It's been a long three weeks/month and Casa Bennett. Apparently my home has turned into a germ factory and young Margaret Anne has been its main target. Poor chicken has had three stomach bugs and two ear infections since we before we left for Dallas on the 19th. Her poor mother (i.e. me) is very, VERY sick of this and I am willing to beg, borrow and steal whatever it takes to make her well again.
The latest bout started on Saturday night when she threw up her dinner just after I put her to bed. Since then, she's been alternating between throwing up about once a day and having diarrhea. After numerous phone consultations with the pediatrician, I went ahead and took her in yesterday afternoon. We went through several possibilities and checked that she didn't have an ear infection (thank heavens, since more antibiotics might mess her tummy up more). They do want to test for a urinary tract infection on the off chance that could be causing her trouble. But generally, they think her stomach is raw from all the upset and just needs time to heal. The game plan we came up with is to temporarily stop dairy to give her a break. That means going ahead and stopping formula, which I was going to start doing in a few weeks anyway. Then once she recovers, we can add back in cheese and start whole milk. Fingers crossed.
This whole thing has been messing with her sleep, too. And now without being able to feed her at night, she's up and not ready to go down again. Once she's healthy again, we'll have to do some tough love to get back to normal.
The whole thing has been totally stressing me out. I finally even went to my doctor yesterday because I was getting so worked up that even when I was able to sleep, I couldn't and was feeling really anxious. I expected a prescription for Prozac or something, but instead got some Valium with the instructions to let Bjorn handle more. When we were in Dallas, Meg only wanted me so since then, I've just been jumping on even though Bjorn has offered to help. So last night, I took some medicine, went to bed at 8:30 and Bjorn got up with her from 1 a.m. to 2 a.m. He is quite a great guy, that Bjorn.
So, fingers crossed that this game plan works. And fingers crossed that she remembers how to sleep again! I could use some predictability back in my life. Well, until learns to walk and totally throws me for a loop again!
so very sorry that you have this stress. I hate it when the kids don't sleep and its so much worse when they DO and then you still don't... oh dear. I sure hope the no dairy does the trick. We switch to enriched Rice Milk when Mary had trouble w/ dairy and then again on this last bout of the stomach stuff. It seems to help though it doesn't have protein or maybe it doesn't have calcium. One of those... all the best to you guys and I wish you sleep!!!!
ReplyDeleteValium is fantastic, but only a short term answer. Have you thought any more about the yoga that Pam suggested?
ReplyDeleteOh, jeez, this has been so rough on all of you. I hope the germ factory shuts down soon and Meg and Andy both feel better. In the meantime, high five on scoring some valium!
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