12 Months 3 Weeks 3 Days

Wow! What a time we've had over the last couple of weeks! Let me back-track to around Christmas. Christopher got a cold around that time. Well, he'd had the cold for at least a week when I decided to get him into the doctor's since the cough sounded pretty bad. I mainly just wanted to make sure it was still a cold and nothing worse. That was on December 29. Dr. Adams was out that day and Dr. Lowe was on-call. She said that the cough was probably just from drainage and nothing else, but she did find that he had an ear infection. His first one! She prescribed Amoxicillin and a cough syrup. I filled the Amoxicillin right away, but the pharmacy was out of the cough medicine and wouldn't get anymore in until Jan. 2. They offered to call other pharmacies to get me some, but I told them that we could wait. If he still needed it by the time it came in, then I'd get it. I started giving Christopher the Amoxicillin on Friday, December 29.

On Tuesday, January 2, he woke up with a rash on his chest, stomach and back. On Wednesday, it spread to his face. My first thought was that it was due to the laundry detergent I was using. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that I'd gradually been switching him from his to ours over the last couple of months, and his first load in ours alone was a couple of weeks ago. Therefore, I don't think that's the reason.

My next thought was that it was a reaction to the Amoxicillin, so I called the pediatrician's office and spoke to a nurse. She recommended that I stop the Amoxicillin for 24 hours and give him Benadryl instead. Sure enough, on Thursday morning when he woke up, the rash was almost completely gone! Therefore, Christopher's allergic to the -cillins (Amoxicillin, Penicillin, etc.). Dr. Adams called in a new prescription for Omnicef.

Unfortunately, mine and Christopher's medical insurance ended on December 31 (Shad's family coverage was going up WAY too much!). I'm in the process of getting a new policy for just the two of us, but it hasn't come through yet. The Omnicef without insurance is $91!! WITH insurance, it's $50!!! Therefore, I'm going to mention something to Dr. Adams and see when/if Christopher gets another ear infection if there isn't a different antibiotic that will be cheaper. Perhaps a generic on Wal-Mart's generic list so it's only $4 or $9!

The same day we picked up the Omnicef, we were able to get the cough syrup, too. So, Christopher's been on both since Thursday, January 4. He still has to take the antibiotic for 10 days, even though he was already on the Amoxicillin for 4 days.

On Friday evening as I was getting Christopher ready for bed, I noticed that he had a HORRIBLE rash on his bottom! I first thought it was just a bad diaper rash, but someone suggested that it might be a yeast rash instead. After looking into it online and seeing a picture, I'm pretty sure that's it. Shad went and bought some Clotrimazole (Lotrimin) on Sunday. I haven't noticed any difference yet, but hopefully we'll see something by tomorrow.

After all this mess with antibiotics, I'm ready to throw them out the window!!! When/if he gets another ear infection, I am NOT rushing to drugs! Heck, we didn't even know he had one to begin with...and we STILL haven't seen any signs of it since we found out!

My Tendonitis has returned. It's been about 11 months since it bothered me last. I'm surprised I've gone this long! Since we're without insurance, though, I'm going to have to wait to see the doctor for it. I've been wearing the brace they gave me the last time and taking Ibuprofen. However, the Ibuprofen has been messing with my stomach, so I'm now only taking it at night. I should probably just take Aleve instead, but I need to check and see if it's okay to take while Christopher's still breastfeeding.

Yep, at almost 13 months old, he's still nursing! I didn't plan to go this long, but it's kinda hard to wean! We've gotten into a nice routine, plus it's something that will calm him down when he gets fussy. I've tried giving him a sippy of milk, but it isn't the same. He's not nursing a lot...about 3 times during the day and once or twice overnight. So, there's no telling how long we'll keep going now. I was always one of those who said that my child would be weaned at 12 months old! HA! My, how things change!

Now that I'm not working at Zale's anymore, I've got a couple of job leads. One is for sure...I'll be working Wednesday mornings in the church nursery for the Women's Bible Study that starts on Jan. 24. The other possibility is caring for a little boy who'll be 1 in February here at home. It would be 2 days a week, which is what I'm looking for. That way, I can still have time during the week to do what I want/need to do. I've cared for the boy in the church nursery before, so know who he (and his grandmother) is. I've given the grandmother my name and phone number...and she was asking Beth at church about me. Hopefully, something will come about! Please keep me in your prayers/wish me luck!

Well, the BCS Championship game (Ohio St. vs Florida) is on right now and I'm wanting to get back to it. Last I saw, Florida was winning by quite a bit. Not that we're Gator fans, but we're rooting for the SEC, so we're hoping Florida wins.