Monday, March 26, 2012

Target practice

My potty-trained daughter has had several accidents in the past few days so I started wondering if something was going on and decided to take her to the doctor. I've only been to the pediatrician twice with my kids outside of well visits so I was feeling pretty proud of myself for taking the time to go. It wasn't until we arrived at the doctor's office that I realized the challenge that lay ahead.
I took on the challenge and all 3 of us crammed into the little bathroom. I showed my daughter the target ... A small cup with a Carolina blue cap. She liked it but still wasn't sold on the idea.
"I need you to pee in this."
"Mommy, that's silly. I can't sit on that!"
After getting her situated on the potty with the cup in my hand and my 15 month old son crying on the floor, I realized too late that I should have gotten a glove. I'm happy to say that I managed to catch some of the urine in the cup.
After she finished, I told her I needed to go and she asked me if I needed a cup. I graciously declined.
Mom of the year ...

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Special yogurt

We have been dealing with all the extremes of abdominal distress this week.  After the 24 hours of vomiting subsided, our 15 month old son started having several watery poops per day.  Our 3 year old daughter, in contrast, kept complaining of stomach pain, crying on the potty, and squeezing out rock solid pebble-sized poops.  As a pediatrician, I am a huge fan of Miralax and dole it out to my kids frequently.  My daughter seems to be catching on and no longer wants to drink water or milk after she sees me mixing in the white powder.  Last night, I packed some Miralax for our dinner outing.  My daughter always wants to eat yogurt for "dessert" so I planned to mix it in.  Unfortunately, she was sitting beside me so I couldn't think of an inconspicuous way to get the yogurt drugged.  Instead, I decided to tell her that since she had been so good at dinner, I had some special sugar to put in her yogurt to make it extra sweet.  She took the bait and was so proud of her "special" yogurt.  So far, no major consequences from the special yogurt but I have this strange feeling it will come back to haunt me!
Mom of the year ...

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Vomit virgin

Somehow, I survived 3 years of motherhood without cleaning up vomit.  Fortunately, my daughter has only thrown up a couple times ever (and I happened to be on call), and my son has never thrown up (other than spit-up).  I consider this fact to be a blessing given that I am not very good with vomit.  I have a strong gag reflex and always feel like I may throw up myself when I see other people vomit. 
Earlier this week, I paid my dues.  My daughter woke up around 10 pm vomiting.  I think vomit at night is worse than vomit during the day (mostly because children are supposed to sleep at night, not vomit).  We bathed her 3 times and did 3 loads of laundry in the middle of the night.  She finally seemed to settle down around 3 am.  The next morning, I went to get our 15 month old son who I was planning to send to daycare while I stayed home with our ill child.  I walked in and he stood up in bed smiling.  He pointed to the other end of the bed.  I've never seen so much vomit in my life.  Goes to show you how different your children can be.  While my daughter was waking up every hour, our son decided to go back to sleep on the other side of the crib and woke up smiling!  Either he is a really easy kid or he has learned it's not worth competing with his sister for attention.  Either way, cleaning up after him was much easier!
Mom of the year ...