Astrid – Easter Egg Hunts and Tantrums

This blog post is a few weeks late. After Easter we all got sick (I had the flu plus a root canal, Emily and Astrid had colds), and we’ve been nervously anticipating another hospital visit for Astrid’s asthma. But now that Astrid seems to be getting better, it’s time to recap our adventures in March.

We were back in the hospital for Astrid’s 6th and 7th visits for Asthma on March 9th and 16th.Ugh. We seem to spend a lot of Friday nights hanging out with our doctor and nurse friends. Hopefully cold and flu season is now over and we can make it through the summer without more emergency room visits.

Even when Astrid’s been sick, her playful personality hasn’t diminished. One night she woke up coughing at 1 am and couldn’t fall back asleep. I stayed up with her and we played with lego in our moonlit apartment, read stories, and had a snack. At one point she ran into the bathroom but it was too dark to see anything. She begged me me to turn on the lights, which I briefly did blinding both of us. She ran away and came back with sunglasses for both of us. We didn’t stay in the bathroom, but we did run around the house with our sunglasses on for another half an hour before she got tired and went to bed.

Astrid has started asserting her will more and beginning the dreaded toddler tantrums. She’s had a few incidents where she’s completely lost it crying and flailing about. One time she wanted to wear her toque and sunglasses and refused to take them off at bedtime. Another time she refused to put on clean socks in the morning and insisted on wearing the dirty ones she found in the hamper. We’ve learned to pick our battles and to give her space when she’s freaking out.

On a cuter note, Astrid has learned how to say “I love you” or rather “I you“. The first night she said it back to me at bedtime she lay in bed saying “I you” repeatedly for 10 minutes, long after I had left the room.

The highlight of our month was our annual Easter trip to Kamloops to visit auntie Kelsey, uncle Matt, cousin Jacob, and baby Nora. It was great to see how much fun the cousins had playing together.

Astrid and Jacob ran around the house together, learned to share toys, bounced on couches, and helped me make pancakes for breakfast. Jacob woke up every morning asking where Astrid was. And Astrid woke up asking to see the baby. She loved patting Nora on head and poking her in the eyes (amazingly she never made her cry).

The easter egg hunt was a huge success. With plastic eggs full of dried fruit and stickers at ground level for Astrid and Jacob to find, and eggs full of chocolate hidden higher up for the adults. Amazingly we got through the easter weekend without giving Astrid any chocolate. I’m not sure if that makes us good or bad parents.

 

It took Nora a few days to warm up to us, but we became best friends by the end of the weekend.

More pictures from March and Easter.

Astrid: February in Photos

After we spent the Family Day long weekend in the hospital (two visits to emergency), Astrid’s health has improved. She had her first virus that didn’t end up in a trip to emergency (she ran a fever for 36 hours but bounced back after a few days) and she’s been healthy for the last week. It feels like a precarious situation, but we’re trying to enjoy it for now.

Astrid is busy expanding her vocabulary. The biggest highlight is that she can say her name, or a lispy version of it. And she’s working on the names of other people in her life. She’s getting pretty good at using her words and actions to order us around (dragging us around the house, “bottle”, “book”, pat a chair to indicate we should sit there).

We had a lovely snowshoe to the Bowen Island Lookout on Cypress Mountain yesterday (photos).

Astrid is loving her trains and lego.

She’s a big help around the house.

Fresh air is good for the lungs.

More photos

Astrid: Asthma Baby

January was a rough month. Astrid got the flu, had a high fever twice, saw numerous doctors, got a black eye when she fell in the tub, and spent far too much time at the hospital.

We ended up in the emergency room at BC Children’s again on January 10th. It was our second visit for Astrid’s wheezing. The good news was that she responded really well to the puffers and we learned a lot from the doctors. The bad news was that she officially has asthma. We were out of the hospital in 5 hours with a referral to see a paediatrician who specializes in asthma.

A week later, the doctor reassured us that most young children with asthma grow out of it. She prescribed a new puffer, a corticosteroid called Alvesco, that’s supposed to reduce the inflammation in her lungs and prevent future trips to the hospital. And we were told to come back in April when cold season is over. Unfortunately we ended up back at emergency on January 26th. This time we stayed overnight. We’re pretty used to the drill by now (The Asthma Protocol); the nurses just hook her up the monitor, hand us the puffers, and leave. Hopefully the Alvesco just didn’t have long enough to kick in (it’s supposed to be slow-acting). As good as the treatment is at BC Children’s Hospital, we don’t want to be back anytime soon.

In between hospital visits we had two great weekends with Baba. She and Astrid had a lot of fun together. You can read her blog post about the visit and her time in Kamloops.

While Baba was here we thought it would be nice to go for a snowshoe in the mountains. We planned to do Bowen Island Lookout Trail on Cypress Mountain. On the drive up we kept on waiting for the rain to turn into snow. But all we got at the top was a frigid wet sleet coming down at a diagonal. Not the best conditions for a frolic in the woods with a toddler and two grandmas. Luckily it was dry and periodically sunny at Lighthouse Park so we still got a little hike and picnic lunch.

Astrid continues to learn new skills, expand her communication, and charm the pants off everyone she meets. She knows her body parts (toes, head, nose, ears) and a couple of animal sounds. She’s really into putting things where they belong – helping us put away our shoes, cleaning up blocks, disposing of trash in the garbage can. One of her favourite games is to see how many of her sweaters and jackets she can wear at once. She just keeps on bringing you new layers to put on her. Once she can’t move anymore she starts bringing your jackets.

More pictures

Astrid: First 20 Words

Our doctor asked if Astrid could say 20 words. Apparently it’s a developmental milestone for 18-month olds. She hit that mark when she learned ‘purple‘ the other day. Here are her first 20 words, roughly in order.

1. Mama
2. No
3. Yeah
4. Dada
5. Hi
6. Uh-oh
7. More
8. Please
9. Bye
10. Up
11. Down
12. (Ba)nana
13. Apple
14. Toes
15. Shoes
16. Baba
17. Night
18. Row
19. Mine
20. Purple

She also knows how to sign “Thank You” (but can’t quite pronounce it) and points at her mouth when she’s hungry. In the past few weeks she’s been more interested in repeating words we say to her, which is how she learned ‘purple’, when Baba was reading to her.

Astrid: Wheezy

It’s been a crazy past few days. We were supposed to fly to Cancun Sunday morning, but a trip to Emergency ward at BC Children’s Hospital changed those plans.

It all started with a cold in late November that turned into a little cough. We didn’t think much of it until Wednesday last week when she started having fevers at night and coughing a lot.

We saw our GP on Friday and he said it was Croup and prescribed dexamethasone. He said it should get better within 4 hours.

That night there was no improvement, so I took her to a nearby walk-in clinic Saturday morning. The doc immediately sent us to Emergency at BC Children’s Hospital. It was a stressful bike ride hauling ass up the hill to BC Children’s with a sick child in the trailer.

We had underestimated how serious Astrid’s condition was. She was definitely wheezy, but she was in a good mood and playful – how bad could it be? When we arrived at BC Children’s, we were placed at the top of the triage list and got to see the next doctor, which should have been an indication how serious it was. And yet, I still clung to this hope that we would be discharged soon and be able to catch our flight to Mexico the next day.

Astrid’s lungs were really constrained and she was having trouble breathing. They pumped her full of steroids (Atrovent to start and Ventolin every hour after) and immediately you could see the difference. She hated using the puffer mask, but it was making it easier for her to breath. In the first few hours at the hospital, her heart rate was between 130-200 bpm. Her body was working really hard to pump the limited oxygen around. After a few hours of treatment it was between 85 and 150.

At 4:30 pm Astrid was moved out of Emergency into the Critical Decision Unit (CDU) for monitoring. Emily stayed with her, while I went home to finish packing. At 9:00 pm, they did a chest x-ray to see if she had pneumonia but the only thing they found was a small section of collapsed lung (which is apparently common when you have trouble breathing for so long). They almost released us at 11:00 pm. Astrid had gone four hours between Ventolin puffs without much problems, except when she was sleeping her SpO2 (oxygen concentration in the blood) would periodically drop below 90% causing alarm bells to go off. It went as low as 87% and the doctor said she had to stay the night, sleeping with the help of extra oxygen tubes in her nose.

After nearly 24 hours of excellent treatment (I really can’t say enough good things about the nurses and doctors at BC Children’s), Astrid was discharged at 7:35 am. The final diagnosis was Reactive Airways Disease (a vague and unhelpful catchall for all breathing problems). We had to do more Ventolin at home every 4 hours for the next 3 days and monitor her condition.

We missed our flight to Cancun, but we’re just happy Astrid is feeling better. We were all packed and ready to head straight from the hospital to the airport, but the doctors told us to take a few days to rest and see how Astrid is doing. The grandparents flew to Mexico without us and hopefully we will join them in a few days.

I feel horrible for not doing something sooner. It’s tough because we had been at the hospital a few weeks earlier for something that turned out to be nothing. We didn’t want to be the overreacting first-time parents yet again. And Astrid was in such a good mood even when she was sick, it was hard to think she was in need of emergency attention. Now we know to look for trouble breathing and wheezing.

Astrid: Little Cupcake

Astrid and I survived 3 days without mommy. When Emily asked if she could go on a work retreat, I knew we could handle it but I was still a bit nervous about looking after Astrid on my own, keeping her amused all day on Sunday, and handling bedtime without boobs. Luckily Astrid was in a great mood and we had no problem substituting Daddy’s Milk (recipe below) for breast milk for a few days. I also got some much appreciated help from the Grandmas who made dinner and helped look after Astrid on Monday night, and Emily left us with a fridge full of leftovers so I didn’t have to cook anything from scratch.

A few weeks ago we had a great visit with Uncle Sean, Auntie Brittany, and Grandma Bev. Astrid enjoyed showing them her wildling side.

For Halloween, Astrid dressed up like a cupcake (Emily was a baker and I had diarrhea – scary stuff). She went trick-or-treating for the first time, visiting some of the apartments in our building. She enjoyed getting treats to put in her bag. Although, we’re mean parents and ate all of her chocolates.

Astrid is more interested in advanced toys now. She likes playing with her building blocks, especially the little Lego parcel that she places in a mailbox. She also loves her train set and zooms them around the house yelling “Weeeee”.

Astrid has completed her second swim class (Duck) and starts Sea Turtle next weekend. She’s not the biggest fan of the water, but she’s getting more comfortable in it. Even at home, she’s enjoying bathtime more than she used to.

Photoshoot with Rochelle Elise Photography

For Astrid’s 1st birthday, we decided it would be good to get some high quality shots of the whole family. Good photographers are in high demand in Vancouver, so it wasn’t until August that we were able to schedule a photoshoot with Rochelle Elise, who does amazing work with families.

We really enjoyed working with Rochelle. It was challenging finding a time where the lighting would be good (Rochelle prefers to shoot at dawn and dusk), Astrid would be awake and in a good mood, and the weather would cooperate. The day of our photoshoot, it rained in the morning and cleared out the forest fire smoke that had been overshadowing Vancouver for weeks. We lucked out.

Here are some of our favourite shots that Rochelle captured (all images are courtesy of Rochelle Elise Photography).