Lillian is 3 Months Old!

Our sweet Lillian Grace had her 3 month old checkup today and weighed in at 15 lbs. 25 1/2 inches. She grew 2 lbs. and about 1 1/2 inches in a month. Yay! I don't know how because it seems like she never eats! However, I think it's just that I don't notice her eating as much because when she needs to eat I just feed her and go about my business with the housework or Robert or whatever. I don't have a whole lot of time to think about it like I did with Robert. I hate those questions the nurse always asks when you first get to the doctor for a well baby checkup. "How often does the baby eat?" "How many minutes on each side?" "How many bowel movements and wet diapers a day?" "Can she put her hands together?" "Can she follow an object with her eyes?" "Can she hold up her head?" With Robert, I could answer each question honestly and accurately. I had actually counted his feedings and outputs, measured the time and tried all the baby calisthenics. With Lillian, bless her heart, I wanted to say to the nurse, "Listen lady, she's alive and growing. That's about all I vouch for at this point!" I didn't say that, though. I just made up some answers and said she could do all those things which I've never actually noticed her doing before but I'm sure she probably could do. I told myself that I'd check on them as soon as we got home. Yeah right. I got home, chatted with the friend who was watching Robert, helped him paint a picture, cooked lunch, ate lunch, cleaned up lunch, played with Robert, put him to bed, and I think fed Lillian, gave her some Tylenol (she got a shot), and changed her diaper. I haven't gotten around to checking whether or not she could follow an object 180 degrees, yet. She probably can. Maybe I'll go check...

Amoxicillin Allergy!

So it turns out that Robert has an allergy to amoxicillin! He started breaking out in little red circles this past Sat. night. We didn't think too much of it and put him to bed. When he got up Sun. morning, he had lots more all over. I still took him to church for my friend, a pediatrician, to have a quick look. She took one look at them and said they were most likely from an allergy to amoxicillin, which Robert had been on for about 8 days of a 10 day cycle. She said it can happen that late in the cycle, and it can happen even though it didn't when he was on it for ear infections last year. She told me to call my pediatrician and to stop the meds. The pediatrician on call had me come in on Sun. so she could see the spots. She recommended that we stop the meds and just watch to see if they got worse. If they did, she said he would have to be on oral steroids or maybe even have to be admitted to Children's Hospital for fluid IVs and IV steroids! So we went home and kept an eye on him all day. He seemed fine and the spots even looked to be going away by late afternoon. However, almost instantly after dinner they began to reappear and even multiply. We didn't want to call just yet and deal with a possible trip to Children's that night, so we put him to bed and listened out for him. Sure enough, he was up a few times that night, and by morning, he was swollen all over, his eyes, his joints, everywhere! He looked almost disfigured to me. The pictures do not capture just how horrible he looked. I called the doctor and she basically said to begin heading to Children's Hospital. She was really worried over the phone. However, after calling the pediatrician on call at the Hospital, he reassured her that we should try oral steroids and benadryl first since it didn't seem to be in his mucus membranes yet (i.e. his mouth, lips, eyeballs). I had the car packed and we were ready to head in when she called. We were relieved and started him on the oral steroids as soon as she called them in. We also took him into the office for our regular pediatrician to look at him. Everyone said that as horrible as he looked, it was still "mild." After about two doses of the steroids, the swelling started to go down. By yesterday the spots started to fade, but you can still see some bruising around his eyes. It was horrible!!! I hope and pray that we'll never have to experience that again. He was miserable, too, because they got itchy and his joints were really sore. He's much better now, thank God! What a weekend! Oh, and we're still all fighting this nasty cold on top of all of that!

Kunes' Colds

What do you do when you're sick and have already seen too much TV to last a lifetime? Make cookies with Mom! The oatmeal cookie recipe in this collection was yummy. Thanks Aunt Julie!

All cozy and warm and happy in the swing (and not in Mom's arms?)!

Mommy made Robert a sick bed on the couch. She learned from the best--her Mommy! The only thing missing is a cool sheet over the cushions.

The Kunes family is not off to a great start this November. We have all shared some form of a cold for the past two weeks now. We've all got runny AND stuffy noses, sore throats (Robert even had strep throat!), raspy voices, and gallons of gunk between the four of us. YUCK! Robert and Daddy are currently on antibiotics, and hopefully the girls can tough it out without needing meds.

At least it's happening now and not on our trip to Atlanta/Charleston over Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween and other October Stuff

Robert the train engineer! Thank you, Aunt Julie, for the costume. It is so cute!

Lillian the sleeping duck. Too cute, Aunt Julie!

We celebrated Mommy's birthday early when MaBop was visiting. She made us a yummy raspberry cake and Robert loved helping me blow out the candles.

Robert playing in the dirt in our side yard by our shed. MaBop dug up some dirt for him to play in, and he loved it! He especially loved the sink baths he got afterwards.

MaBop caught him laying down in the bushes. I love this picture because he just looks so sweet and innocent.

Lillian trying out the play "gym." She's still a little young for it and got quickly overwhelmed by all the toys and colors.

Lillian in the Bumbo seat. Again, she's still a little young and it was just too much exercise for her.

Lillian's silly smile.

Wow, October flew by fast! I can't believe Lillian is now 11 weeks old! She's not the gold medal grower that Robert was, but after all, she's a lady. She doesn't eat nearly as much as he did! She was 13 lbs. 4 oz. at her 2 month appointment, and Robert was already over 14 lbs. by then. She's a really challenging baby, but lately I've been looking back at posts about Robert around this age, and he wasn't all that easy either. The biggest challenge is that she has a hard time being by herself at all--sitting by herself, sleeping by herself, all of it. We're being really sensitive to her right now and meeting all of her needs, but we're going to have to start playing hard ball in a few weeks! I should say that I'm meeting all of her needs because right now she only has eyes for me. She is literally on me or right next to me about 22 hours a day. The other two hours are the few moments that she will sit by herself or either the times that I just have to let her cry for a few minutes to care for Robert's needs or my own. It's hard, but I know that time will pass. I've been trying to stay positive by focussing on all of the wonderful things about Lillian as she is right now: her smiles, her softness, her cuddliness, her sweet baby smell, her sweet cooing sounds, and her chubby legs. I'm trying not to rush her growing up or always to long for the future. After experiencing the scariness of her early sicknesses, I realize that we are never promised another day with our children, so we need to focus on the present and love them and enjoy them as they are right now.

Robert is as cute as ever right now. He's so verbal! He talks all the time and is even starting to make his toys, mostly his dinosaurs, talk when he plays with them. He's really into dinosaurs and trains and trucks--all boy. And God bless him, the boy could watch TV all day long if I would let him. I've never seen anyone enjoy TV like that kid! It's sad that I know this about him, but hey, with Lillian, a mom's got to do what a mom's got to do. And yes, I use the TV sometimes! He's not great at playing by himself, so that's another main reason why he ends up watching TV. I can't play with him as much as I would like. We have joined a MOMS Club play group, though, so hopefully we'll make lots of friends and be able to get out of the house more often.

Halloween was really fun for Robert, and he has asked if we could go again everyday since Halloween. He doesn't really care about the candy; he just likes going door to door to ring the bell and to look into other people's houses. He's his mother's child--nosey! He kept wanted to go into complete strangers' houses to look around or play with their toys that he could see from the door. Cute, cute, cute!

We're planning a trip to Atlanta and then to Charleston over Thanksgiving. Rob's being ordained a priest on Dec. 6 in Charleston, so we'll start in Atlanta for Thanksgiving with my family, and then go to Charleston for the ordination and to spend time with Rob's family. We're not looking forward to the driving, but we can't wait to introduce Lillian to everyone.

Hope to see many of you soon! And check out the new picture album link over to the left.