Last Blog I forgot to include the fun "incidents" we had with Alaina.
First of all, we came back from vacation and Alaina refused to sleep through the night. She would wake up over and over. Well, we figured she was sick because she had a mild temp and took care of her. Then things got worse, she stopped drinking. She didn't want to nurse. She didn't want water or juice or pedialyte. I was starting to get concerned. We ended up taking her into the doctor and they discovered her throat was swollen and were concerned about her fluid intake. They told me to monitor her carefully. The next morning she slept and slept. I eventually woke her up because I was getting concerned. She was tired and groggy. I went to change her diaper and it was dry. It had been 12 hours since her last wet diaper, and her eyes were sunken in. I called the Doc immediately--I was feeling frantic. Of course, when the nurse finally called me back Alaina then peed--but it wasn't much. They told me to bring her in. At that point they said I either had to start shoving fluids down her or they were going to give her an IV.
Every hour I forced 10ML of pedialyte down Alaina--which she really did not like. She got better quickly though and after a few days was back to her old self....UNTIL....
I was outside working in the garden and had Alaina in her Exersaucer nearby and Ky was playing in his rock box. Alaina started fussing and I really didn't think much of it, I figured she was bored and brought her over some new toys. She continued to fuss. I then thought she might be hungry and gave her a few crackers. She quieted down and munched on those. A few minutes later she started to fuss again. At this point I picked her up, but she still was fussing--which is very unlike her. She is a very easy going baby and will always stop crying if picked up. I took her in the house and discovered she was breathing kind of funny. I thought it was probably just mucous from crying and really didn't think much of it. 10 minutes later she was still breathing funny. I called Rob and put Alaina on the phone and asked him what he thought. He said to call the doc. Of course by now it is 4:45--doc office closes at 5, none the less, I call and they told me they would have a nurse call back. By 5:05, no one had called me back. I called Urgent Care and they told me they could get me in at 5:30. I told Rob to come home ASAP since I didn't want to drive Alaina over there alone--what if she stopped breathing while I was driving? I needed him to monitor her in the van. I loaded the kids up and waited and prayed impatiently for Rob. When Rob got home we took off. Alaina was getting groggy at this point and wanting to fall asleep. I was worried that she wasn't getting enough oxygen so I told Rob not to let her fall asleep. This made her mad. She would try to cry, yet she wouldn't do a full cry. Something was definitely wrong. We arrived at the Doc's office and they discovered that she was running a temp. I knew she had felt warm, but I assumed it was from her "extra" work to breathe. Otherwise, the doc could not hear anything in her lungs. When he tried to lay her down she would cry and so he was worried that something could still be there. He called in a consulting doc and she came up with the same conclusion. She immediately called for an ambulance. They didn't want to deal with a possible breathing emergency at the clinic and wanted her at a hospital with pediatric experts. They also didn't want to run the risk of whatever was in her windpipe getting dislodged, so they didn't want us to take her over alone, hence the ambulance. At this point, it was really freaky. They were thinking that Ky gave her a rock or something--though when I was outside Ky was never near her. They relayed that Alaina had been unsupervised--which was also untrue. I was outside with her--sure my eyes weren't on her every second, but who watches their child every second? Needless to say--at this moment I was doubting my parenting abilities. Blaming myself for being in the garden instead of holding her. UGH!
When we got to the hospital, they checked her oxygen levels right away. Her levels were okay but not as high as they should have been. They also found that she was still running a temp. They called for an xray technician and we waited for the xrays. An hour later they came back clear, so they ran another set of xrays. Those came back clear as well. They then gave Alaina a huge dose of Ibuprofen and 20 minutes later she was breathing normally and happy again. CRAZY!
They then told us not to worry and that they have kids like this come in all the time---some helicoptered in. They said she was probably coming down with some sort of bug and just having a funny initial reaction. They said to expect her to get sick in the next couple of days. Well we went home and Alaina never got sick...that is until next week....but that is another story...Anyway--unbelievable! What a crazy day and another scare from Alaina. I also would like to add that we were a bit angry about some insurance stuff...but that is another blog for another day...the important thing is that Alaina is fine....Praise the Lord!
So final Alaina story....I was working at the Y and went to change Alaina's diaper. She started waving at me when I noticed her hand was full of spots as well as her bottom. I then looked at her feet--same spots---and her mouth--also has spots. Alaina had hand, foot, mouth, disease (common infant bug). No doubt she had picked it up at the Y since it had been going around there for some time...but now we had reinfected the place and everyone we had been around for the last several days....Oh my!
On top of that the blisters on her bottom remained for a while and I was getting quite concerned. That was when I realized that I had accidentally washed her diapers with Tide. OOPS! So I googled Tide & cloth diapers and found out that Tide contains active enzymes that actually become more active in urine and can cause burns or blisters on you wee one's buttox! So I had to strip all her diapers. I think I washed them 4 times in vinegar to make sure I got them totally stripped and have since made sure that I always use BioKleen. So this is a little lesson for me and all you cloth diapering mamma's out there. Tide & cloth diapers do not mix! Sorry Alaina!
To sum up the pics, Nana had a welcoming party for Alaina at the end of July (this was similar to the one she had for Ky.) She invited many of her friends basically to come and meet Alaina. We all had a good time, especially Alaina who found many new shoes to play with and also enjoyed the jewelry that several people were wearing.
We went for another family Brewer game--and of course they lost AGAIN!...Ugh! Alaina did much better at this game though and Ky enjoyed himself as well.
Last, but not least--Ky is doing much better in soccer. The following weeks after he wouldn't play--he started to pretend to be the referree and would run after the referee blowing his "whistle" (using his shirt as a pretend whistle.) He kept telling us he wanted to be the referee. We told him that if he wanted to be a referee he first had to learn the game and be good at it. This helped immensely and in the following weeks he actually would kick the ball. He even scored a goal! (It was in the wrong net, but hey he scored a goal!) Soccer season is over now and I have enrolled him in an intro sports class at the Y. It should be exciting for him (and for me to watch him!) This is a short post, but I think I am done with July now.....Just gotta get going with the August blogs!
