Friday, November 11, 2005

SO...So....*sigh*...TIRED!

Okay guys, I am EXHAUSTED. I will admit that I actually slept in until 10:00 am this morning and it was devine! It's been a crazy month...well actually it started at the end of September when my third child was born. By the time we got home and I recovered from that experience, my oldest daughter came down with some kind of virus. She ran a low-grade fever and had a nasty cough. So we just administered over-the-counter cold and flu meds with Tylenol and she gradually got better. BUT...by the time she was recovering, the two-year old had come down with it and unfortunatly it seemed to hit her much harder. She ran a high fever. I'm talking 103.4. Had it gone up just 6 more tenths of a degree we would have had to take her to the hospital. It was really scary because she became somewhat lethargic and would barely respond to my talking to her. I scooped her out of her bed and tucked her in with me. Then I set the alarm clock to wake myself up in two-hour intervals at which times I alternately administerd Tylenol and Motrin around the clock until her fever finally broke at 5:30 in the morning. Now, during this time I was also giving the 4 yr old cough medicine every 4 hours and feeding the baby every 3 hours ....so I ended up staying awake all night long. Before I knew it 30 plus hours had passed before I got a chance to shut my eyes for a while. Then, as I'm sure you can guess...when the two year old got over the crud, the baby got sick. Now THAT was really scary. For those of you who may not know...if an infant under 8 weeks of age gets a high fever, they are automatically admitted to the hospital where they draw blood and run blood cultures to see if the fever has spread to their blood. They are also required to perform a spinal tap and draw spinal fluid from the spinal cord to check for meninjitis. If you have never experienced it with your kids..it's a TERRIBLE...HORRIBLE...SCARY...and PAINFUL process to be avoided at all costs! I went through it when Bugga-Bugga was seven weeks old and it was the worst thing I've ever experienced to this date. It's just so scary when a newborn gets sick because they are unable to take any kind of over-the-counter meds until they are at least 3 months old...and they can't blow their own nose..or tell you what hurts. She started with a cough and nasal congestion. I was really afraid it would settle in her lungs and cause pneumonia (which babies her size/age typically don't recover from). She was also having trouble eating. Partially because her nose was stopped up making it difficult to take a bottle, and sometimes if she did manage to get it down...she would throw it up 5-10 minutes later. Thank GOD, she never ran any fever. We ran a cool mist humidifier in our room where Baby Bug sleeps, and she slept upright in her swing at night rather than in her bassinet. We sprayed saline drops in her nose and used that horrible bulb syringe to suction out the congestion as best as we could. Because she is only 5 weeks old, there wasn't a whole lot we could do for her. I sat up around the clock by myself for three nights and days watching her just to make sure that she was breathing. Alan and I debated on whether or not to take her to the doctor for several days. (I wanted to ...he didn't). Finally I won (after breaking down, crying, and pitching a fit!) We took her to her pediatrician (whom I adore) about an hour's drive away. He was reallys surprised to discover that she had developed an ear infection. Usually with those, kids run high fevers. We were really blessed that so far she hadn't presented with one. He prescribed a shot of relatively strong antibiotics to hopefully knock out the infection before the fever came. And she is taking oral antibiotics twice a day in her bottle now. She seems to be feeling some better. At least she is eating and breathing better now. The doctor told us that she was throwing up as a result of the pain in her ear. It has been difficult to tell if she was hurting or not because she is such a good baby that she almost never cries. She has 7 days worth of antibiotics left to take, and then hopefully everyone will be bake to normal. I'm looking forward to getting some much needed/deserved rest. I haven't truly slept in three weeks!

5 comments:

Alison said...

You definitely deserve some rest. I bet an infant with a cold is scary as hell. I have my fingers crossed that I'll never know. I hope that you and all your girls get some much needed rest!

Greg said...

Yikes!

Hope you are sleeping right now.

overactive-imagination said...

WooHoo! I didn't know that you offered free pron music on your site. LOL

I hope you and the girls are feeling much better by now. I can't imagine being Mom to 3 such young ones. You're my new HERO!!

I got my AVON stuff today and I gotta tell you, I LOVE IT!! Great stuff. Thanks! Also thanks for such a great deal. I couldn't have bought this stuff from my local rep at such a great price. Thanks for the samples too!! (Now I sound like a spam message lol).

Check in and let us know how you are!!
Love to you and your family,
Dawn

overactive-imagination said...

WooHoo! I didn't know that you offered free pron music on your site. LOL

I hope you and the girls are feeling much better by now. I can't imagine being Mom to 3 such young ones. You're my new HERO!!

I got my AVON stuff today and I gotta tell you, I LOVE IT!! Great stuff. Thanks! Also thanks for such a great deal. I couldn't have bought this stuff from my local rep at such a great price. Thanks for the samples too!! (Now I sound like a spam message lol).

Check in and let us know how you are!!
Love to you and your family,
Dawn

overactive-imagination said...

WooHoo! I didn't know that you offered free p*rn music on your site. LOL

I hope you and the girlies are feeling much better by now. I can't imagine being Mom to 3 such young ones. You're my new HERO!!

I got my AVON stuff today and I gotta tell you, I LOVE IT!! Great stuff. Thanks! Also thanks for such a great deal. I couldn't have bought this stuff from my local rep at such a great price. Thanks for the samples too!! (Now I sound like a spam message lol).

Check in and let us know how you are!!
Love to you and your family,
Dawn