First Day of School

Welp, it was definitely memorable. Short story is Lucia was 75 minutes late for her first day. Long story is we got a heap of forms on Wednesday night, i.e. not enough time to have them all signed and turned around by our HMO, and welp, they didn't get signed. We figured we could plead ignorance and have them turned in right after we dropped her off this morning, but they refused to admit her. Good thing is Lucia didn't seem to mind and was totally down with driving all over town, in and out of the car with everyone, up the elevator, in this office, out of that office, now go get the car, everyone piles in, lather, rinse, repeat. I asked Pete if he got any good pictures today before things went sideways. "Yes," he said. "Did you make sure you got one of Mommy having a nervous breakdown??" Kidding/not kidding. It was that bad, people.

"Pretend you're excited!"

8:14AM On her way! (little did we know what was about to happen)

Lot of activity and nervous kids and parents.

Very happy to see a familiar face in the crowd, here's RJ who lives on our floor.  I think he was happy to see Lucia too because it was his first day at this school also. 

The little reading area outside her classroom

That's her teacher through the window and at the far right corner of the window you can see our Blondie. 

Classes only go to 1:30 this week, so we arrived at 1:15 to eagerly get the full report on her day. She said she had a great time, and gave her teacher a hug on the way out. Awwww. Later when we got home she said she was bored, so we're thankful for the after care program that she will start tomorrow. Hilariously, she protested a LOT at bedtime tonight and as a last-ditch effort tried crying and insisting, but I'm just nervous for tomorrow! To which we talked with her and tried to assess what she was nervous about. Then out came the truth: I don't like it that I can't do whatever I want there! Hahahaha. Guess things got a little too real at Kindergarten. So funny. It's a step towards growing up, and while this morning was a total nightmare, I will say I was grateful we didn't get to have that teary goodbye moment. We were all running on sheer adrenaline at that point, so the parting was brief. Maybe that was for the best today. At any rate, we're looking forward to a much smoother Day 2. Phew. 

4 month checkup

Bib becomes cape at dr. Dan!
He measures normally, height and weight are in the 30- percentile for his age. Head circumference is 97-percentile... Big!

Cant seem to catch a break

Went to our first visit to our doctor Dan today. Yes his name really is Dan, so naturally Lucia was over the moon excited to show him her Doctor Dan book that she loves. He gave her a new bandaid.
Apparently she has virus infection, but her breathing is good so all we can do is wait it out and drink lots of fluids.

Respite and then Yucky Night

Lucia developed a fever Friday night and started getting progressively worse over the weekend. Yesterday we started breathing treatments, but loaded her in the new stroller with blankies and took her on a walk over to Piedmont Avenue, which has lots of stores and restaurants. On the way home she absolutely refused to ride in the stroller, so we alternated between carrying her and letting her walk. My favorite part was when we got to walk through the municipal rose garden, which is very close to our new place. It's so beautiful, and Lucia enjoyed it too.

It was a nice respite from the worrisome morning and what turned out to be an upsetting night.

Unfortunately she took a turn for the worse when we got home; her fever spiked to 102 and she seemed out of breath despite having albuterol. After calling the advice nurse, she told us to take her to the ER. We got there, and they took her stats, and her pulse ox -- the level of oxygen in her blood -- was a little low, so they were concerned. We waited a bit longer, then saw a doctor who prescribed prednisone, the same necessary evil drug I've had to go on several times this year, and they gave her a breathing treatment. She was absolutely wired when we got home (around 9), but we managed to get her to eat some dinner and go to bed easily. Well, somewhat, if you count banging on the door and crying. Which is basically every night since we decided to take away the pacifier. But I digress...

The doctors aren't sure if she has asthma or what, but she has asthma-like symptoms whenever she gets sick. So we'll be using the nebulizer to give her breathing treatments until the end of May (and the end of flu season!). It is also likely that the dairy challenges we tried leading up to the weekend did not help, so we won't be doing that again until we have the green light from her allergist.

We know it's just asthma-like, and I'm trying really hard not to jump to conclusions and stay calm. As for Lucia, she's absolutely fine. She was jumping on the beds in the ER during last night's visit -- despite not being able to breathe -- and seemed generally unfazed by the whole thing. Though she did break down at dinner and sobbed her eyes out. I sympathized. Going to the hospital is STRESSFUL.

Fun in the ER (update)

We spent about 6 hours in the ER last night. It was boring, and at times upsetting. She refused to drink so we took a syringe with water and squirted that in her mouth while she protested profusely. Definitely not fun, but better than an IV. The doctor finally did another test that actually confirmed she did not have a urine tract infection which is great, but then why does she have 104 in fever? This became obvious to me this morning when she woke up around 9:30 am and had a really crusty nose. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

Doctor visit

A routine checkup shows Lucia is tall and skinny for her age.

A trip to the allergist

We went to an allergist today to find out what Lucia may be allergic to. Since she obviously is allergic to all dairy products, we thought she may also be allergic to other foods.
It turns out she is also allergic to egg, much more allergic, so we have to buy her an emergency shot we can give her if needed.

At the Pediatrician

We went for the six month checkup today, she was her very wiggliest today, of course. She also decided to cry when the doctor held her.
And the latest numbers are in too:
Height: 664 mm / 26,14 inches
Weight: 7060 gr / 15lbs 9 ounces