Our week

Aren't they gorgeous?! (and yes, I bought the cd of the pictures and have the copyright release ....)

I got another comment today from someone at work about how "they look so much alike!" Um, yeah ... if you mean they both have dark hair and dark eyes, then yes, they 'look alike.' Other than that, I just don't see it. Completely different looks, if you ask me. I think Maria has more of an Indian look to her ... wider face, nose, slightly slanted eyes, and adorable, just completely adorable. Maya looks more hispanic to me, perfectly almond-shaped eyes, lighter skin, gorgeous lips, and simply all-around beautiful. Both completely stunning, but nothing like each other. :-)

I've got to tell you, there is NOTHING more stressful to a mother than to have her little one(s) sick or hurt. I'll admit Maya has been relatively easy so far ... occasional cold or fever, but nothing serious to date. Maria, however, almost caused my heart to stop beating. As a side note, and to continue my saga of maria, that first day we got her, she was so very hot and sweaty with the intensive crying that we couldn't figure out whether or not she had a fever. I did have enough sense to take the ear thermometer with us to Guatemala, but of course when I tried to use it, it wouldn't come on. ugh. So thank goodness for the baby lounge at the Marriott! We wandered in there with our crying baby and found other parents who had an ear thermometer we could use. Thankfully, she did not have a fever. But we were on the verge of calling the concierge and having a doctor come to check her, even though we knew we were going to the doctor the next day. After taking her temp, we were confident enough to hold out until the next day, when we walked a few blocks away to get her photos taken for her visa and to visit the pediatrician (embassy-approved, of course), who diagnosed severe eczema and a milk allergy. We switched her formula to Isomil and got a prescription filled for a low-steroid creme and a special soap for her eczema. The Guatemalan doctor was great! Very kind and patient and helpful. So anyway, my point is, Maria was the complete opposite of Maya from the very beginning .... not in a bad way, just different.

So fast forward to last Friday. I still have Thursday and Friday off most weeks for my FMLA adoption leave, but this week I had Monday and Tuesday off because I have end-of-month reports due this Friday. So Friday we went to C to see Omi (my mom ... she's German ... a REAL international family ... LOL!) for her birthday. My aunt went with us, which turned out to be quite a blessing. After lunch, I took the girls to the zoo while Aunt E stayed at home with mom. My friend Val met us at the zoo, and we both commented on how Maria seemed hot, but as mentioned above, she's normally a hot, sweaty kid. So I didn't really think that much of it, other than to say I would stop by the drug store on our way out of town and pick up some infant motrin if she was still warm by then. Well, on the way home, just a couple of miles from mom's house, I saw Maria's little hand start shaking in the rear view mirror and got really nervous. So I hurried as much as I could and when I went to get Maria out of her carseat, her eyes rolled back in her head!! Talk about panicking!!! I rushed her into the house and told my mom she was very sick and very hot and I didn't know what to do for her. She and my aunt suggested a tepid bath, so I ran to turn on the water. Mom and Aunt E managed to get Maya out of the car into the house, and bless her little heart, she just didn't understand that Maria was sick. She saw the running water and got excited and started stripping right then. So I just let her get in, too. Aunt E, in the meantime, rushed to the nearest drug store and got an ear thermometer and some baby motrin for me, and when I took her temp, it was over 104! eek!!! So I immediately gave her the motrin and kept checking her temp. It seemed to go down for a while, and then it jumped back up, so I called my brother to ask where I should take her to get checked out. We headed to Doctor's Care, and Aunt E went with me (after she and mom managed to corral Maya and get her dressed again!) and she sat in the car with Maya (I figured strapped in the carseat was the safest place for her, as she is a little too much for mom and Aunt E to manage on their own. Long story short (oops, too late), her fever went down some, we got home, and I took her to her regular doctor the next day, who disagreed with the ear infection diagnosis, so they spent HOURS trying to figure out her high-grade fever. It was 104.4 that morning at the doc's office. After 2 1/2 hours, plus another 1 1/2 hours getting a chest x-ray that showed nothing wrong, poor little baby Maria had been poked and prodded and had blood drawn and shots with antibiotics and they still didn't know what was causing it, so the doc told me to bring her back Monday. Thankfully we could keep the fever under control by alternating baby motrin and baby tylenol, so we did that all weekend. I was soooo thankful I had Monday and Tuesday off, because there is no way I would have gone to work while my baby was sick.

So back to the doctor on Monday, and this time we got to see her regular doctor. As I was undressing her, we found she had a strange red rash on her torso, front and back. The doc took one look at it and said, "oh, it's roseola." Evidently they spend a lot of time doing tests on high-grade fevers, only to have a rash appear in about 3 days (after the fever has subsided) and they can finally diagnose roseola. whew ... heave a big sigh of relief simply because we know what it was and now we know it's just a virus. But I will never, ever forget that feeling of helplessness when I saw those little tiny eyes roll back in my baby's head. Thank you, God, for making my baby better!