Tuesday, July 11, 2006

At First I Was Afraid, I Was Petrified ...

... but like I survived, despite one late wrinkle in the day's plans. Quinn's had a little goop in her left eye for a few days; we figured it was a blocked tear duct (Celeste had the same thing at one point early in her life), so we were following the directions from back then and we kept thinking it was looking better, but this morning Evelin called the pediatrician and setup a 3:00 p.m. appointment.

3:00 p.m. is a curious time. It used to be Celeste was up well before then, but she's been sleeping later in the morning and her nap has been a little bit later. Even if she's in her crib by quarter past noon, it can take her until 1:00 p.m. to fall asleep. She just spends the time in bed talking with her stuffed animals, quietly playing, and, eventually, nodding off.

Quinn, nighttime is pretty good in terms of sleep. <knockwood>She can stay down from 8:30 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. until 5:00 a.m. fairly reliably.</knockwood> Naps, on the other hand are a crapshoot. Some days she takes good naps; others, she's out for only 15 minutes at a time ... and grumpy.

Today was one of those days. Quinn woke about a half-hour after Evelin left for work. Celeste dinnae fall asleep until a little past 1:00 p.m. Quinn nodded off again in the BabyBjörn, but only for about 15 minutes ... and then it was time to get everyone ready for the trip to the doctors' office. Celeste wasn't up at this point, but there wasn't another option besides hustling her out of bed.

In the end it worked out okay. Celeste was awake, albeit not ready to get out of bed, and Quinn ended up falling asleep in the parking lot as soon as we arrived ... and slept pretty much until the nurse called her name.

[ASIDE: She's now 13 pounds, 13 ounces.]

The exam went well, up until the doctor checked Quinn's ears at which point she lost it, which set Celeste off. He confirmed our suspicion of a blocked tear duct and dashed off a quick prescription for antibiotic eyedrops and I started getting a wailing baby and a ready-to-leave toddler ready to go. In hustling them out of the place, I left the prescription on the exam table.

Back at home, it took a bit of work to get Celeste a snack and to calm Quinn (mostly by putting her back in the BabyBjörn), but eventually we settled into a little groove. I did feel a bit bad because it seemed like I was having to ignore one or the other girl much of the time, but Celeste and several stuffed animals had an epic tea party, and Quinn even eventually (at 5:00 p.m. — she hadn't eaten since noon) took a small bottle.

Evelin's home now; the girls are in bed; and I'm having some of the Evan Williams Single Barrel (1996 vintage) I picked up for when my folks were visiting back in April. Smooth, spicy, nice. And as soon as the glass is empty, I'm going to bed.

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