Samantha: 16 Months, Week 2

You know how the smallest things can majorly affect a toddler?  Well, that happened with Samantha this past week.  She has THE WORST diaper rash she's ever had before.  It was very red and very sore, and almost had two blister-like spots.  We could tell it was very painful for her.  Diaper changes were not pleasant experiences, for Samantha and for us.  We tried all the various creams and ointments that we had and nothing seemed to be providing her any relief.  We even tried to give her a bath on Tuesday night, thinking that maybe the warm water and lack of diaper would be a welcome change for her. Oh how we were wrong about that!  She just winced in pain when the water touched her diaper rash, and Mommy and Daddy made this the quickest bath on record.  Because of her rash, she had trouble walking and sleeping comfortably because it hurt for her butt cheeks to rub together.  When she walked around the house, she almost looked like a cowboy, walking so that her legs are as spread apart as possible.  At night when I would lay her down, she would just cry from the pain.  After a few days of trying whatever we could to clear it up, we finally called the doctor and asked for some advice.  The nurse that Ben talked to suggested to put Lotrimin and Maalox on her.  We tried that from Thursday into Friday, and then Friday night when we were changing her diaper at the outdoor picnic, her sores started bleeding.  We knew this was not normal, and her rash seemed even worse and redder than it was previously.  So on Saturday morning I called to schedule her a doctor's appointment.  However, later in the day, we realized that she would still be napping during her scheduled appointment time, and we do not like to wake a sleeping baby.  I called the office again and spoke to a nurse about our situation, wondering if it was worth it to wake her up and bring her in.  We told her what we had been doing, and she said our first problem was that we are using the Lotrimin.  (What?  Your office just told Ben the other day to USE Lotrimin!  Why are there different stories?)  She said that is probably why her sores started bleeding because Lotrimin is too abrasive and should only be used for yeast infections, which Samantha definitely does not have.  She said that we should just be using Maalox to help with the acidity of her bowel movements and then cover that with Vaseline to help keep the moisture out.  The nurse said it wouldn't be worth it to bring Samantha in because that is the same advice we would get if we came to the office.  So, Ben and I decided to try that and said that if it wasn't looking any better on Monday, we would actually take her into the doctor.  We felt so sorry for our poor little girl.  I can only imagine what that must feel like and how uncomfortable it would be.  We were trying so hard to find some kind of solution that would help her out!

Samantha loves playing outside and loves her slide.  Here are some pictures of her playing on a nice, fall afternoon.

For some reason, this week she wasn't napping very well during the day with her babysitter.  She normally sleeps about 2 hours and 15 minutes to 2 hours and 30 minutes, occasionally even 3 hours in the afternoon.  However, some days this week she was hardly even sleeping an hour.  We weren't quite sure what was going on, and even though her demeanor is still pleasant, she gets a lot more whiney and more irritable when she doesn't get a good nap in the afternoon.  We will have to see if this is just a phase and if it gets better in the coming weeks.

Toddlers are funny sometimes with how they eat.  Samantha definitely has her favorite foods, like Annie's mac and cheese, blueberries, strawberries, yogurt, peas, goldfish, and bananas.  Some days she will do really well eating whatever we put in front of her, and some days it seems like she will hardly eat anything we give her.  When she doesn't like something, she will just spit it out of her mouth, so at least we know what her preferences are!  Vegetables are the hardest thing to get her to eat.  She likes peas the best, especially Grandma Toll's fresh garden peas, but other vegetables, she could pass those up.  Oftentimes we have to sneak them into her food, like mixing it up with her mac and cheese, sneaking in a bite of vegetables in between other bites, whatever it takes.  Does anyone else have this problem with their toddler?  Do you have any suggestions on good vegetables for toddlers, or how to incorporate vegetables into other dishes?  I would appreciate any feedback you have for me!

For some reason this year we have been really busy.  Our weekends have been full and busy, from us traveling somewhere or others coming to visit us.  This weekend was completely empty on the calendar, and Ben and I were looking forward to a weekend at home, where we could rest and get caught up on our work that just seems to keep bogging us down.  However, in the middle of the week, things just kept popping up on our calendar and soon, we had something every day of the weekend.  How do things like this happen!  It's not like we are really exciting people or anything!

Our weekend started with an outdoor picnic on Friday evening with the Christians in Political Science group at IU.  It was good to meet some other of Ben's friends, and a couple families from our old small group were there as well, so our kids got to play with each other that evening while the grown-ups socialized.  Samantha had a great time wandering around, carrying around the bean bags from the corn hole game, and watching the older kids play.  One time during dinner I looked over to check on Samantha and saw that the older boys were holding Samantha's hands, one on either side, being very gentle and kind with her, walking around the yard together.  It was adorable.  I took a pictures on Ben's cell phone because it was the only camera we had available.  These kids have grown to be pretty good friends with each other.  It's great to watch their interactions with each other change and develop as they grow older.

Samantha likes to sit and eat a snack at her little table in the afternoon when we get home.  She thinks she's pretty special being able to get in and out of her little chair.

The weather this weekend was great, the perfect fall, crisp, sunny day.  On Saturday we had a Lighthouse all-school picnic to attend, and Samantha got to play on the playground for awhile, which is always a big hit in her book.  Then, on Sunday, after Ben came back from working on campus, we all went on a family bike ride, probably our last one of the season.  Even though the weekend was busier than we imagined or would have liked, we had some really great family time.  Family time is very important to me, and it's what I look forward to at the end of every busy week of school.