Florida Christmas Video

Sylvie is dying to play today, but exertion makes her cough... so she's taking it easy in front of the TV for at least one more day while I catch up on some video editing. Here's the long-awaited Florida Christmas video...

Getting Better and Better

You know things are returning to normal in our house when I'm back posting every little moment of Sylvie's life to our blog...

Here's a cute video of Sylvie's post meal bath last night. Those who have been dogged by my video camera will appreciate the casual but pointed brush-off she gives me at the end...

Good night last night. Some coughing, but nothing over and above what you'd expect from a regular cold. Still hacking this morning - but hacking and eating, which is the big thing. A whole cereal bar for breakfast today... which isn't any different from the amount she ate pre-illness.

Turns out somebody upstairs took me up on the offer of 'cosmic balancing' that I made two nights ago. As predicted by Syl's pediatrician on Monday, RSV does in fact manifest in adults as a very bad cold. So far so good for Melissa, and with Sylvie on the mend I could care less about some sniffles.

Also, I just experienced a particularly nice milestone. We're always telling Sylvie "I love you," and usually/sometimes she echoes us. Just now, for the first time, I was just walking through the room where she's watching Dora the Explorer, and she looked up and said, "Daddy?" "What Syl?" I asked. "I love you," she said without looking away from Dora. Good stuff.

Also, a moment ago she came up to me, tugged my leg, and said, "I HAPPY!!! YAAAAAAY!" and then ran off to play with her puzzles. She can't say, "Boy, I feel better and I sure am happy about it" - but that's what she's saying!

Looking forward to resuming my usual happy posting!

Sylvie is happy to see herself feeling better too...

Mirror shots, post very fun bath this evening. It's amazing how her little personality just surged right back with just a half a peanut butter sandwich and some animal crackers!

I'm sure the euphoria at having our girl back has something to do with it, but this last shot is now officially my favorite photo of Sylvie.

The most beautiful sight these eyes have ever seen

With apologies to Ned Beatty's character in the movie Rudy, Notre Dame Stadium doesn't hold a candle to the sight that greeted me when I walked in from work tonight.

Over the hump?

That's an aspirational subject line... not sure yet. I'm at work this morning, so I haven't seen her first hand today.

Sylvie went to bed and to sleep very peacefully last night, once the coughing fit subsided. She woke up twice for pretty long, pretty bad coughs - at 1am and at 5am - before getting up for good around 9. No more vomiting, though, and in between fits she slept deeply, so that's good. Melissa reports that her little nose is a muck-fountain. Probably due to the ear infections. We're hoping that the new antibiotic kicks in today and takes care at least of those, so we can tell if the lung thing is getting better. Right now it's impossible to know if this terrible cough is still the bronchiolitis or if it's caused by the drainage from her ear infections. The bronchiolitis ought to be clearing up by now. It generally lasts 3 days to a week, and she's been fighting it since Sunday. Still no interest in food, but she's already into her first glass of juice of the day.

In other happy news, the 'bad cold' that the doctor predicted Melissa and I would get (that's how RSV manifests in adults) has arrived for me. Melissa is holding it off for now. I'm hoping there's some sort of cosmic balancing that will deduct from Sylvie's suffering as my symptoms get worse. That'd be fine by me.

Thanks again for all the messages. I look forward to posting the "out of the woods" video some time this weekend. We're also really looking forward to February. With the exception of our fun and blessedly illness free week in Florida, January has been the pits this year!

UPDATE (noon): I just called to check in, and (knock wood) it seems things are improving. Melissa said Syl is in a good mood, and has been playing all morning without triggering any bad coughing fits. She ate a little banana and a few raisins so far today. She said hi to me on the phone, and sounded croaky but in good spirits. Fingers crossed out there, please!

No video tonight

About an hour ago I literally sat down to let everyone know how much better Sylvie is doing. I guess karma didn't like that, and punished our poor little girl for it.

She finally ate a tiny little something this evening - a couple bites of grilled cheese, a third of a frozen yogurt bar, four bites of iced cream, a pretzel and a bite of a breakfast bar. Doesn't sound like much, but it's more than she's eaten in the entire 5 days since Saturday put together. She only ate as much of anything as she could get down before a coughing fit. She apparently considers coughing while eating to be a cause/effect thing now, and quits whatever she's eating as soon as the coughing starts. Anyhow, she responded to her little energy infusion by going on a playing rampage. She was literally running around the family room for no reason other than that she apparently felt worlds better.

Big mistake letting her do that. Her exertion touched off a coughing fit the likes of which we've never seen before. I almost called 9-1-1-. She vomited up everything she'd eaten (along with her antibiotic). She threw up four times, all over herself and Melissa, and coughed so hard that she broke the blood vessels around her eyes. I've never seen a look so miserable as the one she gave me after her fourth round of coughing/vomiting.

We're trying to tell ourselves that the fact that she was willing to eat a little bit and she does not have a fever means she's coming out of this. Boy, is it ever going out with a fight though. Not sure how she's going to sleep tonight - as I type she's having her favorite books read to her by mommy... and she's continuing to cough steadily.

It's a good thing I cannot track this virus back to whoever passed it on to my little girl.

Worried Daddy / Singing Sylvie

Syl had a pretty bad night, almost entirely because of the cough. She woke up this morning looking terrible - hooded eyes, croaky voice, snot everywhere. She started a coughing jag and couldn't stop. I called the doctor, and of course they said to bring her right in.

When we got to the doctor, I had my first good belly-laugh in days. Of COURSE by the time we got to the doctor's office, the coughing had calmed. Just to rub it in, just before the nurse came into the examination room Sylvie broke into a croaky chorus of the "la-la song." The nurse came in and said, "Well... she's better than what we expected."

Turns out I needn't have been embarrassed for overreacting, though. Turns out the antibiotic she has been on since Monday is not working, and her dual ear infections and quite a bit worse. So the doctor said it is a good thing we came in today so they could catch that. The ears probably explain the fact that she is suddenly drowning in snot; and of course there's no way to know whether the current cough is the out-going lung problems or an effect of the draining from her head caused by the ear infections. Either way, we're getting a stronger antibiotic today that hopefully will knock at least the ear infection out so that her tired little body can work on beating the lung virus.

Still not eating - but the doctor told me (AGAIN - but it helps to hear it) that kids can go a long time without food so long as they are drinking. She's still drinking like a champ. She's lost almost 2 pounds now, a not-insignificant percentage of her overall body weight. But she'll get that back.

Thanks for all the concern!

Video update

Syl and I thought we'd save you my typed narrative tonight and update you "in person" on her condition. Summary: she seems to be getting better... but still won't (or can't) eat anything. Still drinking though...

UPDATE: Latest manifestation of this miserable illness: now she apparently cannot lay still for any period of time without erupting into a horrible coughing fit. It ends with a gag, there's a momentary pause, and then it starts up again. I got her up and brought her downstairs to watch TV, use the nebulizer and calm down a bit, and she started asking for food. Everything she tried to swallow triggered a coughing fit. I think this is the worst part of it yet - knowing she's hungry and wants to eat but her cough-shredded throat won't let her get anything down. If anyone knows any miracle cures for a toddler cough, I'm all ears. Honey isn't working, nor tea, nor a steamy bathroom.

No worse

Melissa just called as she and Sylvie headed out of the doctor's office. The bad news is she's now added a pair of ear infections to her list of ailments. The good news is that the respiratory thing has not gotten any worse since yesterday. That is actually quite good news, since the real fear with this particular illness is that it could devolve quite easily into pneumonia.

Melissa reports that Sylvie got up at 9am and had no fever (another good sign). She still does not want any part of food. The doctor said, again, that so long as she is drinking and peeing we should not worry about the food thing, even if she does not want to eat for a few more days. That prospect makes me nauseous, personally, but I'm trying to convince myself that if it comes to that I'll be okay with it.

I'll drop a note tonight. We're hoping not to have another repeat of the nap/high fever/huge coughing fit routine that we've been through for the last few days. We'll see...

A message from Sylvie

Sylvie knows that her dad can be a bit of a worry wort, and wanted to reassure everyone who is so concerned about her that she's doing a little better. So before going to bed, she insisted on recording this brief message for you:

It turns out Ibuprofen works a lot better for Syl than does Acetaminophen. She's been taking so much Motrin this week, without eating anything, that I got worried about her stomach and switched to Tylenol tonight. Bad mistake. It did nothing to bring down her post-nap fever (102.7 today). She was a wreck as of about 7pm - barely able to sit up for the nebulizer, coughing until she gagged, etc., and her fever wasn't coming down. Aunt Lia reassured us vie phone call that we could put Motrin on top of the Tylenol, and a half hour later Sylvie was like a different person. She even ate a little, tiny bit (one goldfish cracker) and "drank" some yogurt smoothie that I gave her using a medicine syringe. Yes, that is what it's come to. But at least we got a little something other than antibiotic and fever-reducer into her belly. By the time she went down at 8 she was almost cheerful (that's when we recorded the message above).

Melissa is taking her back in to see the doctor at 9:50am tomorrow. Hopefully by then she'll be on an upswing and getting back her appetite. I think a good part of the reason she's so lethargic is that she really hasn't eaten anything at all to speak of since Saturday (and even that was just Jake's birthday cake!). She is drinking plenty of juice and water, though, which they say is the most important thing.

Hopefully I'll post tomorrow with good news. Thanks for all the well-wishes. Sylvie appreciates them!

Sick, sick, sick

Little Syl is about as sick as she has ever been right now. Started a hacking cough on Sunday, which was weird because there was no cold preceding it. She spiked a high fever on Sunday, which came down with Motrin. Same thing yesterday, with the added symptom of shortness of breath, which prompted a call to the doctor. I stayed home from work today and took her to the doc's this morning. Turns out her lungs are full of gook, which is why she is having sort of a hard time breathing. They ruled out strep and then - after a number of tests - also ruled out pneumonia (phew) and "anything big and bad (double-phew). After 2 and a half tough hours of tests, during which Sylvie alternated between exhausted calm and hysterical protest, she was diagnosed with "RSV" and Bronchiolitis. You can read about them here and here. Her blood oxygen count is a little low, but not low enough to require hospitalization (though the doctor seemed to ponder that a little bit, and wants to see her tomorrow morning to check it again). They sent us home with some antibiotics ("just in case") and a nebulyzer to help her breathe.
The WebMD description of bronchiolitis says that it usually lasts 3-4 days, which means - knock wood - we're at least half way through it. We're hoping the nebulyzer calms her chest/throat enough that she'll try and eat something, because she's awfully awfully weak and lethargic right now. She tries to eat, and it almost immediately causes a huge coughing fit that puts her off the effort entirely. The good news is she is drinking steadily - juice and water - which, we're told, is the most important thing. She's only lost a pound so far.
She's asleep now - and we're hoping she'll wake up feeling better. I'll keep you posted!

Happy Birthday Baby Jake!

Jake O'Leary celebrated his third birthday today (guess we can't call him "Baby Jake" much longer! Sylvie was very excited to put on her new fancy clothes from Grammy and head to the party. First thing she said this morning was "Happy Doh-Day Jake!" Doh-Day is "birthday" in Sylviese.

The party was typical O'Leary fun. Sylvie, of course, ate no lunch followed by tons of cake and ice cream.

Then, in typical Sylvie fashion, she decided to take a nap right in the middle of the revelry. Any doubt she's her mother's daughter...?

More photos in the January 2010 gallery.

Just a few pretty pictures...

Lean on Me

For whatever reason, I just love this shot of Sylvie and Jake that I caught today at Jake's birthday party. They both look so... adult. I want to caption it something like, "After the Tornado." The expressions say "Sure we lost the barn and the cattle and the farmhouse, but at least we still got each other..."

More family photos by Aunt Willow

Aunt Willow finally sent us some more of the wonderful family photos that she took on Christmas. We've been looking forward to these! Sorry for no posting for a week - it's been quite a rough few days. I was working like crazy at the beginning of the week, doing his small part to help Scott Brown become Senator-Elect Scott Brown. At the same time, Melissa came down with a horrible stomach bug. Sylvie was a sweetheart - she played and watched TV, and occasionally went into the bedroom to check on Melissa. "You okay, Mommy?" Often she brought a toy and presented it with a "happy birthday!" declaration. The bug visited me yesterday/last night. We thought it was hitting Syl yesterday too, because she was very out of sorts, but (knock wood - vigorously) so far it's spared her.

Anyhow, enjoy these shots. Video still to come.

Great time in Florida!

We're back home, safe. Sylvie has been napping since 3:30 (it's nearly 7... gotta wake her... never fun...). She's pooped after a wonderful visit to Florida for our second Christmas of "2009".

I took some photos. Here are my favorites, from Christmas and the little detour Melissa and I took to chilly Key West for a couple of days. I'm promised photos off of Grampy's camera, and we're looking forward to more family portraits from Aunt Willow as soon as she has them edited.

More in the Christmas 2009 (Florida) and January 2010 Galleries!

On our way home

Sharing Mommy's airport scone.

One more story

With Grammy. We head home tomorrow. Sylvie had a great time in Florida. She never even mentioned the cold!

And swinging!

Warm at last!

And so we're at the park with Grammy and Grampy, enjoying the weather and the jungle gym!

Back in Naples.

We made it back to Grammy and Grampy's house in time to see Sylvie. She punished us by feigning indifference to our arrival for a few minutes. But pretty quickly we received multiple hugs and kisses each. She was pretty clingy for the rest of the evening, and we expect more of the same tomorrow. She had a great time with Grammy and Grampy, but apparently we were missed too. Which is nice.
My sister just sent me my newest favorite photo of me with my girl... I'm really looking forward to the full set!

Back on the ferry

M just popped her Dramamine. Heading back to see our Bean. We had a great time, but are really anxious to see Sylvie. Hope she stays up!

Irish Kevin's bar on Duval Street

Syl's dad had to work for the last 5.5 hours... But now we're making up for lost time.
Syl continues to have a great time in Naples... She escaped from her pack 'n play for the first time yesterday. Nothing will ever be the same again...

Calls to mind a previous incident...

On our first ever FL vacation together.

Looks warmer than it is...

Beautiful though! Just got off the phone with our little girl, who is having a GRAND time with Grammy and Grampy!

We're embracing the madness

The Jimmy Buffet Cafe. What better place to embrace Key West...?

Sweater shopping in Key West

As you might imagine, selection is very limited. Just walked by a couple of guys. Guy one: I've lived here 22 years and never seen weather like this. Guy two: I've lived here forty years and never seen weather like this.
So basically, we could have come here any time in the past 40 years and not spent an afternoon looking for a wool sweater so that Melissa will stop shivering....

Made it to Key West

It's COLD and cloudy, but Melissa has managed to find a vegetarian restaurant, so she's happy. They also have beer, which apparently does not contain meat, so I'm happy too. We figure if we stay in here long enough, this cold snap might run its course!

Half hour later...

And yes. The Dramamine has kicked in.

On the ferry

On the Key West express... 15 mins into a 3 hour boat ride, and Melissa is feeling a little green. Here's hoping the Dramamine kicks in!

Family Christmas photos

Sylvie's Aunt Willow is quite an accomplished photographer. She brought her portrait rig with her this year - the stands, lights, umbrella-thingys... the whole deal. Here are just a couple of the excellent photos she got!

New winter wear

Christmas dress

From Grammy...

Santa brought Mr Potato Head!

Thank God for DVD players

Excellent flight, and we're safely in Naples, FL.

Someone is pretty excited this morning...

... to be going to Florida to see her Grammy and Grampy and Aunt Willow!

We leave this afternoon, 2pm flight (times just WRONG for Daddy and his Patriots' game!!).

So this week will bring the occasional low-quality Blackberry photo update, followed by lots of photos next week of our time in Florida.

And, by the way, tomorrow is our Florida Christmas (which might explain the cold weather...)!

First Haircut

If you know Sylvie, you know that since before she even really had hair she's demonstrated fatigue by sucking her right thumb and twirling her hair with her left hand. As her hair has grown, that's meant nasty tangles more and more often.

Today, Melissa and I took her to Snip-it's, a hair salon especially for kids. What a great idea. The place is like a little playground, with haircuts.

We weren't sure what to expect from Sylvie, but she never so much as flinched and did not protest a single time. The girl cutting her hair was quick and efficient - the whole thing was over in about five minutes. Then Sylvie got a hair clip and a lollipop for being such a good girl.

Daddy has good friends

With good seats.

15 mins later...

Still going. "You done, Sylvie?"
"Not YET.".

Out to lunch

Or dessert, anyhow. BIG dessert.