Who is Champuru? 
Aloha, I'm Donna, known everywhere on the Internet as "Champuru." I'm a Christian, blissfully wedded to my perfect match (the yang to my yin) of 15 years and a stay-at-home mom to my miracle baby, born in October 2008. Living life in Hawaii, less than 5 miles from my hometown, seeking balance in her pursuit of family, faith, recreation, and rest. Read more on the About page.
Looking for something? Search champuru.net and champuru.com:
More Champuru
Dot-Com Days
In the days before dot-net.
|
 Backseat driver - Baby Champuru directs Mom from the backseat We took Baby Champuru to the pediatrician for the third time in three weeks. She has been sick since February 22, starting with a fever, and she just can’t seem to kick this runny nose and coughing.
Baby Champuru is a very perceptive toddler and already has a strong aversion to the doctor. She associates doctor’s visits with pain — since nearly every visit ends with 2 or 3 shots in the thigh. As we walked down the hallway to the office, I could feel her body stiffening. She knew where we were headed. When we entered the waiting area, she was very tense and kept saying “door” and pointing to the way out. Soon, despite my efforts at comforting her, she started crying. When she heard the nurse call her name, she started bawling.
When I took her in the examining room, I tried to distract her with toys and books that they had available. She refused to relax and we just barely got through the visit with our eardrums in tact. The doctor was not too concerned with her cough and runny nose, but decided to prescribe a course of antibiotics anyway since her symptoms have been lingering so long. I found it ironic after reading the posters hanging in the examination room about unnecessary use of antibiotics. The doctor said that the antibiotics would get rid of any bacteria that might be taking advantage of her system as she’s fighting off this virus. I was not convinced. Was it wise to give antibiotics just in case? I wondered why they might not be able to do a swab or test of some sort to better diagnose the problem.
The week before, I had called in to the pediatrician’s office to ask about what we should do since at the time, Baby Champuru’s cough had been lingering for about 2 weeks. The nurse prescribed Albuterol and said that if her cough does not improve in a week, to call the office and bring her in for a follow-up check. When we talked to the doctor at the visit, she said that we could stop the Albuterol because she did not hear any wheezing and baby was not having coughing fits — or as she describes, “cough, cough, cough, gag.” It made me wonder if we even needed to give her the Albuterol in the first place? Albuterol is the same medication in my rescue inhaler that I take for asthma attacks. I was not happy about the thought that we had been giving Baby Champuru such strong medication unnecessarily.
When the doctor was done examining Baby Champuru, she said “bye.” Through her tears, Baby Champuru enthusiastically said, “BYE!” and started clapping. The agony was over.
We picked up Baby Champuru’s prescription and carefully read over the drug information. Some of the side effects were downright scary. I realize that all medications must list every possible side effect, regardless of how rare it may be, but Hubby and I were very uneasy about exposing her to the risk unnecessarily. Her cough and runny nose was not horrible, she was not fussy, and was no longer running a fever. The doctor indicated that there were no signs of infection, no wheezing, or respiratory issues — so we decided not to give her the antibiotics and wait a few days to see how she does.
We’re still sick, too. Our symptoms have been persisting for over two weeks and when we went to see our primary care physician, he said that the cold virus triggered our asthma. Both Hubby and I have the same problem. While I am diligently taking the medications the doctor prescribed, Hubby has decided to go without — and it seems that Hubby is on the mend ahead of me without medical intervention. So who knows?
We are turning the corner on this illness, I can feel it. I just want it to be completely gone and for health to prevail in our home again.
As Baby Champuru (17mo) improves her communication skills, life gets more interesting. I discovered recently that Baby Champuru considers me her possession.
If Hubby is tenderly holding my hand, massaging my shoulders, or even touching me in the most platonic way, Baby Champuru screams, “MINE!” and waves him off. If he doesn’t heed her warning, she will attempt to forcibly separate us by pushing Hubby away from me. We may be sitting on the couch and if I’m leaning my head on Hubby’s shoulder, Baby Champuru will run from across the room and set Hubby straight. “Mommy belongs to ME. Don’t touch my stuff!”
Is this normal — or do I need to be concerned?
On Monday, February 22, I wrote that Baby Champuru had developed a fever. Her fever peaked during the wee hours of Thursday morning at 103.5º F and did not break until Friday. This is our first experience with such high fevers and I was constantly worried about the chance of febrile seizures. During this past week, I was on the phone with the pediatrician’s office about half a dozen times and brought her in-office twice. At both visits, the doctor checked for signs of infection or wheezing, and assured us that it was just a cold and we just needed to ride it out.
Although her fever had gone by Friday, she started coughing — or more like “barking,” which started during the wee hours of this morning. It was frightening to hear her barking like a seal, laboring to breathe and obviously upset by it. The more she cried, the worse the coughing became. Thankfully, I’m still nursing her and was able to calm her with the Great Mommy Pacifier and she fell asleep. She woke several times throughout the night and each time I nursed her back to sleep.
All of this in between the excitement of news flooding my Twitterstream of an imminent tsunami to hit Hawaii in the morning. Needless to say, it was an anxious night for me and I got little sleep.
After the tsunami warning was canceled today, Hubby went out to buy a room humidifier. I never thought I would be buying a humidifier in Hawaii. After all, this isn’t Nevada. Isn’t Hawaii humid enough already? But advice from numerous sources and experienced parents poured in, all of them suggesting bringing Baby Champuru into the bathroom while running a hot shower — or using a humidifier. We did both and she seems to be doing better so far.
I’m hoping for a markedly less exciting night. I could use the rest — especially since now I’m the one that’s sick, too.
 Toddler flossing using floss stick  Flossing is one of those things that we know is good for us, but most of us loathe to do. I have zero childhood memories of my parents flossing my teeth. And I’m sure they didn’t floss my teeth at 16 months old. So, the thought never occurred to me that we should floss Baby Champuru’s teeth. That is, until we saw the pedodontic dentist this month.
Thankfully, there are things that make the task of flossing easier. Floss picks for children are available in the dental care aisle at your local drugstore and they come in bright colors, fruit flavors, and sometimes even have characters or animals on them. We purchased three different types of children’s flossers from Longs Drugs, including this one: Fun Flossers by DenTek. They’re designed in an angled c-shape which is supposed to make it easy to reach the teeth in the back.
Right now, Baby Champuru’s teeth are only touching in the front of her mouth (top and bottom), so it wasn’t that difficult to floss. And despite the “help me” look in the photo above, she didn’t seem to mind it that much.
After I was done, she wanted to floss all of her dolls’ teeth, including her rocking horse. Good dental hygiene is a good idea for all species, I suppose.
After we returned from church on Saturday night, I was rushing around getting ready for bed. Hubby and Baby Champuru were playing in the bedroom. I had a glass of water sitting on the desk. Baby Champuru signed and said the word water, indicating that she wanted a drink of water. Hubby took the glass and held it to her mouth. She said “no” and patted the floor in front of her, indicating that she wanted him to put the glass down. Which he did. To his surprise, she took the glass in both hands, lifted it to her lips, and began to drink. Unassisted.
We had never taught her to drink from the cup on her own. We had always held the cup to her lips, tilting it ever so carefully so as not to pour too much water in her mouth. This was the first time she drank from an open cup without help.
She enjoys using the open cup, but is still prone to spilling if she gets too excited or distracted. Nevertheless, she is making great strides toward independent eating and drinking this month!
|
|
