The Rash From You-Know-Where

The kids had their checkups with the pediatrician earlier this week for our adoption. Simple well visits... no big deal, right? Something told me this appointment might be a little stressful, so THANKFULLY I brought David along for backup :) The good news is that all of our kids are healthy and got good reports. Aubrey and Jude are both in the 50th percentile for height and weight. There was a LOT going on while they were being weighed, so I didn't catch their exact weights, but Aubrey weighed approximately 36 pounds, and Jude was about 32 (I think). Little Laney girl was 19.6 pounds, and she was only in the 25th percentile for height and weight. I was kind of surprised to hear that because she seems so chubby and big to me. The doctor said as long as she's proportional, the percentile isn't as important. She said Alaina is growing and developing right on track :)

So, that was the good, uneventful part of the appointments. The stressful part (and the part that I figured would be stressful) had to do with a little rash that Aubrey and Jude have. It's called Mollescum, and if you've never heard of it, be glad. It's a viral skin infection, and it's no big deal in that it's completely harmless and pretty common. It looks like little warts, and our kids have had it for quite a while. We were told that it can last up to two years, and there's really not anything you can do for it. We have tried to a few natural remedies that people have had some success with, but everything we've tried has only made it worse. Aubrey has had it for about 2 years (or more). It hasn't been a huge deal because it's mostly covered by her clothes, and it's not painful or anything. Jude hasn't had it as long, but his is more spread out over his body. Aubrey's has really started to look irritated lately. Her poor skin is so sensitive, and it's just looked pretty awful around the rash lately, and her bumps have been bleeding off and on. We've talked to our doctor about this rash many times in the past, but it's gotten worse since the last time we saw her. She took one look at Aubrey's arm and said she was going to have to "pop" some of her bumps to help the rash go away. That's not really ideal, but obviously, after two years of dealing with this, it's not going away on it's own. The doctor told us that she's only ever seen two cases worse than ours. Lovely. What followed was not pleasant for our poor babies :( David had to literally hold them down while the doctor popped these bumps, and they bleed a lot when they pop. I hated that we had to put the kids through that, but this rash is literally out of control on their little skin. There was much weeping and gnashing of teeth, and I was thanking GOD that David was with me. Thankfully, the kids recovered quickly after it was over, and they were rewarded with many suckers :) Now we're just hoping that this is the end of the Mollescum!! (I wanted to document all of that because this is something we've been dealing with for literally two years, and it seems like such a big deal right now. But I know in a few years, we probably won't even remember what Mollescum is. Haha!)

While we were at the doctor, we found out that one of Alaina's ears was infected. I was SO surprised because she has been sleeping great and didn't have any symptoms. After we found out that her ear was infected, she got really fussy and is now snotty. I'm hoping we caught it early..... I'm telling myself that's the case because I don't want to think about her having it for weeks without us knowing!

After we left the doctor, I thought we all needed a little pick-me-up. So we stopped and had lunch at Chick Fil A, and I let the kids play. (I figured they had already been exposed to all kinds of grossness at the doctor's office -- what's a few more germs? ;) Getting poked and prodded at the doctor is no fun, but it's nothing a little Chick Fil A play time can't fix! :)

Also, it was so funny to see the differences in how Aubrey and Jude handled their "wounds." Aubrey took all of her bandaids off as soon as we got home. She told me her bumps were too hot with those bandaids. Jude refused to let me even touch his bandaids, and freaked out when they started coming off on their own. They had bandaids on their thumbs from getting their fingers pricked, and Jude held his hand funny all day -- you would have thought he got his finger cut off ;) (You can see how he's holding his hand stiffly in the picture above.) After a few days, we told Jude that we HAD to take his bandaids off. David pulled them off, and then I held Jude while he SOBBED. Typical guy :)