St. Martin's Day (Dutch trick or treating)

First, great news with Finn... he went for a checkup today, and the pediatrician gave him a clean bill of health.  He is 100% better, smiling, and growing like crazy!



In the US, October 31st is Halloween.  Kids dress in costumes, and "trick or treat" door to door to collect candy.  While they dont celebrate Halloween in the Netherlands, Dutch kids have another holiday where they get to collect candy and give parents nightmares of dentist bills...

November 11th is St. Martin's day.  Children make paper lanterns and go door to door singing St. Martin songs for a treat.  Leah made her own lantern (lampion in Dutch), and learned a little song roughly translated as:
    "11 November is the day that my light, that my light burns bright"

An even more popular song, popular with kids but maybe not the parents:
    Saint Martin knick knack
    Your mother is a fat sack
    Your father is a thinnie
    Give me a pepermintie

I wont go into the whole history of the holday, but for those historians wikipedia has this great article on it:

Finn in the hospital

Finn's hospital room

First, and most importantly, Finn is now home and is almost back to full health! He is doing better and better each day.

Last Friday morning, Finn was more sleepy than normal, and was not able to keep any of his milk down. I made an appointment for that afternoon with our family doctor. In the course of the day he also went through about 4 changes of clothing and a complete bedding change. By the time we got to the doctor, he had not kept any food down and was looking pale and lethargic. After a brief examination and a consult with the local hospital pediatrician, he told me to take Finn to the hospital for further examination, as he was very dehydrated. I had to call Rob at work to say "Meet me at the hospital, I think they may be admitting Finn!"

Finn's feeding tube

At the hospital, we found out that in just the course of 24 hours Finn was dangerously dehydrated. Its scary how quickly an infant can become dehydrated!! He had an intestinal virus, and was not keeping any fluids. He had a feeding tube from his nose to his stomach to slowly rehydrate him over the course of 24 hours. By Monday morning, he was looking much better, and could come home.



Now, we have to be very careful to keep him hydrated with a sort of "baby gatorade" called ORS (oral rehydration salts), and make sure he drinks enough. He is alert, smiles at mama and papa, and cries nice and strongly when he is hungry.

Healthy Finn enjoying a bath

So....it did take me a while to update the blog, but this time I had a reason. Promise, less time to update next entry.