Sharing is Caring

Today, BOTH girls woke up with swollen eyes, nasty green drainage, and low grade fevers. Peyton has really embraced the "Sharing is Caring" philosophy. Unfortunately, she only applies it to germs. Thankfully the pediatrician (who I have on speed dial) told us we could come by the office this morning and pick up some eye drops. She is awesome! Those drops are over 20o dollars, and she is giving them to us for free. I'm sure we have already paid for them with how many sick visits we make a year.

Brad totally won some major points today. Our anniversary is tomorrow (sadly, I have to work), but this morning I received a gorgeous necklace, a pretty ring, and some beautiful flowers! Earlier last week, he also surprised me with a trip to Boston in June to see a concert (I don't know who yet, still a surprise). We are going to make a long weekend out of it, and we get to spend an entire day sleeping!!! 24 hours of nothing to do but sleep and lounge in bed. BEST PRESENT EVER! I feel awful, I did not get him anything. I was going to wait till Boston to give him his anniversary presents. So I have some catching up to do and find some awesome gifts for him. Maybe a nap?

So this weekend we are going to spend some time getting the girls healthy again. Sadly, we are missing a birthday party today that we have been looking forward to for some time. But I know my kids will gladly share their germs with everyone and that would be a nightmare. I have to work tomorrow and miss Campbell's first Easter, but I know the girls will have a lot of fun with their daddy. I think we are going to do a last minute Easter Egg hunt for Peyton later this afternoon, depending on how everyone is feeling.

Happy Easter!

Go away germs!

Poor Campbell has struggled with lactose intolerance, reflux, and having a big sister who loves to share her germs she brings home from Mother's Day Out. For the past month and half, Campbell has had a cold and cough. Coughing plus reflux = a lot of spit ups, discomfort, and changing clothes/sheets. Campbell does eat solids which help with the reflux, but she is still miserable a lot of the time. I am thinking about going ahead and starting the zantac to help with the reflux, something I have been trying to avoid but it may be time to do it. No one in this house is getting any sleep at night and that just makes our immune systems even weaker. Brad and both the girls are just getting over fever viruses (amazingly I was able to avoid it) and no one slept a wink during that time. I am just getting so frustrated with the fact that Campbell is sick all the time and that she has not outgrown the reflux yet. I can count on one hand the number of times she has slept through the night and she is almost 8 months old. We really did get spoiled with Peyton - she was a fabulous sleeper starting at 6-8 weeks.

As of today, Peyton started having some nasty green/yellow eye drainage so I will be making another call to the pediatrician tomorrow. Seems like no one can get a break around here!

Sorry for the venting, just had to get it out.

Who needs sleep?

A few weeks ago, not long after Brad and I had finally put Campbell down and got into bed ourselves, I woke up at 3:45 am to Brad jumping out of bed and running down the hallway leading to Peyton's room. I quickly followed him to find out what was going on and when I got to her room, Peyton was sitting up and screaming, "daddy, help me, they are biting me!" She was crying, screaming, and clawing at her legs. When I reached down to grab her and stop her from scratching herself, I then realized she was burning up. Turns out she had a 104 fever and was hallucinating, thinking that bees were stinging her. Seeing your two-year daughter hallucinate like that is truly disturbing, and I hope I never have to experience that again. Brad and I were able to give her some Tylenol, change her into lighter clothes, and then bring her back into bed with us so we could watch her and make sure her fever went down. Ever since that night, Peyton has slept horribly!! In her crib, she refused to lay down and go to sleep so she would actually fall asleep standing up, leaning against the railing. She absolutely had to have a night light or some sort of light on, something so unusual for her since she has always wanted the room dark at bedtime. She now has even claimed that it is scary being in the room by herself. She was so traumatized from the hallucination that she became scared of being in her own room. The girl is afraid of nothing. Well, except for feathers. That's right, my tough girly tomboy is afraid of the softest thing on the planet. Anyways. So, in an attempt to her to like bedtime again (and to finally move Campbell into the crib), we moved Peyton into her big girl room with her big girl bed. I should have known that my extremely busy, hyperactive toddler would realize that she is no longer confined to her bed and is able to get up as many times as her little heart desires. She literally gets up every hour, sometimes two or three times an hour. She has not been asleep before 11 pm for the past week and half since we moved her into her big girl room. The lack of sleep is starting to catch up on everyone. We are all grumpy, irritable, and snapping at each other. I have tried closing the door (she opens it with no problems even though the doorknob is from 1930), I have threatened her with spankings, I have given her spankings, I have lectured her on the importance of sleep, I have begged her, and I have cried to her. I even put a gate up in front of her door. What does she do? She simply removes it from the door frame, carefully lays it on the floor, and walks right by it. THE KID IS UNSTOPPABLE! Today, shortly after I arrived at work, someone asked me if I had been able to get any sleep lately and I just lost it. Talk about awkward! In between tears, I admitted that no, I haven't gotten any sleep for quite some time now. Campbell still does not sleep through the night, and now with Peyton getting up several times a night, sleep is nonexistent in this house. I have never wanted something so badly for Christmas, and it's not even April yet. I secretly fantasize about checking into a hotel room for a night (or two), and sleeping for hours and hours. Isn't that ridiculous? So here's to hoping. Hoping that Peyton will realize that sleep IS important and stay in her bed during the night. Hoping that Campbell will realize that she's almost seven months old and it's totally time to start sleeping through the night. Hoping that Brad and I will finally get some sleep. Wish us luck. We need it.

Poor Campbell

I just realized that I have hardly written any posts about Campbell. Poor thing, it's hard being the baby of the family.

Campbell is now six months old (!!), will be seven months on March 31st. I cannot believe how fast it has gone by. She went in for a sick appointment in the beginning of this month and weighed 17 pounds and 6 ounces, a few ounces heavier than Peyton was at this age; however, Campbell is a lot longer than Peyton was. In fact, I think Campbell will be as tall as Peyton soon!

Peyton started sleeping through the night consistently at about two months old. Brad and I now realize how lucky we were with that. Campbell has had colic since two months and still has it some nights. For awhile, Campbell was screaming and crying from 5 pm to 11 pm every night. It was very hard for awhile for everyone. But it does seem to be getting better and we are so thankful for that! Campbell still does not sleep through the night, but it is getting better. Now that we have finally moved her into the crib in the nursery, she only gets up once or twice a night. Brad and I have some serious sleep deprivation since Campbell gets up a few times a night, and Peyton (who just moved into her big girl bed) also gets up several times a night to come snuggle with us. So, our main goal for now is to get some sleep soon!

Campbell absolutely loves eating green beans and peas with oatmeal. I haven't tried any other food yet because I want to keep her on vegetables for now. Peyton became rather fond of bananas and sweet potatoes and wouldn't eat anything else. So for now, it's just the veggies and oatmeal.

Campbell has been sitting up for about a month now and is THISCLOSE to crawling. She can go from laying down to sitting, and sitting to laying down. She has become a champ at rolling over and rolls over so quickly it's scary. And as of two days ago, she has two teeth!! After months (yes, months) of teething, her bottom two teeth finally came in. Unfortunately they came in at the same time, so we are stocking up on Motrin and Tylenol, but overall, she is handling it pretty well.

So that is a brief update on Campbell. Overall she is adorable but a handful. Peyton loves, loves, loves having a baby sister and does so well with her. We are surviving and love being a family of four!

Is it on straight?

I'm so sorry...

Peyton has this new thing where if she runs into you or accidently hits you with something, she says "I'm so sorry" in this dramatic southern belle voice. I often fall over laughing when I hear and see this because it is just too cute.

Well last night, all four of us were on the bed. I was holding Campbell and Brad was trying to hold Peyton, but she was bouncing around like mad. We often joke that she has a stash of mountain dew hidden somewhere in the house because the kid is WILD. Anyways, so Peyton was bouncing around trying to body slam anything in her path. She successfully threw herself against the headboard and went flying backwards and landed on top of her baby doll. She immediately hopped up and with THE most dramatic voice said, "I'm so sorry baby, I didn't mean it" and gave her baby doll a hug. Then she threw the baby doll across the room. And by the time the doll bounced off the wall and onto the floor, Peyton was already back to her body slamming already having forgotten the poor doll.

At least she tries to apologize?

Getting so big!

Campbell will be five months old in just a few days and Peyton is talking more and really starting to act like a big girl. They are just growing up too fast for me. Peyton has started to be a little jealous nowadays of her baby sister. She wants to be held more, wants to snuggle with mommy and daddy more (no complaints there!), and wants us to take pictures of her every night. Just too cute. But for the most part, Peyton loves being a big sister and loves entertaining Campbell.

Earlier this month we had a snow/ice storm and we were so fortunate to not lose any power, have lots of junk food on hand, and be able to stay home and enjoy the show (both Brad and I were able to avoid work). This was the second time it has snowed for Campbell, the first being on Christmas day. The girl has seen more snow during her first four months than most Alabama folks see in their lifetime!

Here are some pictures of the girls from this month: