Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Illness and other stuff

Sunday night was easily the worst night since Kalena was born. As an infant she woke up often, but she was always easily consoled. Sunday night she woke up SCREAMING about an hour after we'd put her to bed. And then? She spent the next 6 hours alternating between wandering around looking exhausted and crying inconsolably. She refused to go to sleep and would WAIL any time we attempted to put her to bed. At 2 am she finally gave up and slept for a whopping 3 and a half hours. As I wandered around the house in the morning with Kalena trying to let Brian sleep as long as possible before I had to leave for work, I wondered what in the world could be wrong with her. I wished that she could talk so she could PLEASE tell me what the problem was.

At about 30 seconds after 8 I called the pediatrician and set up an appointment. Brian took her in and called me afterward and said, "the doctor says she's healthy as a horse." And my heart just dropped because that meant we would just have to deal with this for who knows how long and I was pretty sure that we'd both go crazy sooner rather than later. He was JOKING because apparently he just wanted to give me a heart attack. Turns out she has strep throat and managed to spread that infection to both her eyes. (I did not even know that was possible, but apparently hands in the mouth with strep + hands rubbing the eyes = strep infection in the eyes.) Now she is on antibiotics and has eye drops for her eyes and those combined with liberal application of Motrin and Tylenol has made her a much happier camper. (And got her 12 hours of sleep last night.)

Of course I feel bad that she is sick, but it was SUCH a relief to know that this was FIXABLE and not just a phase we'd have to put up with. I feel especially bad because by Monday morning I'm guessing she'd had the infection for 4 days or so. We started noticing her eyes looked funny Friday afternoon and thought maybe she had pink eye. So we stayed around the house and didn't take her to church (you can all thank us later for not exposing your kids) and figured if things got worse we'd take her in on Monday. And we all know how that ended. BUT, I remember the only time I had strep throat it was the same sort of deal. It started on a Friday as we were leaving town for vacation (I don't remember where) so by the time I got to a doctor it had gone untreated for like 4 days and I thought I was going to DIE. My throat hurt SO much*. The nurse went through the spiel about antibiotics, the "you'll probably feel better in a day or two but finish the medication because otherwise you won't kill the infection" but I did NOT feel better until like the last day. So I'm probably coddling her a little, but hey, isn't that what you're supposed to do when your kids are sick?

Anyway, I'm glad it happened this week instead of next week when my family is all coming to visit. Which YAY, and also how did we talk them into that? Also, on that note, any tips on Kalena's sleeping arrangement while everyone is visiting? Our options are in our bed (my worry there is how do we get her to GO to sleep in there instead of just crawling out?) or a pack-n-play in our closet (she's not such a big fan of the pack-n-play...) So yeah, words of wisdom would be appreciated here.

*I found out what REAL throat pain was like when I had my tonsils out at 22. Man that sucked.

9 comments:

  1. I vote for P&P based on experience of having Cooper fall off our bed more than once when he co-slept with us. Even with the toddler rails on our bed.

    Put a soft blanket or two on the P&P 'mattress' to make it more comfortable. How long has it been since you tried the P&P? We thought Cooper hated it too, but he did just fine with it when we went to Denver last month.

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  2. I'm so glad Kalena had strep and not just an aversion to sleeping. I'm hoping that Kalena didn't get that from Amy.

    Pack n Play has got to be better than the floor we tried on our short vacation. I'd love to tell you about it some time!f

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  3. I vote P&P too. When I would babysit one of Allison's friends, she'd nap in Jordan's room and Jordan got the P&P in our closet. She actually didn't do too badly there. I think because it was SOOOO dark, she just slept better.

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  4. I ran into your hubby and kiddo at the Ped's office. She was still smiling!
    Hope she gets back to normal soon.

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  5. Aw :( I feel so bad for her!! I wanna give her some lovins. She can sleep in my hotel room with me :)

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  6. It's been going around. Poor baby.

    When my family comes my kids keep their rooms. Terrible I know but it works easier for staying up late with friends and family. I stick air mattresses all over the place and M will share his room but L keeps hers. If that is not and option I would do the P&P for sure.

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  7. I vote sending ALL the babies to Kari's hotel with her! I bet she'll be over it after a night or two :) Then she can take naps during the day (also with the babbies) while we well-rested folk party it up! Man, this could turn out to be a better trip than I thought :)

    Really, though, Patrick fell off the bed at mom & dad's house last week while trying to co-sleep, so we ended up putting blankets and pillows on the floor and both sleeping there. It's tough to fall off the floor. She's more than welcome to keep her room, though, I'm down with air mattreses.

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