One Sick Baby

Our poor little girl has her first ear infection and it is so pitiful. I know I've mentioned in the previous post that she has had a nasty cold. Ben and I kept talking ourselves out of taking her to the doctor because we kept thinking it was probably just a severe head cold and the doctor wouldn't be able to do anything. After all, we had just been to the doctor two weeks ago with complaints that MH was congested and the doctor said at this age there is nothing we can give her. Well, as her symptoms kept worsening I kept thinking I needed to take her but I just didn't want to be that overprotective psycho mom. She never ran a fever but had started to develop a runny nose and her eyes were HORRIBLY goopy and green... Now I know most of you would run to the doctor if your child's eyes looked like this, but for me it was tricky. Ever since MH was born, she has always had green goopy eyes that watered constantly and the doctor told us that it was very common in babies and that it just meant her tear ducts weren't open yet, but that it would go away at least by the time she is one years old. It was kind of weird though because they had pretty much quit doing it for about two weeks and then they just went out of control like this..

Eww... sorry if I just grossed any of you out. But, when they started looking like this, I knew there was a problem. They had NEEVER been this bad. I mean I would seriously wipe her eyes and 15 minutes later they would be right back the same way...

The funny thing is, she really hasn't been too cranky or fussy...with the exception of Monday at school. So with her eyes looking like this and the fact that a boy in her class was just diagnosed with RSV, I quickly booked an appointment with the doctor. Fortunately, the doctor didn't think MH has RSV because her lungs didn't sound wheezy, but she did state that her throat is really red and that her cough is really nasty sounding and that I needed to watch her and make sure it doesn't get worse. We also found out that she has her first ear infection, which the doctor said is actually kind of a good thing in this situation because she could then give us an oral antibiotic for the ear infection which would hopefully also help the virus causing her eyes, nose, and cough.

I am so glad that I ended up taking her to the doctor. She actually seemed to get a little worse last night and for the first time we could tell she was hurting. She cried solid for about 2 hours...and this baby really doesn't usually cry much. I wanted to cry with her because I felt so helpless. She was pitiful. She wouldn't sleep in her bed so we let her sleep in the bed with us. I of course didn't sleep a wink because I was worried about her. She kept coughing all night long.

So today, we have been doing a lot of this...

I can tell she is feeling much much better today. Her eyes are WAY better, her nose hasn't ran much today, and she isn't coughing nearly as much. We have started her antibiotic and I've been sure to keep tylenol in her every 4 hours for the pain. She really hasn't cried much today but she has been a little extra needy. She has wanted to be held all day long which I really haven't minded. Anytime that I've tried to put her down, she has woken up crying so I've just been treating her with some extra TLC and letting her sleep on me all day. We are both still in our pjs.

So I've had my first experience with a sick baby. It hasn't been fun at all and she has been so pitiful, but I'm so thankful she seems to be getting better already!! Thank goodness for medicine!!