes put in Lily's ears. When I expressed hesitation about that, he took time to answer all of my questions and eventually offered a less invasive course of action, which was actually what the first doctor had recommended, too. So, basically we're in the exact same position we were in five weeks ago, except that Lily has had one more ear infection and I now understand exactly why this course of action is appropriate. I feel pretty bad that Lily has had to go through all of this, but mostly I feel annoyed that the first doctor was so lame and unhelpful. If he had addressed my concerns right away, Lily might be feeling better right now!

I packed the kids back into the van and drove back home, just in time to begin making pizza for Friday pizza night.

After dinner, we celebrated the  weekend and children who were cooperative for doctor visits by going out for some ice cream.

Apparently these are their ice cream faces.

This is my ice cream face. Miraculously, I didn't spill any ice cream on Eli's head!

Caleb was a wild man after his ice cream, so we strolled along the river front to burn off some energy before heading home. Lily was impressed by this giant dog statue. Can you tell that she's patting the dog's extended tongue, while sticking out her own tongue? It was pretty funny.

 Our after-dinner adventure made for late bedtime tonight, but the kids were okay with that.

While Chris put Caleb to bed, the younger three snuggled in my bed with me.

Lily really enjoyed her Eli time. She's starting to say his name pretty well: "Eee-yi!"

And goodnight. 

Busy day + colds and coughs all around = we will sleep well tonight!