I think the never ending sickness is over . . .

We have been fever free since Friday afternoon!! And Liam has been in a wonderful mood. He is still congested and has a cough, but over all he is much better. I think that he will be happy to be back at daycare tomorrow.

We took his 11 month pictures today, a few days late, but with him being sick, I didn't want to make him sit through my need to get monthly pics with some of his stuffed animals. Although this seemed like a wonderful idea when he was a month old and I could just prop him up in the corner of the love seat with a stuffed animal, it is now becoming increasingly difficult each month as Liam really doesn't enjoy sitting still for more than 2 seconds!

He likes to flail around like a goof and throw his toys at me . . . and when all else fails, he tries to crawl away!

But eventually we get a couple of good ones!! And that will make it all worth while in the years to come when we look back at how fast he grew as a baby!

I am not Green with envy anymore . . .

. . . because my new Green Bin arrived today! When I first learned that Ottawa was finally putting a Green Bin program in place, I was thrilled. Until I learned that rural residents wouldn't be a part of the program, living in what I thought was classified as a rural part of the city, I didn't expect to be getting one. So, when I got home today and found one in my driveway, I did a happy dance. Well, not really, but I was excited. I am looking forward to January when I can start to toss stuff into my bin instead of the garbage bag. I do have a composter and try hard to compost what I can, however, my composter fills up much faster than the stuff in it composts. So, while I wait for the big black box hidden away behind my shed to do it's magic on my potato peels and vegetable scraps, I end up tossing stuff into the garbage.

Now, when my composter is full, I will be filling my green bin. And I was happy to see that there are a lot of things that can go into the green bin that can't go into my compost . . . meat waste, kitty litter, and paper plates, among other things can now be composted instead of filling up the landfill.

I am happy that I can do one more small thing to help environment!

The Never-ending Saga Of My Sick Baby

It all began last Monday morning when Rhonda, my boss came to tell me that Liam had a fever of 101.6 F. After what felt like a million phone calls, we arranged for Auntie Margaret and Auntie Regan to come get the sick little boy for the afternoon. I quickly made arrangements to take Tuesday off work so that I could take Liam to the pediatrician. Those plans were quickly flushed down the toilet when I finally actually spoke to the Dr's office. They wouldn't see Liam unless he'd had the fever for 3 or 4 days or had other symptoms. In hindsight, I should have embellished some other symptoms, but I didn't expect them to say that they didn't want to see my 10 month old infant with the 102 F fever.

Tuesday, I stayed home with my little man. In the morning, there was no fever, I thought that we were in the clear! (The first of many times I have had that thought during the past week and a half.) However, I was wrong, after lunch, the fever was up to 102 F. I decided that I wasn't letting my baby suffer with a fever for 3 or 4 days and off we went to the walk in clinic. I expected a long wait in a crowded waiting room of sick people, so I was very pleasantly surprised when we were seen right away. And, I left the clinic again thinking that we were in the clear . . . just a virus, the nice, although very young looking Dr said.

Again, I was wrong. The high (101-102 F range) continued for Wednesday and Thursday. Not sure what I would have done without Auntie Margaret and Auntie Regan looking after the munchkin for me as there is no way I could have missed that much work. Thursday, we were at day 4 of the fever, so I was back on the phone with the pediatrician's answering machine (however, that is a gripe for another post on another day!). Finally after two messages, I was able to schedule an appointment for Friday afternoon, which meant another day off for me.

Through all of this, Liam was an amazing little guy, always happy, eating well and loving his time with his Aunties (and Grandma when she was home from work). Friday morning, he was in a great mood and didn't have a fever! He even let me sleep in a little bit! We went off to the Dr in the afternoon . . . our 1:30pm appointment turned into being seen at 2:30pm, but I was just happy that they had been able to fit us in. And finally, we had an answer - ear infection in both ears - and a prescription! Thank you Dr. McConville!

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday were all good! Liam takes his medicine like a pro. No fever since Friday. He was in a great mood and thrilled to be back at daycare after missing a week. We were in the clear . . . WRONG again!!

Tuesday night, he was up THREE times! The last time, at 3:30am, he was screaming in pain, so out came the infant tylenol (at this rate, I think that I should be buying it by the case,) and we got a little more sleep. I knew that something was up, I just didn't know what. There was no fever this morning and he seemed OK, so off we went to daycare. I was not the slightest bit surprised when I was informed at 10:30m that he had a fever again . . . I was not at all impressed, but not surprised. So, off we went to the pediatrician again.

I was sure that we would be getting new antibiotics because the old ones were working, but the Dr said that his ears are looking better and that this fever is mostly likely a new virus on top of the infection. So, tomorrow, Liam is off to spend the day with his Grandma and Aunties again and I've got my fingers crossed that he will be better by Friday!

AGH! He's crawling!!!!

Now, it really shouldn't be a surprise, he's 10 months after all, Liam has started crawling! He just started on really being able to move on Thursday evening, and already his favorite thing to do is crawl to the bookshelf that houses all of our DVDs and start pulling them off the shelves. And in the kitchen he has discovered the metal ice bucket on the bottom of the baker's rack. He hasn't figured out how to get it off the shelf yet, but he has figured out that it makes a cool noise if you bang it with something! And when you are 10 months old, noise it good!

Now comes the task of baby proofing . . . I really don't know why I haven't already done it. I knew this day was coming and it would have made so much more sense to do it in anticipation of this day. But no, that's not how I work. I have procrastinated yet again and now I have to spend my spare time this week moving things, putting latches on cupboard doors and crawling around the house on my hands and knees looking for things that might not see walking around like a normal person.

H1N1

To get vaccinated or not to get vaccinated . . . that is the question . . .

Honestly, for me, it wasn't much of a question. Liam's pediatrician recommended the shot, so that's what I planned to do from the beginning. It seemed to make sense to me as Liam is in daycare with 10 other babies, all of whom are in the "if I can put it in my mouth I will" stage and that makes for A LOT of germ sharing. (Ironically, that is about the only thing that infants and toddlers share!) It is inevitable that H1N1 will rear it's ugly head in the daycare and when it does, it will spread like wildfire. I feel that as a parent it is my job to do whatever I can to protect Liam (and myself as I am in the daycare too!) from getting it. And that means to get the shot.

But Daddy wasn't sure that he wanted Liam to get the vaccination. He was concerned by the fact that the vaccine wasn't very throughly tested and that no one knows the long term effects. And that there are many doctors out there that are saying to stay away from the shot. Unfortunately all of his reasons for not wanting Liam to get the shot are just as valid as my reasons for wanting him to get it.

So we debated the pros and cons and asked everyone we knew what they thought and what they were doing for themselves and their kids. We want what's best for our baby but it is so hard to know what that is in this situation.

In the end, we decided that Liam and I would get the shot. There was a clinic in North Gower today, so I got up this morning and headed over to the Alfred Taylor RA to line up for a wrist band which would guarantee us a shot today. We arrived at 7:00 and began to wait. The atmosphere around our spot in line was a little tense and concerned as it was immediately apparent that we were not going to be in the 300 wristbands that were guaranteed to be handed out at 7:30am. Many rumors circulated as we waited . . . they didn't have enough vaccine, they had to wait for more to come from other clinics, they didn't have enough people to administer the vaccine, there would be more wristbands, there wouldn't be anymore wrist bands . . . as the minutes ticked by, the rumors continued to grow . . . finally we got the official word that they would be giving out 300 more wristbands. Still, I wasn't sure we were going to get one, there were still many people ahead of us. But at 10:30, after 3 and a half hours of waiting, Liam and I had wristbands. We were to return at 1:00pm for our shots. I felt relieved . . . it would be smooth sailing from there.

I couldn't have been more wrong. We arrived back just before 1:00 and was told that we would have at least an hour wait before we got into the building and another hour and a half once we were inside. I could have cried! So back in line we went. Eventually someone from Ottawa Public Health came out and explained the situation . . . in order to get as many people as possible through the clinic today, they had double booked return times. They assured us that we would all get the shot, but that it would take time. As much as I understand their desire to get as many people as possible vaccinated, I wish that they had given later return times as opposed to double booking. However, at that point, I had two choices . . . wait or give up and do it all over again next weekend. I waited. At around 4pm, we finally got into the building and then things moved fairly quickly. We got our shots and were finished and ready to leave by 5pm.

It was a LONG, EXHAUSTING day and I am glad that it is over. However, we have to do it all again in three weeks. Young child need to get two shots of this vaccine, at least 21 days apart. So, on November 26th, when Ottawa Public Health again invades the Alfred Taylor RA in North Gower, I will be there again. Hopefully by then they lines will have dwindled, but given that these are the only two clinics scheduled for North Gower, I am going to guess that it will be much of the same.