Easter and Ear Infections

Kyndall, Rustin, Kaydence, Ryder and Kassidy

Our luck finally ran out and the little virus that has been going around made it to our house and decided to stay a while. It started with Kyndall and Rustin, and then moved on to Ryder, Kaydence and Kassidy. For some, it was a cold (coughing, sneezing, runny nose, low-grade fever, and general unhappiness), but for Kyndall, Ryder and Kaydence, it blossomed into ear infections. This of course meant many sleepless nights and lots of rule breaking when it came to naps and bedtime routines. Fortunately, I think the worst is behind us and hopefully everyone will be back to full health within a few days. It will probably take a little longer than that to re-train everyone on “The Rules” and get back to sleeping (mostly) through the night.

With all the antibiotics and medications to give out around here, I have learned some tricks for getting babies to take their medicine. Contrary to popular belief, a spoonful of sugar does not help the medicine go down, at least not for my babies! Despite the yummy orange creamsicle flavor, no one wanted to take it without a fight. Here are some of the tricks that worked for me:

1—Measure out the medicine and squirt it into a bottle nipple. Have the baby suck the medicine out of the nipple. If the baby won’t take it at first, start with a pacifier and then use the bait and switch method to get them to suck on the medicine nipple. For thicker medications, a nipple with a cut in the top may be necessary. This trick works like a charm for Kyndall. Everything else we have tried with her usually results in the medicine (and anything eaten in the last couple of hours) being thrown up all over everything in a three feet radius.

2—Pinch the baby’s cheeks together, squirt the medicine into the side of the cheek and don’t let go until they swallow. With their cheeks pinched, it is harder for the baby to spit the medicine back out. Of course this method is no fun for either baby or parent, since it makes the baby pretty mad, but it does get the medicine down. One other trick when using this method is to blow on the baby’s face after putting the medicine in their mouth---this causes the baby to swallow.

3—Mix the medicine with a little bit of rice cereal and spoon it in. Try this only when the baby is hungry, and only if the baby actually likes eating cereal normally. (Hence this method does NOT work for Kyndall at our house, but works well with Kaydence and Ryder). It may be necessary to alternate bites of medicated cereal with something the baby loves like bananas or applesauce.

4—Stick a finger in the side of the baby’s mouth, squirt the medicine in and wait for the baby to swallow before removing the finger. With the finger in there, the baby can’t push the medicine back out with their tongue. I haven’t actually tried this one, but a friend that was over tonight suggested claims it works well, and it sounded good to me J

I would love to hear any tricks that other people have used, so please share them in a comment!

With all the sleep depravity going on around here, I think I have started to act a little loopy. Someone called the other day and said, “Good Morning!” To which I responded, “Good, how are you?” Oops. Then a couple of nights ago we were in the middle of the bedtime routine when someone knocked on the door to tell us that my keys, complete with a house key, were dangling from our mailbox. I hadn’t even tried to get the mail that day, so they had actually been sitting there for over 24 hours. Double oops! Fortunately no psycho baby kidnappers found the keys in that time.

I think my friends took pity on me and a couple of them came and stayed overnight to help out. My friend’s husband even came over to help one night. Wow! I don’t know many men who would be willing to do that! I definitely consider myself blessed to have such wonderful friends!

Another blessing---Target Pharmacy has color coded medicine bottles in all my colors (except pink, but red was pretty close). What a lifesaver for me. Hurray for Target!

Today was Easter and we decided to take the babies to church with us. We have only been to church two other times with the babies (for their blessings and for Christmas). Since January, our church meeting time has been at 9:00 am, so getting out the door was quite a challenge! Jayson was in Denver for his sister’s wedding, so it was my mom and I getting everyone ready with a little help from our friend, Virginia. Considering we had to get five babies, two older kids, ourselves and four diaper bags ready and still have time for an Easter egg hunt before we left, I think we did pretty well being only seven minutes late. Once we got to church, there were lots of willing hands ready to help with the babies, so it was actually quite pleasant! We may even try it all again next week (minus the Easter Egg hunt…)

Below are some pictures of all the Wilkinson kiddos, wearing their adorable Easter duds:

Kassidy

Kaydence

Rustin

Kyndall

Ryder

Kaiya and Riley

Kaiya

Riley

Easter and Ear Infections

Big Sister Kaiya Turns Five!

This week was Kaiya’s fifth birthday. We celebrated with a small family party, but Kaiya couldn’t have been more excited. She tells everyone who walks through our door that she is now 5, and is constantly saying things like, “Today is the first time I [go to church, eat pizza, etc.] when I am five!” Because of her birthday, I decided to focus this post on Kaiya.

Kaiya and her princess birthday cake.

Kaiya is such a fun person to have in our family. She is all girl. She loves dressing up, dancing, make-up, playing with dolls and wearing pink. She is also very smart---sometimes a little too smart! Even though she is nearly three years younger than Riley, she doesn’t let that stop her from trying to do (or out-do) everything that Riley does.

Fun Facts about Kaiya

Favorite color: pink, purple and rainbow
Favorite food: chicken bundles
Most hated food: tomatoes
Favorite treat: chocolate ice cream
Favorite place to visit: Disney world
Favorite princess: Belle
Favorite things to do: help with the babies, play dress-up
Favorite restaurant: McDonald’s
Funny thing about Kaiya: She hums when she is eating something she likes.

Favorite Kaiya Quotes:

Riley: “Mom Kaiya hit me!”
Kaiya: “It was an accident!”
Riley: “Mom, what does an accident mean?”
Kaiya: “I know, I know, an accident means that you don’t go to time out, on purpose means you do go to time out.”

Kaiya: “Where does Grandma Rappleye live?”
Mom: “She lives in Utah.”
Kaiya: “Me-tah?"

Kaiya's Baby Pictures

Kaiya's Baby Announcement Picture

Kaiya about 5 months old.

Kaiya about 8 months old.

Kaiya's first birthday.

Just for fun, I thought I would take a poll to see which baby people think looks the most like Kaiya. You can cast your vote in the poll on the right.

Big Sister Kaiya Turns Five!

Progress Report

The babies had their six month doctor visit a little over a week ago. It was a little late because we wanted to get the RSV vaccination shots at the same time, and we had a little trouble getting the prescription filled on time. There are two pediatricians in the practice that we go to, so doctor's visits usually go pretty smooth, and surprisingly fast considering all the babies we bring! This time I took a total of four adults (including myself) to the appointment. The girls went into one room, and the boys went into another. The doctors said that the babies are all doing GREAT!! They are amazed at how healthy they are and at how wonderfully they are progressing. Developmentally, they are all right on track---doing things that full-term babies of the same age are doing. Growth-wise they are catching up as well.



Here are every one's individual stats at 6 1/2 months:

Kassidy

Height: 26 inches (25th-50th percentile)

Weight: 14 lb 10 oz (10th-25th perentile)

Kaydence

Height: 25.25 inches (10th-25th percentile)

Weight: 14 lb 1 oz (5th-10th percentile)

Rustin

Height: 25.25 inches (3rd-5th percentile)

Weight 15 lb 9 oz (10th-25th percentile)

Kyndall

Height: 25.25 inches (10th-25th percentile)

Weight: 11 lb 5 oz (less than 3rd percentile)

Ryder

Height: 25.75 inches (10th-25th percentile)

Weight: 15 lb 4 oz (5th-10th percentile)

Somebody suggested that I put my data analysis skills to work and create a graph of the babies weights from birth. It is probably hard to read this small, but you can kind of get an idea of how they are growing.

All seven Wilkinson Kids---Aren't they adorable???
(Ryder, Kaydence, Kaiya, Kyndall, Riley, Kassidy, Rustin)



Riley is "Knight of the Week" at school, which means that he gets to take the class pet (a stuffed giraffe named Julie) home for the weekend. (Clockwise from the top: Kaiya, Kassidy, Rustin, Kaydence, Ryder, Kyndall, Riley and Julie Giraffe)

Riley with his award for the Reflections contest. He made it to the Area level, where he received an Award of Merit for his video entry. Way to go Riley! (FYI--Riley's full name is Jayson Riley Wilkinson---hence the "Jayson" on the certificate)

Progress Report