I think we are all better (fingers crossed)

After an interesting and exhausting last week Claire seems to be better yay! Our poor baby ended up at Texas Children's last Thursday. We called her doc Thursday afternoon (after hours) when Claire would not stop screaming and nothing I did made any difference. She would arch her back etc. and no matter how what I did she wouldn't stop. But then she did stop. Then about an hour later she started up again. So Eric called the doc on his way home from work because I couldn't hear myself think much less be able to carry on a conversation. We kept thinking it was just her reflux irritated which is what Eric started telling the doctor. She immediately said that it didn't sound like reflux, but intussusception. We quickly learned that that meant one part of the bowl had slid into another part of the bowl. She said it is not uncommon after having a stomach virus that it can happen. She said to go to Texas Children's instead of St. Lukes because if that was what is was then they were equipped to handle it. She also said she had called one of her colleagues and gave them a heads up so hopefully we wouldn't have to wait as long.  By the time we got there she was calm (actually she was asleep) and we thought maybe she was ok after all. We got checked in and in a few minutes were sent to triage to get her vitals taken. The place was packed and we were basically told that even though they had received the heads up on Claire we were still going to have to wait. Luckily or unluckily I'm still not sure which, while the nurse was taking her vitals she started having one of her screaming episodes. The nurse immediately noticed this wasn't your normal screaming from being tired, or mad, or a tantrum. It scared her bad enough she ran and grabbed the first doctor she could find. By the time she got the doc in Claire had settled down, but they still decided we didn't have to wait they would start running tests. The first thing they did was cath her to check for a UTI. She hadn't been peeing much at all over the past week since she wouldn't eat/drink. I was shocked at the amount of pee they were able to get out of her. They said it could be a UTI and that was the first thing to rule out. Almost immediately after they cathed her she relaxed and started asking to eat and drink. Whoa! Once we got settled in our room she was playing and laughing! This is the first she wanted to play and actually get down and walk around in a week. I thought surely it must be a UTI if she felt that much better after they emptied her bladder. They came back in about an hour later and said the pee test came back negative so it was time for plan B to do an ultrasound and check for intussusception. Long story short, thankfully the ultrasound looked good, unfortunately we still had no idea what was causing her so much pain. So at 2:00 a.m. we were sent home with our very tired baby. The next day she was about 80% herself and by Saturday she was 100% herself. I don't know if she had a bladder retention problem and draining her bladder helped or what, but the main thing is my sweet girl is finally back!!!

Sadly we did not make it to my brothers house. We were so nervous she would relapse and we just wanted to keep her in her own routine and environment so she could rest that we decided not to go. It was such a hard decision. After the week I had I really needed to get away, but Claire always comes first. Since I was so bummed about not getting to go to  Dallas Eric was so sweet and told me we could do whatever I wanted all weekend. We decided to go with our good friends to the pumpkin patch. While smiles were few and far between (Claire was more interested in playing with the pumpkins and dirt) we did get some good pictures and had a great time hanging with friends.

Oh I almost forgot to share some funny pics. It's kind of mean I think they are funny, but while we were at my Mom and Dad's house last weekend on Friday night Dad was mowing the yard. After he was done mowing Dad wanted to take Claire for a ride on his mower. I thought Claire would love it, but she really didn't it. That Friday I thought she was better, but of course Saturday I learned different. Anyway I don't know if that contributed to her dislike of the mower or if she was truly scared but these make me laugh anyway. Pappaw said we will try the mower ride again next time.

Sick

My poor baby bear has been sick :-(. All you Moms know how terrible it is to see your baby sick. Claire has been sick a few times in her life, but I can honestly say nothing has been as bad as this past week. It all started last Thursday. I had plans to leave and go to my parents Thursday morning during Claire's morning nap time (yay for long naps in the car right?). Mom and I were helping throw a good childhood friend a baby shower on Saturday and I wanted to get there a few days early to prepare for the shower and hang out with my parents. Eric had to work late until Friday evening so Claire and I were supposed to go spend a some relaxing time in the country. Claire loves it at my parents. They have a big front porch and the last time she was there she crawled all over it. This time I was excited because it was her first trip to Nana and Pappaws as a walking girl. So Thursday morning I got up early to get shower, dressed, packed and loaded. Claire normally gets up around 7 like clock work every day. 7:00 rolled around and I was still getting ready, 7:15 rolled around, 7:30 rolled around and I thought thanks baby girl, the one day I can't sleep in you do. 7:45 rolled around and I decided to make some noise and get the car loaded. Around 7:55 I heard some noise on the monitor. Not crying just some noise like she was talking to her glo worm or her very hungry Caterpillar. I opened the door with my big morning smile to great my princess and then it hit me. The smell. I know that smell anywhere. Vomit. I always wondered when Claire was an infant if I would know the difference between spit up and throw up. With all her reflux she was a spitting machine. I don't know why I worried about that because there is a very distinct smell. Weird thing was she didn't cry, didn't seem scared, nothing. It was everywhere. All over her, in her hair in the crib on the crib, you name it. Last night's dinner, yuck I know. I took care of her cleaning her first. When I was a kid I threw up a lot. Mom used to tell us if we couldn't make it to the bathroom to run outside and throw up. Anything to keep it out of the house. So my instinct told me to strip her outside in case round 2 was coming. I got her bathed and cleaned with no round 2 and got the bed stripped and sprayed lysol like crazy. The smell was terrible and persistent. .She acted fine, happy even. She asked for her morning 'baby milk" as we call it, which means she wanted to nurse. So I sat in the glider and she happily nursed. When she was finished she promptly sat up and threw up everywhere. Nice. Now it was all over me, her, and the glider. Bath #2. I won't go into details, but lets just say I went through 3 outfits and Claire had 5 baths before the day was over. Obviously we didn't go to my parents on Thursday.

Friday rolled around and Claire was finally grouchy. Thursday was so weird that she was so happy despite barfing all day. I decided to play it by ear on Friday and see if we were going to make it to my parents. At noon there was no throw up. She ran a very very low grade fever that morning, but by noon it was gone with no meds needed. So at 12:30 we decided to make the trip. By the time we got to my parents it had been a full 24 hours since she had last vomited. I thought we were in the clear. She was whiney and clingy, but that was to be expected after being sick I thought. Saturday morning was the shower. There was a fantastic turnout and a very special little boy has lots of fun stuff to look forward to. Claire is always shy so I wasn't surprised when I couldn't put her down when we got there. A crowd of people always stresses her. What did surprise me was how lethargic she was. She actually fell asleep in my arms without me even trying. I should have known something was up. Then the diarrhea started. Yay (not). Next thing I know it has ran down her leg, my arm, and is all over the floor. I changed her diaper and pressed on. She then decided she was hungry and was signing to eat so I let her have a snack. Bad idea. 10 minutes later barf everywhere. It was time for us to leave the shower. I felt terrible this happened at the shower and now even more terrible there have been several people get sick. Claire was the germ spreader. Aaahh. Everyone who knows me knows how much I dislike when people bring their sick kids places. To my defense I honestly thought she was better. By the shower time she had been "well" for 36 hours. Lesson learned. I will no longer judge other moms when they bring sick kids out.

Later Saturday afternoon she had not thrown up anymore so Mom aka Nana made her some jello which she actually ate.  I waited 45 min or so and left to take her to visit her Mimi (Eric's Mom). Car ride was a bad idea. When I went to get her out of the car she threw up red jello everywhere. Over her, over me, the car. The only positive was I had already pulled her out of the car seat and luckily did not have a car seat to also wash. My poor Mom did more loads of laundry for us while we were there. Sunday she seemed better, but poor Pappaw not so much. Claire shared her virus with her Pappaw. Oh and did I mention Eric called me Saturday night he had came down with it too!!! This was one mean virus. Made it home Sunday evening safe sound, and insides intact. Right before bath time Sunday night I was loving on my baby and she barfed again! Seriously? Why? Another 24 hours had passed clear and again thought we were over it! I was really concerned at this point. Claire wasn't wetting many diapers as she wouldn't eat or drink. She would nurse, but she has only been nursing once a day for about a month and my supply I know isn't very much anymore. I called her doc Monday morning who told me what I knew, just a virus had to run it's course etc. I was concerned though about dehydration. They told me make sure she is wetting a diaper every 10 hours or so. I told them she was right at that mark. All I wanted was for them to check her out, but no they tell me if I am concerned to take her to the ER. The ER? It was only 8:30 in the morning why couldn't they just assess her? I did manage to get a little more down her on Monday, but she was not herself at all. By the time Eric got home he was very concerned about her behavior, mainly how lethargic she had become so we decided off to the ER we go. Yay for sitting in the ER until 2 in the morning with a tired, sick 12 (almost 13) month old. They did what I wanted her pediatrician to do and assess her for dehydration. Thankfully she was not dehydrated. They gave her some zofran for nausea and sent us on our way.  Tuesday rolled around and she was still free from vomit since Sunday night, yay. However she would not let me put her down or even take her off the boob for that matter. Nothing I did made her happy. We survived Tuesday barely. Wednesday (today) rolled around and I had to get up with her screaming bloody murder at 4 a.m. Weird because she hasn't woke up in the middle of the night for 4 months. Got her back to sleep. Woke up at 7 screaming bloody murder which continued non stop until 9:30 when I finally got her to sleep. Whew. I called the doc and insisted to be seen. Her doc was out of the office, but I didn't care who I saw at this point.  She still won't eat, drink anything besides a little jello and whatever breast milk she is getting. Eric and I had noticed over the course of the week that she was refluxing terrible. To be expected though after throwing up so much. This morning I knew that it was her reflux causing her to scream in pain for hours. The doctor confirmed my suspicions and upped her reflux dose quite a bit. So now we wait and pray that the dosage upped makes her feel better. She was down to 16lbs 11 ounces this morning. Over a pound lost in less than a week. That's a lot for a little girl. She weighed that much 3 months ago. The doc said he wasn't concerned and that when she started eating again it should come back on quickly. I sure hope so. It is scary to hold her and fell her bony self. Babies aren't supposed to be bony they are supposed to be squishy.

This weekend we have plans to go to Dallas and visit my brother and his wife. I feel terrible I haven't been to there house since their wedding. eeek terrible sister. And with my brothers work schedule (he works weekend nights) he hasn't seen Claire in 7 months! Please pray my sweet girl feels better soon and that we get to go to Dallas. I have had a rough week with Claire being sick and other things stressing me and seeing my silly brother would really help. More than anything though just pray Claire feels better. I miss my goofy smiley girl.