This is not a milestone I was particularly looking forward to. Besides her little cold she had last month, Bridget is going through her first bout of really being sick. It started off with another cold about a week or so ago. With all the snot draining, she developed a nasty cough and eventually an ear infection, which we discovered on Tuesday after bringing her in.
All this week, she has been waking up during the night more than usual. She eats between 6 and 6:30 right before bed, but then she's up again screaming for food at 10. Since she's sick, I've been giving in and feeding her, rationalizing that she needs all the fluids she can get.
We've been trying to give her amoxicillin for her ear infection, but she's been spitting it out the last couple days. She must not have known any better the first time because she gobbled it right up. This morning, I tried to aim the syringe for her cheek as instructed, but I must've put it a little too far in because she gagged and threw up. I also noticed a wet spot on her sheets when I got her out of bed, so that made two spit-ups for the day.
She didn't drink any of her bottle, and apparently, she didn't drink any of the bottle hubs offered to her at 4 AM either. I didn't have time this morning to try feeding her solids, so I sent a thing of peas with her to daycare in case she just wasn't feeling the formula today for some reason.
A couple hours ago, daycare called to say she had thrown up again when they tried to feed her, so I called the doctor to figure out what to do. The available doctor was on lunch, so I nervously waited an hour to hear back from them. When they did call, they suggested holding off on the medicine for the rest of the day and letting her drink clear fluids like Pedialyte or watered down apple juice if she'll take it. If things don't improve tomorrow, we're supposed to go in and have her ears and hydration checked. But, they're hoping it's just a 24-hour bug. And that's what we're hoping, too.
So anyway, sick baby = no fun! But hopefully the fluids will do the trick and this pesky stomach bug will go away quickly.
When babies have ear infections they don't like to drink from a bottle because the sucking hurts their ears. You just have to wait it out, it will get better and she'll be ok. We went through that about 7 times in 3 months with Stephen.
ReplyDeleteIt also helps to have two people do the meds. One person to hold her and her arms down and the other to stick the syringe in her mouth. If you really can't have two people there, you can lay her on the floor between your legs, with her head near your pelvis and your legs over her arms. That's the only way to use the bulb syringe to suction Stephen's nose. Which is another good way (the bulb syringe and some saline solution) to help with colds.