Pink Eye!

The past 2 weeks here have been pretty unhealthy in the Sherwood-Sharma household. Deven has had a cough / runny nose for at least 3 weeks now; and last Wed his nanny brought him to me, to show me the gross pile o' goop forming in the corners of his eyes. Luckily we were able to get him into his Pediatrician same-day, where they diagnosed conjunctivitis, or Pink Eye - and gave him drops, told us to wash hands frequently / don't share towels, and get better. So we did, and his eyes improved almost immediately.


Photo of Deven trying to wear the baby carrier we carry Rohan in - he's still being a very sweet & nice good big brother, despite his escalating diaper tantrums!

...But then, I started to feel bad. Took some medicine, but by Friday evening was really 'down' - and spent the weekend in bed. I thought I was beating it the cold ...then I coughed myself hoarse, couldn't swallow, and Sunday evening MY eyes started to get goopy and pink. Gross. I haven't had this in ~ 25 years (frankly I can't recall ever having it, but I think I did). The photo doesn't do real justice to how red my eyes were - on the sides, there was literally no white in the whites of my eyes; it was totally bloodshot. Ick. Tried to go to my Doctor on Monday (they could prescribe something, right?)...wrong. Went into the Urgent Care @ UCSF, where they said yep, I've got a nasty virus - drink fluids, take pain relief, and wait it out. UGH!


Monday...Yogesh's eyes got bad, but cleared pretty quickly with the trick shown below, and Wednesday, Daadi's eyes got bad. Gross!

So the cocktail of things I've tried (and their efficacy):
- Tylenol, but not > 4 grams/day to avoid liver failure (failure?!? Eek!)
- Advil, trading off with the Tylenol for pain relief
- Airborne vitamin-drink
- Echinacea, Propolis, and Astragalus immune-system boosters (seemed to help some)
- Pulsatilla homeopathy
- Vitamin C, Garlic, Omega 3's and regular multivitamins.
- ...and one more trick, that actually cleared the pink eye (read on)

Only today, after almost 8 days of hell, do I feel even a little better. But I still have a ringing in my ears and didn't go to BBC, despite the great weather. Ugh!



First photo here is of Rohan on 2/1, below is him today (2/27). You may not be able to tell, but he's definitely put on weight this month and I think gone through his 12-week growth spurt a bit early!




BTW, did you notice who has NOT seemed to get sick? Baby Rohan! Yes, we've been pretty careful about cleaning things, etc. - but I have to have sneezed or coughed on the little guy at least once. And why hasn't he gotten sick? My theory is breastmilk! It's known that breastmilk contains antibiotic and antiviral properties - and I think he's been spared as a result. This is good, because what I had in him would be at minimum VERY dangerous, and at worst even life-threatening.

To finish the above thought: The final thing we did here for the pink eye was...
- Dropped 1 drop of breastmilk in each affected eye. May seem odd, but worked like a charm!

Jealousy is all the fun you think they had

...this quote by Erica Jong is an apt description of life @ the Sherwood-Sharma household sometimes now.

Deven is generally a very sweet Big Brother. He tries to comfort Rohan with sing-song words "Roo-haaan," giving toys, and rocking or bouncing Rohan's seat when Rohan fusses. It's heartwarming. But Deven is still a toddler. And when he doesn't want to do something (which is about 20 times / day), we invoke the Rohan Threat.

Photo here of Rohan enjoying his mobile - something he's just caught on to and really seems to like. Rohan's still being somewhat more fussy these days, but since Gripe Water has no discernible effect and Mylicon is only partially effective (or we just can't tell), we're hoping he'll grow out of the crying-for-no-apparent-reason stage soon.


The Rohan Threat

Yogesh discovered about two weeks ago, that when Deven is throwing a tantrum and not doing something we want him to do (wear his diaper/eat lunch/sit in his high chair... you get the point) - if we tell him that Rohan will wear it/eat it/sit in it, Deven will immediately stop throwing the tantrum for that reason, and usually do what we ask. The conversations go something like this:

Daddy

Deven, come eat yummy mum-mum (mum-mum = food)

Deven

[shrieks, runs away]

Daddy

Deven, is this Rohan's mum-mum? Rohan, come eat yummy mum-mum!

Mommy

[brings Rohan close to the spoon, and shows how happy Rohan is to "eat" the food]

Deven

NOOO! DEVEN MUM-MUM!

Daddy

Ok, but you have to eat. Try mum-mum?

Deven

DEVEN MUM-MUM! AAAAAA! [gulp]

...and that, my friends, is how we've been getting Deven to do things lately. We laugh sometimes at its effectiveness, and yet we also know it's not going to last - Deven will figure out this game pretty fast - but we'll use it for as long as it works!

Enjoy these videos from late December of Deven & Granddad playing with trains:

Lil' Squeaker

Rohan had his 2 month checkups today, and he's doing very well.

- 12 lbs 8 oz
- 23.75" long
- 39.75 cm head circumference

The above puts him firmly in the ~ 75th percentile, all with a clean bill of health. He got 3 shots today so he's likely going to be (more) fussy - but who can blame him? I don't like needles either!



He's been more fussy in the evenings lately, and according to Dr. Kaplan, fussiness can start anywhere from 5 - 12 weeks and run for 1 - 2 months; because their little brains wake up and they're processing the day's stimulations. She said it's particularly true for the little ones who sleep well at night (like Rohan still does, thankfully) - oh well, I guess it's our reward for having a baby who sleeps well.

Here's a photo of Rohan and Uncle Sanjay - Yogesh's business colleague:



Check out these videos I finally uploaded! First, Rohan talking - can you tell why I call him my Lil' Squeaker?:



Then some short videos of my boys @ home in January: