Another "First"

Today Rebekah has been without Pullups or Diapers since she woke up this morning. For the last four days, she kept her pullup and underwear (which she wore under her pullup) dry - even with all the Christmas travels, so today Mommy let her wear just underwear. So far, she has done great! And it hasn't been an easy day. She truly is growing up and we are thankful for that.

In many ways it has been a great Christmas. We got to spend it together as a family and see and spend time with all the Grandparents. And we didn't have to have bags packed for the hospital - just in case. Rebekah ate everywhere we went. What a difference a year makes - last year she didn't eat much of anything, if anything at all. She has actually had about a week without needing "tummy drinks" at night. And we've been blessed by many friends and family members in so many ways.

In other ways, it has been a difficult few days. Saturday (the 23rd) we headed to Grandma A's to celebrate with her. On the way, Rebekah complained about her left eye hurting. When we got to Grandma's house, we put some drops in her eye and several times during the evening we put more drops in. She seldom complains about her eye hurting, but we put drops in it nightly because of the tear duct constriction and issues with dry eye. At bedtime, we took a closer look and she had some mucus in her eye, so we cleared that out (with more drops and tissue wipes and lots of screaming and a very unhappy little girl).

By morning, her eye was crusty but a couple of drops seemed to clear it up. So throughout the day, we continued the drops and tried to keep the mucus cleared up. She wasn't real fond of it, but tolerated it. Again, at nighttime, we did a good cleaning and put drops in for the night.

By Christmas morning, her eye was totally crusted over and she couldn't open it. It took several minutes of drops and rubbing and working it to get it cleared up and it was definitely red and hurting. Poor girl. After opening presents at home, we headed to Grandma M's and stopped at one of the local grocery stores (which was open and has carried the brand of drops that I like) so that we could buy more since we were going through it quickly. As I (mommy) am looking at the shelf for the drops, I discover that the drops (a liquid gel) I've been using have been recalled because of possible mold. Ugh! So I bought some regular drops, and a different brand of gel for at nighttime. We stopped using the recalled drops and moved forward with the others.

Christmas night, we put the new gel in her eye when she went to bed and again when mommy went to bed (surprised that she didn't wake up with that). Then I checked on her at 3:30 to make sure she was doing ok and didn't need more - we didn't want a repeat of Christmas morning. She was doing fine, so I let her be.

Tuesday morning (the day after Christmas), we called the eye surgeon's office to let them know what was happening and see if she should be seen. In addition to the eye issues, she had a bit of a cough, a low grade fever and green crud expelling from her nose. All that combined, the eye doc wasn't too concerned about the eye. We need to keep puting drops in it at least 4 times a day and gel at night. She seemed to be doing better with the closer attention - more drops and the gel.

This morning (Wednesday morning), when she woke up she was running 102.6 fever so we called the pediatrician to get her in. We took her in this morning and had to have the nurse help get the wax out of both ears, so doc could get a good look. The left ear was definitely sore and on its way to infected. He put her on Augmentin (an antibiotic) to help with her ears, eyes, nose, and g-tube site (which is also starting to look more irritated than usual). We'll start the Augmentin this evening and hopefully she'll be doing better in 2 or 3 days.

If Rebekah has done so well with using the big girl potty despite all that has been going wrong with her these last few days, she's a pretty tough little girl. She did a great job while we were out and about today, too. Mommy was a little worried about taking her out without the pullup safety net, but she did a great job. At one point while we were driving she told me she needed to go potty. I thought, oh no. I asked her if we needed to go into the grocery store and use the potty or if we could stop at the bank and then go to Grandma's and use her potty. She told me she wanted to go to Grandma's. So that is what we did. What a big girl!

Mommy has gotten a nasty cold or flu or something - bad headache, nausea, sore throat, etc... It wiped her out Christmas Eve all day and Christmas Day and it is still causing problems. Mommy wasn't much company at Grandpa and Grandma C's Christmas Eve - she layed down and skipped dinner and most of the presents. Daddy had to take care of the girls, with some help from Grandma C and Aunt TT. Yesterday, daddy seemed to have caught it. Ugh!

Today, we called Grandma M and Grandma A to see if they could watch Sarah (who hasn't seemed to catch this yet) to keep her (and her energy) away from the rest of us. They are doing a bit of tag teaming, but will keep her tonight and most of the day tomorrow. Hopefully, that will give us a chance to catch up a little.

Stay tuned for the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT after the first of the year. (And for those of you who are wondering, it is NOT that mommy is pregnant.)