I had no idea that toddler hair would be so… challenging.
Don’t get me wrong: I *LOVE* Nora’s hair. For one, the curls are something I was never expecting in a child of mine (despite having curly hair genes, mine is stick-straight), so I am cherishing them while they’re here, because who knows if they will last? I love how it is getting longer so I am more easily able to do the little “Pebbles” hair style on top of her head, and pigtails, if the mood strikes.
The problem lies in the direction in which her hair has naturally decided to grow. It grows from the crown of her head FORWARD, a.k.a. directly into her face. It’s like… well, it’s like Justin Bieber, before he cut it. My baby has Justin Bieber hair.
OK, not really. It’s way cuter than Bieber. And it happens to look abso-freaking-lutely adorable in this pic. But it rarely falls this perfectly. In everyday life, if I don’t put her hair in a ponytail or pigtails, her hair is in her eyes all.damn.day.
For a few months, we were able to get away with barrettes, which was a really cute way to keep her hair out of her face. I still use them occasionally, but they have become less convenient since she has decided she likes to pull them out any chance she gets. Once, she put the barrette in her mouth (while we were sitting there watching her), so yeah–no barrettes unsupervised, that’s for sure. So, taking it out (her, or us) and putting it back in (us) seventy times a day is annoying.
And although the ponytail/pigtails method is still a good one, I don’t like to pull her hair back every day, you know?
I was discussing this dilemma with our daycare provider today, and she said, “Well, you could cut it.”
GAH. I know I could cut it. But I don’t want to cut it.
Truthfully, if we were just talking bangs, I would probably trim them. But, like I said, this hair that’s in her face originates at her crown, so cutting that seems like it would be… weird. Possibly even disastrous.
I’ve been trying to “train” her hair to grow to the sides by parting it, sweeping it to the side, etc. but nature always seems to take over, despite my best efforts.
If you have a little girl, how have you handled her hair? Do you stick out the “awkward” stage of growth and it eventually works itself out as it gets longer? Do you put it up every day? Do you *gasp* cut it? Any hair professionals out there with advice?
Again, LOVE her hair. I just don’t love it in her eyes.
At least it’s looking a bit better than it did back in the old days. :)
Nora’s teeth, that is. But let’s back up a second.
Nora had her 15-month well baby doctor’s appointment today.
Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with another ear infection. We’ve chosen not to treat it at this time, since she is still sleeping well and is not completely miserable (though she has her moments). But we do have the prescription just in case we need it.
Aside from that, it was a good visit. Nora is now 21 lbs., jumping up into the 20th percentile for weight (she’s always been hanging around 5th percentile, so this was a surprise)! Still petite, but not quite as petite right now. She’s 29 inches (also 20th percentile), and her head is something like 47 (or 49?) centimeters, which is the 77th percentile. Her daycare provider said that’s what makes her so cute–that her head is slightly bigger than the rest of her body. Haha!
We talked language development and walking and attitude. All deemed normal, of course. :) Little Miss got four vaccinations, which is always fun. Not.
Oh, and the pediatrician confirmed that Nora is cutting at least EIGHT teeth right now, including four molars. No wonder the kid is a little irritable. What’s funny now is that at any given moment, we don’t know what’s bothering her. Is she pitching a fit because her teeth hurt? Is her ear bothering her? Or is she just being a toddler with ‘tude? I guess we will never know. We’re trying to err on the side of caution–giving her the benefit of the doubt–and being a bit more sympathetic than we would typically be to her outbursts.
Tonight, she pitched an absolute fit once we were home from daycare. She would.not.let.me.put.her.down. Let’s be real: I love holding her, but I would try to put her down just to play with her and she did not want to have anything to do with the floor. I tried to put her in her high chair to eat and she flipped out, so I marched her upstairs to put her in the bath and get her ready for bed. She threw a big dramatic tantrum during the bath (which, as a result, only lasted about two minutes–long enough for me to wash her hair and wipe her down), and once she was out and dressed in jammies, she was fine. In fact, I brought her back downstairs and she proceeded to eat one of the largest dinners she has ever had. She scarfed down everything we put in front of her.
One minute she’s a monster. The next she’s an angel. Such is life with a teething, ear-achy, moody toddler.
I try not to overuse painkillers/fever reducers, but Nora has had at least one dose every day for over a week now, thanks to her mysterious illness and these dang teeth. I’ve also been using Orajel every night before she goes to bed, and busting out her teething necklace. (I owe you guys a review on that thing. Watch for it, hopefully soon!) We’ve tried offering her the frozen/refrigerated teething things before, but she never wants anything to do with them. I was given a bottle of teething drops made by Gentle Naturals, but haven’t used them yet.
Do you have any tips and tricks to help soothe a teething toddler?
I have to say, as much discomfort as she’s probably in right now, I’m glad we’re dealing with a bunch coming in all at once–let’s get this over with! Better a shorter time with more discomfort than a longer, drawn-out period of teething with a little less discomfort. Am I right, or am I right? :)
Is there anything better than when a baby laughs at herself for “fooling” you when she “hides” during a friendly game of peek-a-boo?
My favorite is when they can’t contain their giggles, even when they are supposed to be hidden. And it’s especially hilarious when it’s a game of peek-a-boo that they initiated out of nowhere. Using a pillow. When you have no idea where they learned that from.
Warning: I apologize in advance for the high octave at which my voice must say “peek-a-boo” in this video. There’s a science behind why we automatically talk in higher voices to babies, right? I’m going to go ahead and blame science. :)
At the end of this past work week, Michael and I pretty much collapsed. It was a rough one.
Unfortunately, after I posted on Tuesday about Nora’s fever, she didn’t get better. In fact, just hours later, she was way worse.
Michael and I woke up to Nora crying at around 12:45 a.m. Given that she had been sick, I didn’t wait long before going in to her. When I took her out of her crib, I could tell right away that she was burning up.
I had given her ibuprofen before she went to bed at 7:00 p.m., so I grabbed the Tylenol (we were alternating drugs, especially when enough time hadn’t passed since the last ibuprofen dose to be able to give her another one) and the thermometer and took her to the rocking chair in her room. Poor baby had her eyes closed the whole time, but was whimpering and just generally uncomfortable.
Beep! Thermometer registered and it was… 105 degrees.
SCARY.
I confirmed the ear thermometer reading with an underarm temp, and after giving her Tylenol and rocking her for a few minutes in the chair, Michael and I agreed that we’d bring her into bed with us. Honestly, we were too afraid to leave her in her crib by herself when her fever was that high–even if she would’ve let us.
To make a long night short, Michael and I were up until 4:00 a.m. waiting for her fever to break. The Tylenol dose I gave her only seemed to lower her temperature by a degree–to 104–which was not very comforting. Nora did her best to sleep on us, but her high fever was causing a lot of discomfort, which caused her to squirm around a lot and wake up frequently, whining and crying. As worried parents, we were just too wound up to fall asleep during all of this. At around 3:00 a.m., I decided to give her another dose of ibuprofen (it had then been eight hours since the last ibuprofen dose, but only about two hours since the Tylenol dose), and thankfully, within the hour, her fever finally dropped down to 102 degrees and Nora showed noticeable improvement. Her breathing–which had been rapid and loud when her fever was really high–slowed and quieted, and we decided that she would probably sleep best in her own bed. We were right, as she went back into her crib easily, and we were able to get a few hours of shut-eye ourselves.
So, Wednesday was fun. (I hope you sense the sarcasm.) We had been up the majority of the night, and clearly, Nora was not going back to daycare, so we had to figure out how we were going to juggle our work at work and taking care of our precious girl at home.
And although her fever never reached the 104-105 degree range again, Nora continued to run a fever of 101-103 on Wednesday and Thursday, buying her the rest of the week at home with us.
Juggle, juggle, juggle.
I will say that I have never been so thankful for the flexibility of my employer. As luck would have it, my work load was pretty heavy this week, so I was unable to just take sick time and relax about it all. For Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, Michael and I shared the work-at-home parent duties, splitting the days into morning and afternoon “shifts.” One of us would go to work in the morning, the other would stay home, and then we’d switch in the afternoon. Our managers and coworkers were incredibly flexible and understanding about it, which made a stressful situation a little less stressful.
Oh, I also have to say: Parents who actually work at home while simultaneously keeping their kids at home with them? And do this on a regular, everyday basis? I HAVE NO IDEA HOW YOU DO IT.
On the days that Nora was feeling especially awful, she slept a lot, which allowed us to get work done, even when we were home with her. But when she was awake, we took special care to have our focus be on her, making up for the time later–usually after she was in bed at night, which made for long days for us!
On Friday, Nora was feeling better, but was still SUPER clingy and whiny. I was home in the morning, but had a deadline I had to meet, so I was trying to finish up a few things and Nora just would NOT let me put her down. I ended up propping her half on/half off my lap on the couch, turning on the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and working on my laptop on the other side of me. Did it work? Sure. But I also felt like a terrible mother.
So it all felt like a double-edged sword. If I was trying to WORK from home in order to meet my deadlines at work, I felt badly if I was instead taking time out for Nora. And if I was turning my attention to my work instead of Nora, I felt terribly that I was ignoring my sick baby.
Working parenthood sucks sometimes. That’s really all there is to it.
On the bright side of things, I think both Michael and I really did enjoy and take advantage of our extra time with our sweetheart this week. She was so clingy/snuggly, and she just wanted US. And no matter how hard it is to see your kid sick, there is something really special about being the only ones who can make her feel better.
I’m glad she’s finally on the mend, but I’ll really miss her when we return to our normal schedule on Monday.
We’ve had a rough week around these parts. As I mentioned yesterday, Nora was cranky (due to teething) for the better part of last week. We had a bit of a reprieve over the weekend, but noticed that her appetite was decreasing. Otherwise, she seemed fine, so we attributed that to teething, too.
But when I picked up Nora from daycare yesterday, she just seemed… off. Sort of out of it. Lethargic. And she felt hot. Her daycare provider said that she had been fine all day, but had seemed kind of quiet since she had woken from her afternoon nap. She hadn’t noticed the fever, either, so it was probably pretty new. Poor kid was just not herself, but relaxed quietly on the way home.
I took her temperature as soon as we got in, and it was already 103 degrees, which happened to be her highest ever. Gave her ibuprofen and she perked up as the fever dropped to between 101-102. We put her to bed as normal.
I went in to check on her at one point during the evening and it was obvious she was still hot. But since she was sleeping peacefully and I had given her ibuprofen a few hours before, I let her be. But at 11:00, she woke up screaming, and when I went in, the child was simply burning up. Took her temp again, and it was up to 104 degrees. We felt awful for her. I gave her acetaminophen, put her back to bed, and we went to bed ourselves. With the exception of a brief stint at 5:00 a.m., she slept through the rest of the night.
Needless to say, I was home with a sick baby today. Her fever was still 102 degrees upon waking up this morning, at which time I gave more ibuprofen and then… well, fever-wise, she was OK. She played with me for a while, then seemed tired, so I put her down for a morning nap. I thought she’d probably give me a long one since she needed the sleep. But 45 minutes later, she was up again. And she.was.miserable.
The temper tantrums at every little thing that I described in this post? Imagine that kind of crying and screaming for AN HOUR, nonstop. She was NOT happy, regardless of what I did. Except this time I felt terrible about it because I knew she was not feeling well. I gave her more acetaminophen. I rubbed Orajel on her gums. I offered her food. I offered her milk. I turned on a movie. I tried to play. I tried just holding her. She was not having any of it. I very nearly ended up crying with her–several times. I just felt so helpless.
But after an hour of constant screaming, I sort of threw in the towel. Given her not-nearly-long-enough nap, I figured she was still exhausted, and took her back upstairs and put her in her crib. I had to endure 10 more minutes of the miserable crying, but then… silence. She passed out, and slept 2+ hours, at which point I had to wake her up to take her to her doctor’s appointment.
The recap of the doctor’s visit? No ear infection (which was the primary reason we went in). No real signs of anything, except for a runny nose. They said she likely just has some kind of virus. Nothing we can do but try to keep her fever down and push fluids on her.
She was in a great mood when we got home from the doctor, and played with me for quite a while. But by the time Michael got home from work, she was starting to crash again. And sure enough, her temperature just so happened to be creeping up at the same time. Her fever spiked back up to 102 degrees and I gave her ibuprofen AGAIN. She’s in bed sleeping now, but now we’re faced with what to do about tomorrow. Do we keep her home again? We probably should, since she’s had another fever. But her temperature was fine ALL DAY. And the doctor said she could have a fever for up to five days with a virus. *sigh*
I would love to continue to stay home with her, but my sick time is limited (end of the year–I’m running out!) and my work load is an issue. Michael can work from home, too, but it’s hard to work from home unless she’s napping.
Ah, the dilemmas of two full-time working parents.
In the end, all I want is for my girl to feel better. :(
On an unrelated note, check her out as she played with her new Little People Nativity Set earlier tonight. It’s adorable, and she loves how it lights up and plays “Away in the Manger.”
About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
