Lessons about Kassy and Puke

This morning began with a quick trip to Sioux Falls to pick up Allen's sister, Kerry, from the airport. Her flight was early, but so were we and we were back to Brookings before 9:00 a.m. Welcome home Jo!

This afternoon was Kassy's 4-month check-up. As we were sitting in the waiting room, I was holding her on my lap and she would put her lips together and blow. She wasn't watching me, but when I made a similar sound, she started watching my lips. Each time I'd pbbbb she'd do the same pbbbb. I managed to contain most of my spit but she had no problem sharing her baby juice. Other folks in the waiting room enjoyed watching us, so the midafternoon shower was worth it.

Allen came with us to this appointment-it's always nice to have him along. He loves to give the doctor a hard time. She, being a doctor, has caught on to this, and is pretty good at giving him a hard time too. But back to Kassy-she weighs 13 pounds and is 22.75 inches long! Our little girl is growing. She has such cute baby fat rolls for thighs and when she's just eaten her tummy protrudes a bit. A truly beautiful baby!

The worst part about these visits is that sometimes vaccinations (orally or shots) are necessary. A little history: We learned a few weeks ago when Kassy was on amoxicillin that she doesn't swallow anything she doesn't want to and, if by chance, something should happen to get swallowed that she didn't want to swallow, she can puke without any warning. That is precisley what she did the first two times we gave her the medicine via a dropper-the same way we do "football baby" with David for his medicine. Pink puke is not pretty nor does it clean up easily-very slimy. To get around this little problem, we fixed a 1-ounce bottle of formula and added the amoxicillin , which she drank without question. I shared this little bit of useful information with the nurse as she was carefully cajoling Kassy to swallow the rotavirus vaccination today. The nurse would squeeze the little tube and Kassy would use her tongue and push the liquid back out. The main goal is to get the baby to swallow at least half of the amount in the tube. I finished sharing the pink puke story just about the time that Kassy decided that the nurse didn't understand-she didn't want it in her mouth, let alone her stomach, and up-chucked. The nurse had to start all over again and there was quite a bit of clean-up involved. Yucky! At least Kassy wasn't dressed yet!

The good thing about a shot is that two nurses come in and poke the needle in at the same time so that Kassy only gets poked once. The bad news is then she cries. I hate that part, but today she was a tough little girl and didn't even cry for a minute after she got the shots.

Kassy was pretty fussy this evening, so I gave her a dose of Tylenol to help eas discomfort from the shots. She swallowed it but wasn't happy about it. She also is on a trial basis for some acid reflux medicine (to be administered by dropper) and I chose this unfortunate time to push my luck. She doesn't even gag before she pukes! It's like she opens a faucet and it all comes out! Allen was in the shower with David, so he cleaned Kassy off. Guess we get clean sheets tonight. We'll also have to get creative about giving her the reflux medicine.

David had a fun day playing with the Wilkins kids and visiting with Aunt Jo. He sang the alphabet song, happy birthday, and even through in an "e-i-e-i-o" every so often. He played outside with Daddy and after supper he and Gampa played on the swingset and slide in Gampa's yard. Kassy entertained Aunt Jo with her pbbbb and managed to shower spit all over Jo's foot. The kid's got quite a range!