“A” is for Aardvark

First Elaine did it.
Then Sarah.
I am the charm.

1. What time did you get up this morning?
2:15 a.m., 5:50 a.m., 8:45 a.m.

2. Diamonds or pearls?
both (and some Prince on the side)

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?
I don’t remember…it was right before Penelope was born but I can’t remember. This will drive me nuts.

4. What is your favorite TV show ?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (when it was on), Veronica Mars (when it was on), Grey’s Anatomy

5. What do you usually have for breakfast?
Cereal

6. What is your middle name?
Currently - Fisher, Previously- Lori, when I make it to the SS office - Lewallen

7. What food do you dislike?
Is ketchup a food? It is the most repulsive thing I can think of…

8. What is your favorite CD at moment?
I don’t know about CD…but I am LOVING Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love

9. What kind of car do you drive?
Honda Odyssey

10. Favorite sandwich?
Old school Peanut butter and Honey. Mix together then spread. Yumm!

11. What characteristic do you despise?
People who suck. Hell, I don’t know…Some things bother me when one person does it and not so much from another. I am an enigma.

12. Favorite item of clothing jewelry?
I changed the question. 6 weeks postpartum = hate all my clothes
I do, however, love my Coven Necklace.

13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go?
Australia or maybe Japan.

14. Favorite brand of clothing?
I will let you know.

15. Where would you retire to?
I guess Huntsvegas…since I retired 2 years ago and I am still here.

16. What was your most recent memorable birthday?
I don’t know. I got knocked unconscious in a Foo Fighters mosh pit on my 21st birthday. I don’t remember a lot of it…but it makes for a good story.

17. Favorite sport to watch?
n/a

18. Furthest place you are sending this?
n/a

19. Person you expect to send it back first?
n/a

20. When is your birthday?
September 27

21. Are you a morning person or a night person?
I am a “sleep while the girls are sleeping” person.

22. What is your shoe size?
9

23. Pets?
Scout has a fish named Dorthy.

24. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share with us?
no.

25. What did you want to be when you were little?
Wonder Woman

26. How are you today?
Sick.

27. What is your favorite candy?
Favorite…there are so many. Razzles maybe (first they’re candy then they’re gum)

28. What is your favorite flower?
Lilly

29. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to?
Tomorrow (because then today will be over)

30. What is your full name?
Ronda Fisher Lewallen (currently)

31. What are you listening to right now?
Steve is sucking the snot out of Penelope’s nose with a bulb thing. She has a lot of snot.

32. What was the last thing you ate?
Rice Krispies (for dinner)

33. Do you wish on stars?
Sure.

34. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?
macaroni and cheese

35. How is the weather right now?
dark.

36. The first person you spoke to on the phone today?
Grandmother

37. Favourite soft drink?
Diet Cherry Coke (it is hard to find though)

38. Favourite restaurant?
depends on the day

39. Real hair color?
dark dark brown with a bit of red undertone

40. What was your favourite toy as a child?
“Freddy Teddy”

41. Summer or winter?
Actually, I like the transition seasons better. me too.

42. Hugs or kisses?
Both.

43. Chocolate or Vanilla?
Chocolate….and vanilla

44. Coffee or tea?
tea.

45. Do you want your friends to email you back?
Why would I email them and not want them to email me back?

46. When was the last time you cried?
today

47. What is under your bed?
extra dining room table leaf, body pillow, some other something I’m sure

48. What did you do last night?
let Scout skip her bath

49. What are you afraid of ?
The dark

50. Salty or sweet?
both (think chocolate covered bacon)

51. How many keys on your key ring?
no idea

52. How many years at your current job?
a little over 2

53. Favourite day of the week?
depends on the week

54. How many towns have you lived in?
several

55. Do you make friends easily?
I would like to think so. I’ll be friends with almost anyone. me too

56. How many people will you send this to?
n/a - but I expect some of my regular readers to do it and link back in the comments!

57. How many will respond?
Oh, I think it’s a safe bet that someone will.

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These are awesome. I especially like the “Sentimental Journey” collection.

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This product will revolutionize shows such as Maury, Montel and possibly even Jerry Springer.

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It is a very rare thing for me to get sick. I never had morning sickness with either pregnancy, I seldom have issues with allergies, I can count on one hand the number of times I have vomited. Ever. I just don’t get sick very often. Today I am sick. Really sick. I think I have a cold. I have been running a fever since last night. I have blown my nose about a million times. I have hacked stuff up out of my lungs. I basically feel like shit. As you may remember from my last post…Penelope has a cold. She is doing pretty well but I swear for someone who still weighs under 7lbs…I have bulbed twice that much snot out of her nose. Scout is not sick but her allergies are acting up…so she is whiny. Of course today is a day Steve had to leave town. If you don’t hear from me again soon…it may be because I have given up the will to live.

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We took Penelope back to the doctor this afternoon. After much discussion and observation … our pediatrician still feels like she is fighting with GERD (reflux). They drew blood and she also has a cold. (Her virus fighting white blood cells were elevated.) He told us that anytime she has anything else going on it is going to aggravate the reflux. He said if she is keeping her pacifier in her mouth then she is breathing. The wet wheezy sounds are part of the reflux but the worsening is due to the cold. The gagging and trying to catch her breath is from mucus in her throat ..again from the reflux. He also switched her to prevacid instead of the axid. Hopefully that will help. He gave us samples this time and even gave her the first dose himself there in the office.
Of course Penelope was the model breather at the doctor’s office (kids do that to make you look like an ass) so it is hard for us to explain/justify our concern and level of distress when she is acting all normal and crap.
SO…leave it to us to bring obnoxious to the techno-geek level. Our new strategy is to video tape any further horrible episodes. We asked the doctor if we could bring in or email him video footage of her inability to breathe. As obnoxious as that sounds…he was actually all for it.
He even told us that he had a mom bring in video of her daughter because something had been wrong with her for a month or so but every time she came to the office she was fine. The mom video taped her and it turned out that the daughter was having seizures…not huge obvious seizures but seizures nonetheless. He said as soon as he saw the footage he knew what it was…but she had never had one on the office and the mother didn’t recognize the problem as seizures because they were atypical.

Hopefully it won’t be necessary. He is hopeful that with the new medicine and the cold clearing up that we should see a significant improvement by the weekend. I hope so. Right now she is sleeping pretty peacefully in her bouncy seat. Keep your fingers crossed (or whatever you do)!!

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I would like to clarify (paranoia much) that we LOVE our pediatrician and that he in no way has ever given me reason to feel like I am histrionic. It is all me. Thank you.

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We are taking Penelope back to the doctor this afternoon. Her reflux is improving but the poor baby still sounds like every breath she takes is a struggle. No one slept last night she sounded awful all night long. AND she has started this horrible cry…it sounds like she is scared or distressed and she only does it when she finally catches her breath after a struggle. It freaks me out a little.
Steve is going with us to the doctor…he usually does but I stressed to him that I really wanted him to be there today. I have this fear of being perceived as some overreacting hysterical mom. I know it is ridiculous because I am SO NOT that mom. I do not jump and run when Scout falls down, if she has a fever she gets some tylenol. Scout is two and has been on antibiotics once for a double ear infection. I have only taken her to the doctor for being “sick” twice. The first time she had the ear infection and the second time her blood work showed that she had a virus. She has never been to the ER or walk in clinic… nothing to indicate that I am prone to overreact.

So why do I have this underlying fear? Do any of you ever feel that way?

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So it seems that the Axid is helping. SHe still sounds like she is having a hard time breathing sometimes after she eats but the spitting up has calmed down. Hopefully it will go completely away soon. We are also putting her in her bouncy seat (sans bounciness) after she eats to keep her in a semi upright position. This seems to be helping too.
The last several nights Penelope has slept in her bouncy seat. She seems to breath better and spit up less if we put her in it as opposed to lying her down in the bassinet or bed.
Do you think it is ok to let her sleep there? I feel like that is weird or something..I don’t know what I feel except conflicted. It seems wrong on some level…but at the same time she is sleeping and happy and it isn’t much different than those crib wedges….right?
Someone tell me this is fine.

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Our pediatrician thinks Penelope has GERD. He prescribed Axid and told us we should see a difference in a couple of days. If there is no change we go back Monday. He was pretty confident that it is GERD and that this should take care of things. I hope so. I hate to see my sweet baby miserable. Does anyone have any experience with this?

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We are taking Penelope to the doctor at 11am. She is having problems breathing after she eats and she seems to be spitting up excessively. It sounds like she is aspirating milk into her lungs and then she throws it up and still can’t breath. At first I just figured babies spit up…but now it seems to be getting worse and worse and in combination with the breathing issue…I am a little stressed about it.
She also projectiled milk all over both of us and the majority of the chair this morning. I don’t even think it ever made it to her stomach.

Then this morning when Steve went in to wake Scout up for school…she is running a temp of 102. She is acting fine and hasn’t thrown up or anything so she probably just has a little virus (she is even eating). But it is one more thing to deal with. My Grandmother is coming over to stay with Scout so I don’t have to drag her out when Penelope goes to the doctor.

I won’t even go into the exhaustion and sleep deprivation….just send any extra good karma my way. I promise to return the favor sometime.

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