Very special days indeed

2 years ago yesterday, we FINALLY brought our sweet Mary Louise home from the hospital after 92 days of waiting, praying, hoping, begging and pleading. A couple of refreshers:

Just getting home


Ready for her first pedi appointment:


After one of her first baths at home:



To celebrate, we had a mash-em-up day! To start, we made banana bread as we had a few over ripe nanners just begging to be mashed. David worked the mixer (with MUCH supervision of course) and Mary Louise rubbed butter over the pan. The each got a bowl with 2 bananas, washed their hands, and went to mashing. After their initial shock and looks of, "I'm sorry Mom, you want me to do WHAT?!", they really had a ton of fun.

Nap time lasted the typical 45 minutes or so for Mary Louise while David took an extra specially long snoozer (try 3.5 hours of hard sleep...more on that in a moment.) So, Mary Louise got some much needed "only-child" time. We had an absolute ball with Play-doh. She smashed it, mashed it, squashed it, rubbed it around in her hands. We made things with it, laughed over it, broke it apart and made more things with it. It was way too much fun! We snuggled with snacks on the couch, went outside and watered the plants, and in between, we played "check on the Dae-Dae" in which we snuck up the stairs in an over exaggerated manner to peak our heads round the corner at the slumbering David. We made phone calls to Mommom and Uncle Collin - Mary Louise proudly said, "HI!!!" to each. She even said Hi to Papa! We had a really good time. Then David woke up...

I should preface this with a short bit about Saturday (last Saturday). We played outside - Mary Louise and David sans any shred of clothing - and ended up getting chomped on by seemingly invisible bugs - chiggers, red bugs, whatever you want to call them...mean little suckers...David even got bitten on his eye lid and looked like a prize fighter the next day...

Mary Louise's leg: (2 days post initial bite)


over the next couple of days, the bites seemed to get better on Mary Louise. But David kept getting more. We didn't go outside but for a few minutes in the afternoon one day and came right back in when David started to scratch -but it was too late, he'd already been bitten again...or so it seemed. The marks looked so angry and inflamed - as if he was also having a reaction to the bite. They would swell, I gave Benedryl, they would go down and look much better the next day. We sprayed them both with natural bug spray and began to wonder if that was part of the problem - though I'd used it many times before and not had this happen. We didn't go outside for the past 2 days other than to just let Lizzie and Chester run a bit. David's bites were pretty much gone - until yesterday post nap time. He woke up like this:


and this:


He played happily inside with little itching while I fretted over taking him to an Urgent Care (because of course it was 5pm by that time). He wasn't having trouble breathing and ate a great dinner and wasn't really all that grumpy until bath time. Then he went to bed with little fuss - especially considering the wildly long nap during the day. I had given him a low dose of Benedryl but otherwise kept everything else the same. He finished day 10 of his bronchitis antibiotics yesterday as well...and woke looking like this:


Want to know what a Penicillin allergy looks like?? See above. We rushed out to the doctor this morning - I brought Mary Louise too just to make sure. They both had bug bites...on top of which David had (and has) pretty severe, migrating hives from head to toe. He now has them behind his ears, over his scalp, under his arms, on his palms, around his ankles and knees. Sweet baby is miserable...and we have to carry an epi pen for him just in case. He has started a 4 to 5 day round of prednisone to keep the hives in check and help them to improve. Though I am not at all a fan of the rampant over-use of steriods, this is the reason those bad boys were made...and who knows, maybe my slim little guy will pack on a pound or 2 through this??? At any rate, though I'm pretty upset about this, at the very least we've caught the issue BEFORE having an all out devastating emergency.

As we were leaving the doctor, I said, "ok guys, let's go" and sassy pants Mary Louise turned toward David calling in a very authoritative tone," guys! GUYS!!" then clapped her hands in his face, but them on her hips and waited for his attention so she could let him know we were leaving. In that moment, I began to formulate plans in my head for building an apartment over the garage. This apartment would eventually be occupied by myself and Brent from approximately 2022 to 2027. Mary Louise and David can have the house through their teenage years. I'm already admitting defeat!

This afternoon, Brent had the most wonderful, fabulous, amazing surprise in store for me...an 80 minute massage followed by a pedicure at a wonderful full service spa. My very good friend, a massage therapist there, helped him to plan the day. To say that I am thankful is such an understatement. I relaxed, I was pampered, my every whim was fulfilled. It was just lovely. At the end of it all, after I showered, a second time (because I could), after I'd shaved my legs, even though I didn't need to - I just wanted to remember what it felt like to do so without having the cold water turned off in the middle, or my pajamas from the night before thrown in behind me, or a whole roll of toilet paper fly through the air and land at my wet foot while having one leg perched between toys and baby shampoo bottles - after that, after the massage, after the pedicure, after I dried my hair, and took an extra long time brushing it, I looked in the mirror, and there she was - me - I haven't seen me in so very long...I didn't even know if I (or me) existed anymore. It was me, alive, refreshed and so ready to get back to my sweet babies and husband. I smiled, called Brent and he came to get me. I can't thank him enough for the little and the large happies he gives me - just when I need them the very very most.

Unfortunately, David the Grump came for a visit this evening...as if he didn't look beat up enough with his awesomeness of hives, he got angry at me when I closed the door to use the bathroom (umm- he was IN there with me and this happened to be the one. the ONLY time he has ever wanted out). In the literally 15.5 seconds it took me to pee, he opted to beat his head on the door to push it open...my heart broke a little...he hasn't hit his head since the very end of June at a family reunion...but today, he did it twice - once at the doctor but it was just on my leg so no injuries, and then this...

whomever would like to tell me now (pediatrician) that "he won't hurt himself" and to "just ignore him" feel free, but don't take it personally if I kindly disregard the advice with the answer, "I'm sorry, that simply doesn't fit our situation"...a work in progress (sigh).

I have a speech therapist friend of a friend scheduled to evaluate Mary Louise and David on Thursday. I'll see what her feelings are on their expressive speech and go from there.

If you have time and feel so called, please send happy thoughts to sweet David. He has a rather itchy weekend ahead...

xo,
Heather

P.S. Pops is doing very well recovering at home and has even made it out of the house a time or 2. MANY MANY thanks for the continued thoughts and prayers during his recovery.