Our first full day of summer holidays was yesterday and I’ve got to tell you all about it. Not because anything super exciting happened, but because it was just the best, sweetest day ever. They may not ALL be like this, but I’ll take what I can get.
I slept in until 8am.
That could really be the end of the post, haha! That helped make the day great, that’s for sure! Wavy was still sleeping. I just woke up on my own. I made my way down and got the kids up shortly thereafter. I took time to snuggle every one of the four kids. As they got up, they slowly set the table. Usually, they fight about who sets what, because there are certain things they all like to set. Its pretty ridiculous, but this morning, they just did it. We took all kinds of time, and the kids were only really starting to eat after 8:30. I unpacked and reloaded the dishwasher while they ate, and without me nagging them to stay on schedule, they actually ate really well and enjoyed visiting amongst themselves. After breakfast, they loaded their dishes into the dishwasher and went about their morning.
They played and coloured and Laela elected to organize her stuff in her closet, as it was overrun by school stuff she had brought home. She tossed a TON and brought out some toys that are hers and put them in the toy bin for everyone to enjoy. Wavy woke up and joined the gang. Everyone played really well. It was like the air was different. Way lighter. No one had much to worry about.
I warned them all that it was coming up on lunch time, so we’d tidy toys in about fifteen minutes. They were fine with that. I took that fifteen minutes to feed Wavy a bottle and change some diapers. When the time came to tidy, I wasn’t quite finished with Wavy, so the toys were completely tidied before I had even started making lunch. Sooooo I threw on some dance music while I assembled pb&j for the kids. They partied and wrestled and cried and partied some more as I made lunch. It was actually a super happy time. They all did great.
Laela abandoned the dance party early and offered to set the plates for me, and she grabbed water bottles for everyone, too. No one complained when the party stopped for lunch, and they all ate happily. Seriously, I could make them peanut butter sandwiches every day and they would be happy campers. I don’t, lol, but I could!
While they ate, I chopped up a batch of granola bars I made the other day. They followed up their sandwiches with granola bars, because as you read yesterday, we are out of aaaaall the fresh things! Haha! Oh boy!
Lunch ended, and the little ones went to bed. Dekker and Laela happily played lego, and I somehow found motivation to make another batch of granola bars!! They’re pretty well loved around here so one batch doesn’t even make it a week. So a second batch is setting in the fridge right now 🙂 Win! With making the bars, I put everything in the dishwasher and ran it again, effectively improving nap time by a lot!
Brady came home at a good time and we wrapped the day up together as a family. We went on a gutting shopping trip to Superstore, Walmart, and Costco.
We hit the trifecta, and we’re all stocked up again!
Anyone else buy SO MANY BANANAS at once??
Fresh stuff, a bunch of meat, some birthday gifts for friends, sandals for a couple kids, shoes for a couple kids, swimwear for a couple kids, and aaaaall kinds of other things. For reference, we only started Costo at 7:30, and our kids are usually in bed around 7:00. BUT, they surprised us and absolutely rocked it! They were SO happy, and we had SO much fun!!
What a perfect way to kick off summer holidays. With an ALL THE WAY HAPPY DAY!
Never did I think I’d still be blogging seven years later! NEVER!
I didn’t tell anyone about the blog until I was maybe ten days in, and I had successfully blogged every day. I was pretty sure, once I talked about it publicly, I’d give up. Or miss a day. And I figured, if I missed a day, I’d quit.
I remember writing blog posts celebrating one thousand views, or one month of blogging. Goals were smaller then.
If you’ve read along from the beginning (doubtful, lol) you met Dekker as a baby. You’ve followed us through four successful pregnancies, and two gruelling losses. You built our house with us. You’ve come on trips with us. You’ve come grocery shopping with us WAY too many times. You’ve celebrated our birthdays and Christmases with us. You’ve come to Waskesiu with us. We’ve shared a lot of laughs, and some really hard stuff, as well.
I like to think you’ve watched us change a lot over time, hopefully for the better. I definitely feel like we’re a lot different than we were seven years ago. I had way less confidence back then. It was a lot easier to hurt me. I’m still pretty sensitive, and its not too terribly hard to knock me down, but I think I’m braver now. I like Brave Hailey a lot more than flimsy Hailey.
(No, mom. I’m not putting myself down 😉 Just thankful for growth. Since I know you’re thinking it.)
Thank you, friends, for caring about our family and our life. While I can’t actually know who reads along when, I love my readership so much, and feel very honoured to have you join our life.
You know its the last day of school when the kids need to bring a snack for an afternoon movie.
You know its the last day of school when you run out of sandwich meat making the last school lunch.
You know its the last day of school when you are completely out of apples, bananas, and cucumbers.
You know its the last day of school when you’re riiiiight at the bottom of the cheese strings, granola bars, and apple sauces.
You know its the last day of school when your kitchen island is piled high with all the things the teachers have been sending home gradually over the last week.
You know its the last day of school when Facebook is littered with pictures of kids standing by their front doors.
You know its the last day of school when kids are asking to *gasp* wear their indoor shoes outdoors!
You know its the last day of school when your alarm is SO much more obnoxious.
You know its the last day of school when you don’t even brush the kids hair before he runs out the door.
You know its the last day of school when they’re already all talking about whats coming first in summer.
You know its the last day of school when the kids bring home a handful of summer birthday party invites.
You know its the last day of school when you’re super behind in laundry, and thats ok.
You know its the last day of school when everything can wait until tomorrow.
You know its the last day of school when mom is elbow deep in list making, for camp, Waskesiu, and a few parties to prepare for.
You know its the last day of school when everything is wickedly disorganized, and its less overwhelming.
I’m SO happy its the last day of school!
And so are these hooligans. One more than the other 😉
We had Wavy’s one year appointment today! I cannot believe she’s already so close to being a whole year old! We opted to book her appointment towards the end of June because July is just so busy. A surprise bonus is that we got a perfect slot, where she saw the resident doctor who has followed us this entire time, and Dr. Guselle!
I’m still not feeling very well, so I peeled myself out of bed as late as I possibly could this morning. Brady got Waverly dressed, and threw some diaper bag stuff together for me to grab on my way out. Even made me some tea in a travel mug. It was a nice send off, and as I drove, my DayQuil kicked in and I felt slightly more like a human. A human in a fog, but still.
We didn’t have to wait too long in the waiting room before we were called back. The woman who called us back wasn’t our usual person – maybe she was new? – and Wavy was not happy with her. She was right pissed, honestly. She asked me to set Wavy on the scale, and Wavy started crying immediately. Then she realized she hadn’t reset the scale yet, so we had to take her off, reset the scale, and go again. No big deal, but she was WAY louder about it the second time, oh boy! All the nice, familiar faces waved and cooed at Waverly as we were taken to an exam room. Unfortunately, the measuring in the room went the same way. Had to measure her head twice, and then her height again, twice, as she lay there and screamed blood murder. She finally had me measure her myself. It wasn’t so fun for any of us.
It took a bit to calm Wavy even after we were alone, but she hesitantly quieted after a little while, and very shortly thereafter, her doctor showed up.
It was a really nice appointment, honestly. He’s a super great doctor, and this is very likely the last time we’ll ever see him now that he’s done school and moving away. Feels a bit like a friend leaving, but I think that says something good about him. That he connects well with his patients. I’m probably not the only one that feels that way. Once we caught up on general life stuff, we talked all about Waverly, what she’s doing, what we’re working on, milestones, size, eating, etc. She passes on everything. Her weight dipped a little bit, but she’s been teething like a crazy person and is getting taller, so it all levels out. Her percentile looks good, and she’s still all chunky and “plump,” as he said, haha! She is all of those things, indeed. The only concern I brought to his attention is that I think she has a wart, or something like a wart, on her heel. He took a look at it and we wondered together if a person could use the basic over-the-counter wart treatment on a baby. He wasn’t 100% confident, so he said he’d ask Dr. Guselle. At that point, I didn’t know she was the doctor overseeing him. It was a nice surprise! I love her! We completed the rest of the appointment first, and he checked her heart, lungs, eyes, ears, and mouth, and she wailed the whole entire time. Except when he wanted to check her mouth. Then it was clamped shut, as you can imagine. She was not having it today!
In true Dr. Guselle form, she came in and plunked herself right on the footstool, to be closer to Waverly. I loved that. She reached out and played with Wavy’s feet, complimenting her sandals and trying to familiarize. She finally got a couple of smiles out of her. We took her sandal back off and Dr. Guselle looked at her heel. She kind of tipped her head and said she wasn’t sure it was a wart. It was SO defined, and not totally wart-like. Very dry and popping up above the surface. She said she figured they could take a blade and cut the top of it off, and see whats in there. At that point, Wavy was SO still and cooperative, so we figured we’d give it a go. Dr. Khatra ducked out to go find her a blade and when he returned, he passed it to Dr. Guselle. She teased him a little about not wanting to do it himself, but she very willingly crouched down on the floor so I didn’t have to move Waverly, and she got to work shaving the top of it off.
Wavy sat SO well, and didn’t get twitchy for a minute or two so Dr. Guselle could work. From what she could see, it didn’t appear to be a wart, but she said maybe more layers had to come off first. She told me how I could check it after a bath, when things were a bit softer, but that even if it was a wart, it would go away in its own time. I was impressed at how patient Wavy was.
Once it was all over, we chatted for another minute or two, and out of the blue, both doctors suddenly got these distraught looks on their faces. Both of them said “Oh no!” I was completely confused and asked what had happened. And then I looked at Wavy. She was wearing this big, red, screwed up expression on her face. The one where the person is about to explode into a HUGE cry. Out of nowhere!!!We had a bit of a laugh about it, not sure what to do, but she had a momentary enormous cry and then rallied. Not sure what that was all about, but it was actually very cute.
Leaving felt weird. Like I said, Dr. K feels like a friend. Its weird that he’s leaving. He walked through a pretty huge part of our life with us this last year and a half, its hard to not get attached, I guess. We kind of parted ways awkwardly. I wished him good luck with his life, and he said the same. That was that!
It was a nice appointment. Good company. Good results. Way to be super healthy and beautiful, Waverly Violet!
Its not been our smoothest day around here. You know how everyone is saying that their kids are feeling the end of the school year? And how they’re all struggling a bit with their attitudes? And everyone is exhausted? I think I’m right there with them on these things. I can just tell. Waking up is WAY harder, and keeping my grumpies in check is a challenge, too. I woke up with the beginnings of a cold, and a super sore throat. Wasn’t my best kick off.
So with me not firing on all cylinders, we’ve all struggled a little. I told the kids straight up how I was feeling and they all tried to be pretty sensitive to it. Laela was a rockstar helper, and kept saying things like “You don’t have to do anything today” and “I’ll take care of you when I’m older, too.” She even told me she’d bring her kids along. What a lovely mental picture for me. She worked hard, but it was still a pretty difficult morning. I was counting down the minutes to nap time about two hours too soon, but it did come!
Once everyone was down, Laela came over to me and whispered something about picking colors, and that she wouldn’t wake Wavy.
“What are you talking about?” I inquired. “You said we could paint nails, right?”
Yes. I had said that. She had told me earlier than she would like her nails painted today. She rarely asks for it, and if I ever kind of push for it, she usually wants me to remove it right after. She ONLY wants them when she WANTS them. And today, she wanted them. And as crappy as I felt, she earned them. Easily.
So we painted nails. Fingers and toes. Pink and purple. She chose.
Once she was fully decked out in her two coats of two colors, she turned it on me and asked me which color I wanted on my toes! And then she just decided, haha!
We needed to match.
I know, its all so small, but I’m SO glad we painted nails today. I love the relationship I’m growing with my daughter. While sitting on the floor and using my voice didn’t help my body feel better, we were able to talk about big stuff! About people who need help and love and Jesus, and what we can do for them. We talked about how much Laela wants to have kids someday. We talked about girly things and serious things.
One day, these precious conversations will happen over coffee, but currently, they happen over painted nails. And for that – for her – I am SO grateful.
You’d think I’d be bored with all the rain after getting completely soaked at Jazzfest, but you’d be wrong! It helps that its SO needed around here after a long, dry stretch, but even if it weren’t, I’d still be happy. I love the rain so much. We left the windows open all day yesterday, listening to the wind and rain, with breaks in between to listen to the main birds outside, chirping happily. It was glorious, and lifted the mood.
With it coming down so often and so unpredictably, we didn’t end up taking the kids for a walk in the evening. Rather, we bathed them and kept the evening pretty relaxed.
She is ALWAYS reading to her siblings!
We watched some music videos before bed so they had could dance out some of their sillies, but that was really it! They were super cute.
This morning, however, I woke up totally disoriented. I woke up with a startle, and I could’ve sworn Brady was saying he was having trouble of some kind and needed help. So I tried multiple times to figure out what he needed, effectively waking him from his sleep. *sigh* I meant well, but was very confused. Then I kept hearing music, which made me feel EXTRA crazy, but soon put together that he was snoozing his alarm. It was such a scattered morning, and it just left me feeling crappy and confused. That, along with a few other merpy life things, left me feeling quite discouraged. Brady offered to take the kids to church to give me a morning to myself. I felt guilty, but accepted. I knew I needed it. I was pretty grouchy and I didn’t want to project it onto the kids.
Once the big kids got released to children’s church
Rather, I projected it onto my friends, haha! I texted Jerilee a bit, and told her, if not for her car trouble and lack of ride, I wished she could come have a sulky morning with me. She responded with a “Funny you should say that…” and a picture of herself at Starbucks. ❤️ She was one step ahead of me, and was making her way over to keep me company. So. So. Needed.
Everyone came home from church, lunched, and went to bed. Jerilee headed home right around then, and Brady and I had some lunch while the kids napped. The afternoon will be spent going through the kids clothes to see what they need for summer still. I know we need sandals for at least the older kids, and some shorts. Swimsuits, too. The middle boys are usually pretty set up but we’ll have to take a look. And Wavy, too. She is mostly set but might need a couple more tank tops. She and Laela were born in different seasons so they’re not crossing over size wise very well. That being said, Waverly is set for long sleeved shirts and hoodies, haha! I think everyone has hoodies… I have to look. Aaaaanyway, I’ll quit. But wish us luck for a productive afternoon!!
We went on a daaaaate! A double date, actually. A REALLY good one!
We were among the crowd of lucky people that opened up JazzFest last night! The ten day event was kicked off in the Bess gardens, and we were there! We were there super early, in fact.
Brady and I picked Carrie up on our way out of town, and we met Carrie’s husband, Braden, in a parking lot near the event. He had picked up supper for all of us, so we grabbed our takeout, lawn chairs, and jackets, and headed to line up with the keeners.
We were pretty close to the front of the line, which was SO exciting! The people ahead of us teased us for how we set up in line, but I think they were just jealous 😉
We felt a little bit silly being there so early, but only a little silly. Mostly just excited for the almost guaranteed front row seats. We still planned to stand during Walk Off the Earth, but the doors opened at 6:00, and our band wasn’t scheduled to start until 9:30! So, sitting.
Turns out that was an excellent choice on our part. The openers werrrrre not great. No burn, but they really didn’t fit wither Walk Off the Earth, nor the “jazz” part of JazzFest. Both were heavy on the rap side of things, and neither were great :/ But, maybe someone loves them! As the openers played, the rain picked up.
It was POURING by the time the second opener was wrapping up.
#diehards
We were all in jackets, hoods up, with garbage bags over our laps in an effort to get less wet. It sort of worked, but only a little, lol! We were all DRENCHED.
Braden ran back to his truck to get a full rain suit right before 9:00, but as we suspected, Walk Off the Earth started their show early! Because RAIN!!!
As soon as they started, we abandoned our chairs and made our way into the front crowd. Braden missed the first song or two, but we kept an eye out for him, and he quickly joined us. It was right around that point when the rain lifted.
It was an amazing show. The band was ON, with no visible missteps, and strong voices. Their crew is amazing, catching guitars and ukuleles as the band threw them across the stage, and bringing out the next setup of percussion instruments in perfect timing. Beard Man’s keyboard still sat on the stage, lit by candles, even though he’s not around to play it anymore. The tributes for him were pretty emotional. It was just awesome.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – whether you know their music or not, they are worth a watch/listen. Yet, if you’re not familiar with them, you may be the odd one out. Everyone sang along. It was a happy, loving crowd of fans. They have this really cool way of making you feel like you’re part of something special just by being there.
We encored the band once the show “ended,” obviously. They came out with maybe three more songs, and as they played the show out, the rain started again. Honestly, it was kind of perfect. Loud voices closing out an amazing show, getting soaked by the rain that we so desperately need. It felt powerful, somehow.
We all walked away from the show just bursting. It had been SO fun. It was our second double date to see Walk Off the Earth, and we agreed there is really no way we can let them come through the city without going to see them together 🙂 Its just too good. Carrie opted to drive home with her husband (#rejectionhurts)
Can’t really blame her for choosing him, lol!
and Brady and I headed home ourselves. We buzzed about the concert the whole way home, and then recounted virtually the entire thing back to Jerilee, who had watched our kids despite being SO under the weather! I imagine we’ll be talking about the show for a while.
Stay dry this weekend. Or, don’t 🙂 I haven’t gotten so rain soaked in years and it felt really wonderful. Highly recommend. 10/10.
Today is the FIRST day of summer!! I LOVE summer, so so much, and am more than ready for it to begin. I kicked it off with fresh new summer hair!
Leaving the house was NOT easy with this little butterball in the window, though! Yikes!
But I did it. I ran a couple of errands and made it to my leg wax in time, and then even made it to my hair appointment early! It worked out so nicely.
While I was there, Brady sent me a picture of Waverly and Laela. Wavy kisses sometimes but not too often. Apparently our terrifying “duck face” mask was appealing to her. She’s an odd duck. (See what I did there?)
As you already know, my hair girl wins ALL of the awards. She knocked this one out of the park!!
I’m SO ready for summer. And more importantly today, I’m SO ready for JazzFest tonight!!! Who else is going to see Walk Off the Earth? 🙋♀️🙋♂️
I wrote this post over several months time, so if I mess up tenses or something, please let it slide 🙂 I was SO nervous to write it and felt SO disgusting the whole time. Feels vulnerable to share it even now, but here you have it!
*****
Back in mid-January, I started getting this weird dry spot below my right eye. I have quite dry skin as it is, and rely pretty heavily on face products that do some exfoliating, and lots of moisturizing. I figured I had gotten lazy with it, and with the BRUTAL cold snap starting right around there, I figured my skin was taking a hit with it. So I stepped up my game.
Buuuut it persisted.
As you know if you’ve kicked around this year, I had a facial mole removed in early February. By that point, this little spot was a little bit darker than my skin. It was still dry and crusty. It crossed my mind – an age spot? A sun spot? I almost asked my dermatologist, but I figured she’d say I’d need a fresh referral, which would’ve been true. So I left it alone, but I kept a closes eye on it. That sucker was comfortable where it was. It wasn’t going anywhere.
I saw Dr. Guselle for some unrelated things at the end of February, and just towards the end, I mentioned how my skin was completely out to lunch, and I had this bizarre dry spot under my eye. She leaned forward and took a look at it.
“Oh, thats just fungus.”
😳
I’m sorry, what?
“Ya, its just fungus. Like, ringworm, sort of.”
Guys, that shook me. I was immediately crawly in my own skin. EWWW!! Fungus! RingWORM! On my face!! 🤮
Dr. Guselle saw right away how uncomfortable I was, and she reassured me it wasn’t all that uncommon. “Its very common around farm animals or baby kittens,” she said. Not that I’d been around anything like that in the recent past. She explained to me that ringworm, jock itch, and athletes foot are basically all the same. Just a little fungal infection. The name changes based on where it shows up. While its not as common to present on the face, it wasn’t too shocking either. She advised me to go get a basic athletes foot cream to treat it, and it would clear up within a few weeks. So you’d better believe I got ON that as soon as I could. I took a picture for reference.
I spent two weeks treating that stupid spot, twice a day, every day. I’m not always diligent with medications or vitamins, but I rode this thing. Two weeks. AND IT HAD GROWN!!! 🤮 I knew there was potential for it to not be completely healed by two weeks, but I was expecting at least some improvement. Not GROWTH!
I was running errands in the city right around this two week mark, so I asked the pharmacist at Costco if there was a different avenue I could take, or perhaps a stronger cream. She listened to me with a genuinely disgusted look on her face, and when I finished, she simply offered “You should definitely see your doctor…” Super helpful. Didn’t feel like a monster at all!. 😒 On my drive home, I stopped at our local pharmacy and asked our pharmacist the same question. He was considerably more helpful, and suggested a different ointment. He said it was virtually the same thing, but treated a wider range of (gulp) fungi. Ugh. I don’t even like typing that word. Sick. Anyway, I bought that cream and scrapped the last one.
Just shy of two weeks with the second cream, I observed that things with my big spot were pretty much maintaining. It had, however, spread to a new location. I now had two little spots forming in my eyelid creases and evidence of some starting under my other eye and on the side of my nose.
Seriously, guys, I was SO over it. Cher came over and helped me treat it with tea tree oil, which showed some results. For the first time in a while, I was hopeful!
Aaaaand then I found a spot on Wavy. That. Was. It.
I took us to the doctor. We booked in with a student and Dr. Guselle, but somehow, lines got crossed and we ended up seeing a totally different doctor. But she was in Dr. Guselle’s group, and honestly, she was lovely, and SO helpful!! I really liked her!
She listened to my whole spiel, making notes all along the way, nodding when I told her which step I had taken here and there. She had questions about the ointments, and I had brought them all. She asked how it looked at the beginning, and I had pictures. I felt SO well prepared, and she kept saying how helpful it was that I had brought everything along. We did good together.
She washed up good and proper, and then examined my face and Wavy’s little spot by her pit. She totally agreed that they were the same thing, which was both a super bummer, and kind of reassuring that I wasn’t crazy. I had a real fear that she’d brush it off as a dry spot. She asked if I’d be willing to give a sample of skin to test, which I was all for! I’m SO glad she wanted to take action and figure out for sure what was happening. She gathered up some tests kits and was back in the room within seconds.
***A bit of yucky talk, if you’re super squeamish***
She referred to the test as a skin scraping. Normally, its done with a blade, but since my spot was so close to my eye, and Wavy’s spot was on a baby (obviously,) she didn’t want to use something sharp. Rather, she had an alcohol swab that she kept in its packaging, and used the side of it to just scratch at my spot. It wasn’t comfortable, but it wasn’t painful, either. Just scratchy. She got a good amount of skin to test from me. Wavy’s turn! The doctor bent down and had a full chat with Wavy about what she was going to do. It was actually pretty sweet. She showed her the paper to catch the skin sample in, and told her she was safe and nothing would hurt. She offered Wavy one of those big square stickers to crunch/chew on, and Wavy happily accepted it to munch on while the doctor scratched at her skin. Her spot wasn’t as dry as mine, so it didn’t produce as much of a sample, but we tried. She was totally cooperative.
*** Icky talk over! ***
Once the samples were taken, I got the lowdown. Apparently cream #1 didn’t work because, while being the right stuff, it was half the strength of the stuff they’d normally prescribe. There was no way I could know that, so no big loss. I also learned that the kind of fungus 🍄 she suspects I have is not quick to leave. It takes its precious time. She anticipated a FULL four weeks of diligent treatment with the cream that is the correct strength, which is the the second cream I purchased. She said to use it on the little spots in my eyelid creases as well, as she believed they were the same thing. I asked about continuing tea tree oil, and she supported it. NOT on Wavy, though. Its so strong. Wavy was to use the same cream as I use, twice per day, and when I did tea tree on my spots, I’d do coconut oil on hers. Both great anti fungal treatments.
One week later, there was no exciting progress to speak of. I called the doctors office looking for results of my skin test. I got a call back from the doctor I saw the week before later that evening. And wouldn’t you know it, the test resulted NO FUNGAL CELLS!!! 🤬 So I was pretty ticked. Even less answers than I expected! At this point, I wanted a positive result so I would just be able to be sure I knew what it was. But I didn’t get that. She explained how these tests go, and that the preliminary test is just looking at the skin cells under a scope. Now comes the fun part where they 🤮 grow them and see what they turn into. Everything about that phone call left me so so grossed out and a bit distressed, if I’m being honest. The doctor was super compassionate and said I should come in the next day, along with Waverly, and Dr. Guselle would take a closer look and see if she had any other ideas. Besides that, however, they were going to send in an urgent referral to a dermatologist. “Urgent” still takes time, but it was her best effort. We made an appointment with Dr. Guselle for the next day.
You guys know how much I love my doctors office, and that day was no different. I chatted with the girl who always brings us back for a bit, and she played with Wavy and took her temperature. It always feels like we’re just among friends there. When she did leave, she ended up ducking back in. I heard her in the hallway saying “You have to see how cute this baby is.” She had legitimately brought a doctor over to show Waverly off! Humorously enough, we had encountered this doctor before, and she lit right up.
“I know this baby!!! Hi, Wavy!!” she said. Wavy smiled like a fool and flapped in excitement at being the centre of attention, as per usual. She showed off like crazy as the ladies in the hallway swooned over her. I made the joke that if they’re like this with every baby, the “service” is above and beyond. The doctor poked her head into the room a little further and whispered to me that not all babies are cute. Lip service or not, I’ll take it, haha! Was a really sweet moment, seeing people love her that way.
Before seeing Dr. Guselle, we saw a med student. She had previously been a pharmacist, so she knew her way around the creams I was using, and she and Dr. Guselle agreed I needed to go full bore into the prescription cream. They both know I don’t have coverage for prescriptions, so we were trying to go over the counter to save money. Turns out it didn’t save me money, but I super didn’t care at that point. Just get this thing off my face and off my baby!!
Four weeks-ish after that appointment, I got a call from Dr. Guselle’s office. Her assistant was asking if my rash had cleared up. Spoiler alert. It had not. The big spot under my eye was much lighter, but not gone, and the bigger spot in my eyelid crease had grown and become itchy. Wavy’s spot was… gone? I hesitate because the cream dried that spot on her out BADLY and I couldn’t really tell what was dry skin and what was the rash. However, on another part of her chest, another spot had begun growing. So. Frustrating.
May 28th left us finally at dermatology! It was kind of debacle getting there, but we made it. I filled out some forms for Wavy and successfully kicked another kid over in walking back to the front desk. Like he landed HARD. ALL the way down! It was actually hilarious, and I was momentarily mortified, but I spent the next few minutes trying desperately to keep my composure. He went down with a serious thud, but him mom hauled him back up by his t-shirt and everyone lived. Whew!
Our dermatologist heard me out, looked at my pictures, reviewed everything that we’d been using, and made his diagnosis.
Eczema.
Of all ridiculous things. We have small patches of eczema.
I was both seriously annoyed and completely relieved. We’re not contagious, or infected, or gross, or anything else. We have dry skin, and in some cases, some changes in the pigmentation of our skin, hence the brown spot that started it all. The end. After ALL of that!
I felt way lighter after that appointment. I can touch my eyelids again. Wavy doesn’t always have to be fully dressed. I can wear makeup again!!!! Guys, I haven’t worn makeup more than twice in 2019. I remember both times well. Once was in January, before I realized something was happening, and another time was for the coffeehouse. And legit, “makeup” consisted of concealer on some zits and a mascara that I then threw out.
My goodness. Eczema. Of all things.
I learned shortly thereafter that the prescriptions the dermatologist gave us were going to set us back hundreds of dollars. 😳 So rather than doing that, I jumped back on the skin care wagon! I had been advised along the way not to really wash or moisturize my face more than necessary, and if I did, to do it very carefully, for fear of spreading this infection. Now knowing we weren’t contagious at all, I began being SO nice to my skin, and her skin, and things are clearing up beautifully! I basically exclusively use the galaxal based lotion out of Costco now, even on my face, and our skin is WAY happier. I even fussed with it enough to scooped it into an old lotion bottle because I didn’t like digging it out of the little tub, and was using it less. Now I use it ALL the time, and there has been SUCH improvement!
All of the fear of being contagious and infected is gone ☺️ I haven’t felt much like myself this last year, for one reason or another, and knowing this isn’t a fungal infection has helped quite a bit.
My plan for this spring had been to finally get contacts again, but when this all kicked up, that plan obviously fell by the wayside. Now that its all over, I’m really looking forward to doing that soon 🙂 Kind of a little reward for all the frustration.
We had SUCH a sweet evening catching up with family we haven’t seen in years ❤️ We ate burgers and hotdogs and veggies and chips and kept things suuuper simple so we could fit in as much visiting as possible! Brady and I chatted with our cousins, the older kids played, and our baby girls played together for the first time ever. Its hard when people you click so well with live so far away, but I’m SO thankful we got some real visiting time in yesterday! We chatted and ate and went for our evening walk all together. It was so wonderful, and the kids went down to bed easily. Nice and wiped out.
As tends to happen, Waverly lulled awake right about when Brady and I were going to pack it in for the night. We’ve been staying up later than usual this week, watching the latest season of Brooklyn Nine Nine, and last night was another one of those evenings. Wavy is such a chill little baby, she usually just kind of chats herself awake. But last night, around 11:30, she started crying. Poor girly hadn’t drank much milk before bed, so we figured she could use some more of that.
She disagreed. She drank a little but was pretty weepy and upset. She would not settle. We figured her poor little body was just overdone, and we tried to lay her back down. She tried to sleep for a bit, in and out, fussy. But not all out crying at that point. She got there, though 😉 Oh yes she did! We tried to lay her back down, give her lots of snuggles, talk to her to help her relax, offered her water bottle, an even fresher diaper than the one we changed an hour prior, etc. We tried EVERYTHING. And EVERYTHING resulted in a piercing scream cry. She was SO MAD. Brady and I took turns passing her back and forth, and no matter our efforts, she would physically shove us away from her. She did not want to be held. But if we set her down, she would LOSE it. This has never happened!!! We were at such a loss!
She wasn’t hot. She wasn’t hungry or thirsty. She had no obvious physical body issues. She wasn’t wet.
We even considered she could be sensing a different issue, like dogs sometimes do! Haha! It sounded crazy, but crazier things have happened. We checked on the other kids and everyone was fine.
So pain was our best guess. It was very clear that this wasn’t simply a bad habit forming. Waverly was hysterical, and completely not herself. So we went against our usual “rules,” and mixed it up. We gave her some Tylenol and brought her into our bed to watch some Netflix. Who watches tv with their baby, in bed, in the middle of the night?? We do! 🙋♀️🙋♂️ We figured, if she was in pain, it would take some time for the Tylenol to kick in, so we watched an episode of Brooklyn Nine Nine with her in our bed. I got her a stuffed toy to play with, and brought her water bottle along, too. She sat contentedly pretty much the entire time, drinking water and chewing on her little bunny. She finally settled after about a half hour. Whether it was the distraction and comfort, or the medicine, I don’t know. It doesn’t even really matter. She did go back to sleep. It was somewhere between 2:30 and 3:00 at that point. And she had been up since 11:30.
Oh. My. Gosh. We are SO tired around here! Brady has work this morning, but rather than his usual disgusting wakeup call at 4:30am, he opted to sleep in and go in after the kids were up. He made the right call.
As for Waverly, she’s been sleeping ever since. She lulled awake at one point maybe around 8:00am, and I listened and waited to hear her confidently wake, and she didn’t. So I’m pretty sure she’d back to sleep.
Wish us luck for an unpredictable day! And the night to come…
