Baby Food of the Week

currently: organic wildblueberry and pear
next up: organic creamed spinach

We have completed all stage 1's and are moving on to stage 2. I found a ton of new flavors at Dahl's so I went crazy. Daycare and I now have enough baby food to last for 60 days! I didn't buy and dinners with meat. They have too much added stuff and the doctor says Ryan is getting enough iron, so doesn't need meat. Ryan eats fruits and veggies (that we already know he isn't allergic to) at daycare, and we are still trying new ones at home for supper.

Just Plain Miserable

I am taking a quick break from Mr. Fussy. I shouldn't call him Mr. Fussy - it's not his fault that he has pneumonia. That's right - PNEUMONIA! I was just bragging last week that Ryan had never had so much as an ear infection, when we both came down with colds. He just had a little runny nose, but I have had the head/chest cold from hell for about a week. Anyway, we took him to his six-month appointment on Monday for his check up and shots. He weighed 19 lbs, 11 oz (75%)and was 26.5 inches long (50%). His noggin is still 90%. Wednesday morning Teri Ann called and said he had a fever of 103, so I picked him up and took him to the doctor. They said his ears and lungs were clear, so it must be virus and to give him Motrin to keep his fever down. That worked for a while, but Thurs afternoon, his fever was back, despite the medicine. By 9;30 that night it was 104.9 and he was breathing fast, so I took him to Mercy. We got right in, but by that time his fever had risen to 105.5! They gave him a mega dose of tylenol, then began the tests. First they used a catheter to get a urine sample, then attempted to get blood out of both arms (neither arm worked and I was about ready to take the needle out myself because they were digging around in his vein, finally took blood out of his heel, then did a chest xray. Turns out he has pneumonia, but has no cough or wheezing so he presented no signs of infection other than the fever! We got home at 12:30 am and slept until 10 am. Yesterday I had to take him back to the doctor to be checked (third time this week!) and then he was fussy all day. This morning he is more lively and jumped around in his exersuacer some and took a good nap. As long as I can get him to swallow his medicine, he should be good as new soon. I hope.

I am finally starting to feel better, but still have a cough. Between this and the funeral Ryan and I have missed 5 days of work/"school". I will be gald to get back to our routine.

I Miss You Grandma

Tomorrow (May 3) would have been my Grandma Arnold's 90th birthday. I miss her a lot and so does everybody else. She has been gone since 1987. She was the perfect grandma, and is one of the many reasons my childhood was absolutely wonderful. I have a lot of her traits too, of which the most apparent is our shared ability to worry and obsess about the smallest thing. That is why my mom calls me Marian sometimes. (My other grandma was also a Marian, and I twitch my foot like her.) I know my mom will be thinking about her mom tomorrow too. I wish she could have met Todd and Ryan, but Ryan's dramatic delivery and my postpartum depression hospitalization probably would have done her in from worry.

Tulip Time is not to be...

Mom and I were going to take Ryan to Tulip Time on Friday, but the trip is off since my dad's sister Doris died on Sunday. We were going to go last year too, but my dad's Aunt Marian died. I don't think I will make plans to go next year! It is jinxed for Schweitzers.

I think I have only seen Aunt Doris twice since I got married, but it is sad to hear she has passed. I am sad that she died alone, and mostly sad that now her kids don't have any parents. Her husband died when I was one year old. That means she has been a widow for 30 years! That is a really long time. I feel bad too for my dad and his other sister, and really bad for Grandpa Schweitzer. He is in a nursing home and doesn't have much quality of life.

It also makes me nervous because she is one of many Schweitzer/Nielsen relatives (oddly all female) that was diabetic.

I am picking Ryan up at 12:00 tomorrow and heading home. I am going to stay until at least Saturday morning since I don't get up there too often.