Home from the Hospital

Alexander and I got a nice surprise this morning when the doctor did his rounds. We got to come home! The results from A's RSV test came back and they were positive to the mystery of what virus he actually had was resolved. It turns out that he has RSV with a bacterial infection in his lungs. But the doctor cleared us to come home and just prescribed 2 more days of antibiotics. Without an actual prescription, just a note for our pediatrician to prescribe it for A. And orders to go for a check-up on Thursday to make sure that he hasn't had a recurrence.

Since our pediatrician is on vacation, P made a run to one of the doctors covering for her and got the prescription and an appointment for A's checkup. And let me tell you, A LOVES his medicine! He could drink that stuff all day long. I guess because it's sweet. Or at least it smells sweet. I haven't tried it to check.

Going back to the hospital, we had to wait 3 hours for our release papers and the last thirty minutes we were homeless. Yes, we were living in the hall with a baby crib and the rest of our stuff since they needed the room for another sick baby who had just arrived. If I can get my Blackberry to spit out the pictures, I'll post a picture sometime soon. Unfortunately, our roommates were sleeping when we left so I told the grandmother who was keeping an eye on the baby while the mother got some sleep that we wished them all the best and hoped that their daughter/granddaughter got well soon. Strange to leave so abruptly without saying good-bye when you've lived with someone for 5 days.

Anyway, we're back at home and feeling good for the most part. Isabella was happy to have mama back at home. She didn't express her feelings about Alexander's return.

The Classic Waffle Trial

My family loves waffles. We love eating them. I love making them with Isabella on the weekend. She loves stirring the dry ingredients and helping me hold the mixer. We just plain love them. What we haven't loved is our previous recipe because it required sour cream and we always seemed to be out (since we eat waffles so often) so I went on a hunt for a new recipe and found 'Classic Waffles' on allrecipes.com and decided to give it a try.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups warm milk
• 1/3 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder and sugar; set aside. Preheat waffle iron to desired temperature.
2. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs. Stir in the milk, butter and vanilla. Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture; beat until blended.
3. Ladle the batter into a preheated waffle iron. Cook the waffles until golden and crisp. Serve immediately.

About two weeks ago, Isabella was home with a cold and we decided to make waffles. We used our new recipe and even managed to beat and stir when called for. The waffles fluffed up nicely, were crisp on the outside, looked great.... and were way to salty for my taste. Which was a shame since I made a double batch and was planning on freezing the rest for quick breakfasts before daycare. The rest of the batter landed in the garbage when Isabella went down for her nap so she wouldn't see me throwing it away. Avoiding tantrums is always a plus.

I went back online and read through the reviews and decided on what to try the next time we made an attempt. Half the salt, applesauce instead of butter, a teaspoon of cinnamon, 5 tablespoons of sugar instead of 2 and 3 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Lots of changes but I wanted to be adventurous when I next got the urge to make waffles.

Turns out I wasn't the one to get the urge but my lovely husband who made waffles with Isabella so he could do me a favor. And because he wanted waffles. I gave him my altered recipe. He mixed and beat when appropriate. And produced wonderfully tasting waffles that did not fluff up, did not get crisp on the outside and tended to stick to the waffle iron. But we had a very nice breakfast of flat, sticky, wonderfully tasting waffles.

I wonder what happened. I think I will scale back the changes next time and only halve the salt, substitute applesauce and a teaspoon of cinnamon. Maybe I have to add more baking powder since I increased the total amount of ingredients? I wish I knew more about proportions in cooking. But the trial and error method when it comes to perfecting waffles can only mean one thing... lots of waffle to eat. Which I'm ok with.

Alexander in the Hospital

Since Alexander's birth it seems like we have been a plagued household. I've had three colds and pink eye, Isabella has had three colds, one stomach virus, pink eye and an ear infection, and Alexander has had one cold and now this cold that has turned into an infection in his lungs.

Already having one child, it seems normal when a child comes down with a fever and since Isabella has already reached the age where a fever over 39 C seems normal and warrants Ibuprofen and a two-day observation period before we go to the doctor, I've become a bit lax in that area. But when Alexander was on day two of a fever of 39+ that kept coming back when the Ibu wore off, I decided to call the doctor's office and ask at what point I should bring him in. The receptionist told me to go ahead and bring him in since he was still so young (12 weeks). So we all got packed back into our winter coats and hats, having only just taken them off 30 minutes before after having arrived home from the KiTa (daycare) and off we went. The doctor's office was packed so the receptionist gave us a urine bag to attach for sample collection and told us to come back in an hour. Since I had both children in tow and going home would have warranted undressing and dressing both of them again, I decided to call friends of ours and ask if they could keep Isabella for a few hours. She was thrilled to go play with her friend Amelie for a few hours so that was fine.

Alexander and I went back to the doctor's office and she checked his lungs and took a blood sample. Unfortunately, his blood test came back with an elevated white blood cell count and we were referred to the Kinderklinik (the children's hospital). The doctor said to not even go home and pack a bag for him. I was less than thrilled since Isabella was at a friend's house, it was 6 pm and Philipp was on day one of a 3-day trip to Frankfurt for university. So I called Philipp, apologized profusely and told him he had to come home to take care of Isabella; then I called our friends to ask them to keep Isabella fora few more hours. And off we went to the Kinderklinik. After waiting almost an hour to be admitted, having a central line laid in his head, more blood samples, x-rays taken, Philipp and Isabella arriving, we made it to our room and are on day 3 of our stay in the hospital.

Alexander has been great. He gets antibiotics every 8 hours or so and has a saline drip otherwise. He's sleeping a lot because he is sick but he sleeps a lot anyway. The doctors have decided that he has an infection in his lungs and will have to have IV antibiotics for about 5 days before we can go home. And I am spending my time chilling on the computer, nursing, and trying to get some sleep. The other baby in the room is less than thrilled about being here and cries a lot. I have increased respect for parents whose babies don't sleep well. It makes for tired parents.

Philipp and Isabella come visit every morning, midday and evening for a few minutes. Friends of ours took Isabella for a playdate with their son for a few hours today so Philipp could come and help for awhile. Very thankful for good friends who can help out. I got to take a shower!

Isabella is doing great with me being gone. I think she understands that Alexander is sick and needs me here. She did want to sleep here the first night though.

Our roommates are Turkish and the mother wears a headscarf. Before I moved to Germany I had only ever met one Turkish girl at university and didn't have any preconditioned ideas of what the Turkish are like. Since moving to Germany and being confronted by the large Turkish population and the sometimes less than enthusiastic welcome they receive from the German population that has changed a little bit but not in a bad way. The woman I am sharing a room with is a very loving mother who does things so naturally. Her husband is also very nice and their daughter adorable, though a screamer.

I've never had anything against headscarves, only the imposition of them, and there is something exotic about the wearing of one. My roommate has a pretty face and normal hair, which she shows when there are no men other than her husband around and she is in the room. But when she puts on her headscarf she becomes quite stunning and she wears it so naturally. I think it would be interesting to attend an Eid party at some point and witness this transformation in so many women. I'm sure the transformation goes in the other direction for many as well.

To end, Alexander is doing well, we have at least 3 more days here, and I'm getting a cultural lesson as well. Though I think I may be getting a sinus infection and it's a house full of doctors for little people, not adults. Oh, the irony...

My Reasons for Blogging

I started this blog to write down my thoughts and ideas about travel, cooking, decorating, living abroad, and my attempts to become a better mom. At the moment, the desire to become a better mom is weighing the heaviest on my heart so I think I'll start there.

Isabella, our oldest child, was born in July 2009. She was, to say the least, not an easy child for the first 6 months. She wanted to be constantly moving when she was awake, which meant hours and hours bouncing on a yoga ball or taking walks around town. But Isabella always slept wonderfully and that was a lifesaver. Nevertheless, it was a hard first year with lots of illness (who says breastfed babies get sick less!) and trying days. From about her 9th month onwards, when she finally got mobile, she was a different child and was much happier. Before that, I told my husband, Philipp, that we would only be having one child because I felt like, even though Isabella was more than worth the effort, she already required so much love and attention that there would be no way I could give that to another child in the same way I had given it to her. But as she became progressively happier and more satisfied approaching her first birthday, we started considering having a second child and when she was about one and a half years old we were ready to take that step.

But I was and am still worried about not having enough time to spend with my little partner who went everywhere with me from restaurants to museums. Isabella was and is such a wonderful child to us. We think she's great, as all parents think of their children. She had a vocabulary of around 100 words in English and in German by 17 months and was speaking in sentences by the age of two. We could have conversations with her by 26 months and now at 31 months she tells us stories where she invents characters and creates plots. She has an amazing imagination and is such a clown, which she gets from her father and to which I lay no claim. If we have such a great child, why do we want to have another one and not have enough time to really spend with the first one? These are the thoughts that were running through my head.

Since the birth of our second child, Alexander, on November 30, 2011, I've been feeling like, as I thought I would, that Isabella is getting the short end of the deal. Right from the start she didn't get to see me as often because I was in the hospital for 5 days after having a c-section and she got a stomach virus and had to stay home with Philipp and my mom to take care of her. It was the first time that we had ever spent the night apart and it took her almost 3 months to make it through the night sleeping in her own bed again. 4 days and counting as of today. And I'm in the hospital with Alexander again... but more on that later.

Alexander is a great baby with a much more easy-going personality than Isabella ever had. The first time he laid next to me on a blanket and smiled and cooed at everything for 30 minutes (!) without crying, I called everyone in astonishment to tell them about this amazing feat. Since then the frequency and length of time that he can spend just chilling has continued to increase. He also sleeps great, exactly like Isabella. But just by virtue of the fact that he is an infant, I don't have the time to spend with Isabella unless he is sleeping or in a good mood. I feel like we never get to finish a craft (which I am delving into doing for the first time ever...) or just sit and cuddle. I only get to put her to bed when Philipp is on business trips and then it is a race to get her to sleep before Alexander finishes nursing and fusses, potentially waking Isabella up again. And yes, I know I'm whining but this is my blog where I put all of my thoughts so I can whine all I want. I talk to my mom about it and she says it will get better as the months go by. But I don't want to just pass the time until it gets better. I want to ENJOY this time as well. Not just be able to look back at the first 6-months of Alexander's life and look at them as the lost months of Isabella's. It may not seem like a long time but at that point I would have let 1/6th of her life go by. I don't want that.

It may seem as if I am focusing on spending time with Isabella but I have plenty of time with Alexander because Isabella is in daycare in the mornings so that I DO have time for him. What I want is to increase the quality of the time that I have with Isabella in the afternoons. That is my goal. Finding a balance between doing the necessary everyday things like making dinner and doing the laundry and spending time with my daughter. I will blog about the time we spend together doing crafts, baking, reading, going to the park, and playing. I will also blog about the time I spend with Alexander doing baby massages and playing because I feel like his time with mom also gets converted into time doing housework because he is such an easy baby and I can. I want to do at least one small thing for each of them each day. And I will also blog about the things I think are interesting in child development, cooking and crafting.

Now, I am finished for the day. Alexander is sleeping and I should too. Hospitals are not the most conducive places for that.