Natalie’s Blog

Natalie’s latest entertainment is to push her little doll stroller around the house while we chase her pushing the regular stroller. The other night I was making the stroller do a “wheelie,” which Natalie thought was the funniest thing ever…

Saturday morning we went back to the doctor, who said Natalie’s ears were finally cleared of infection! Thank goodness the first shot worked, so she didn’t need another one. Unfortunately there is still fluid in the ears, which may take a while to drain. That’s only a problem because as long as there is fluid in the ears, they are at risk of becoming infected again.

The doctor’s visit confirmed our belief that Natalie is much more comfortable with women than she is with men. We saw two female doctors (her regular pediatrician we see most often and another female doctor we saw for the first time) during this ear infection and Natalie was completely fine with both of them. She let them look in her ears and clean out tons of wax without making a peep. On Saturday we saw a young male doctor (who looked completely harmless) and Natalie completely flipped out. She was okay sitting on my lap while we told him all the details of the infection. As soon as he tried to look in her ear, she screamed her little head off and acted like a bull let out of a cage. She acted the same way the last time she saw a male doctor. It took both Chris and I to hold her still enough for the doctor to examine her ears. I was so glad he was able to see enough and didn’t need to clean out any wax, because we seriously may have needed to sedate her…

Please keep your fingers crossed so that Natalie stays healthy for a while!

I’m so frustrated I could cry. Poor Natalie has been in pain for over two weeks after a second antibiotic failed to clear up her ear infection. Last night Natalie had a complete meltdown at bedtime and was trying to stick her finger in her ear. After giving her some motrin, she felt better but still didn’t go to sleep until 11 pm. Today the doctor (who we’ve now seen for the third time in 3 weeks) decided to try giving her a shot of antibiotics. It was a big shot in her leg and ever since then, Natalie’s been crying in pain when she bends down. Fingers crossed that it will do the trick. We go back on Saturday to see if the infection is cleared up. If it hasn’t, she will need a second injection. Oh, and she also has pink eye, so we need to put drops in her eyes 3 times a day for 5 days. That should tons of fun…

P.S. My cell phone is completely dead. If you need to reach me, email is best until I get a new phone. Hopefully this weekend.

Natalie talks about one of favorite books, Owl Babies.

Untitled from nataliecaroline on Vimeo.

Love & Colors from nataliecaroline on Vimeo.

Natalie loves corn on the cob so much she couldn’t even wait for it to get cooked! Grandma enlisted Natalie to help shuck and as soon as the husk was out of her way, Natalie dug in! Photos by Aunt Katy.

See how much I ate?

Grandma figured out why Natalie liked that picture of Skinner so much…It’s because he reminds her of her favorite “pizza man”….

I love this photo of Natalie with her Pop Pop! They were looking at the way the clouds turned pink as the sun set…

Ugh. When will I ever learn? Note to self: next time you think your daughter has been possessed by evil spirits, try taking her to the doctor. I can’t believe I didn’t make the connection, when we just went down this road in February.

Poor Natalie. I took her to the doctor last Friday after she’d shown clear signs of an ear infection. She’d had a cold around Memorial Day, and then Chris got a sinus infection, so it made sense that an ear infection would follow. We saw Dr. Stephen, who had to clean out a ton of ear wax in order to see the infection. She was extremely gentle and Natalie got through the experience without shedding a singe tear. What a difference from the last time a doctor had to clean her ears. Dr. Stephen prescribed Augmentin and sent us on our way. And just like with Natalie’s last ear infection in February, I got sucked into a false sense of security. Silly me for thinking that antibiotics actually work.

When Natalie was still cranky and not eating by day 4 on the antibiotics, I should have realized that something was wrong. But like last time, I attributed her mood to her age and thought she was just going through a bad phase. If you read my two posts (one from February and one last week) side-by side, it’s amazing how similar they are—same issues were happening with Natalie. I even used some of the same phrasing.

After being cranky all week, last night Natalie woke up 30 minutes after she went to bed, screaming and tugging at her ear. So, I took her back to the doctor this morning. After clearing away yet more wax, the doctor confirmed that not only was last week’s infected ear not any better, but her other ear is now infected as well. She prescribed a different antibiotic, one which I really hope will work. But if Natalie’s not better soon, I’ll take her back without hesitation. Anyone else have a sense of déjà vu? This post is almost exactly like this one that I wrote a few months ago. Hopefully this time I’ve learned my lesson and Natalie will never have to go through this again. I feel so guilty that yet again I thought Natalie was acting out when she was really just in pain.

On a lighter note, Natalie has picked the same sticker from the doctor’s office two weeks in a row. I gave her choices of stickers with different animals on them, which she rejected. Both times she rifled through the sticker basket until she found a sticker with a picture of Skinner from Ratatouille on it:

I wonder why she likes this image?!?

I promise I’ll post some pictures of Natalie soon!

Thank goodness for these articles on askmoxie.org about the 18-month-old stage of crappy sleeping, non-eating, and throwing tantrums. Otherwise we have assumed that our child has been possessed by evil spirits. For the first time ever since starting this blog, I’m too tired to go into much detail. Suffice to say that one minute, everything will be fine, Natalie will be her sweet self and then all of a sudden she’s hysterical and inconsolable. Remember a month ago, when Natalie wanted to get down all the time? Now she often screams when we try to put her down. Cranky and clingy during the day wouldn’t be so hard if it didn’t take 30 minutes or more of bouncing and shushing (standing! sitting results in loud screaming protests!) all 22 pounds of her to get her to sleep at night. My new mantra is, “it’s just a phase, it’s just a phase….”