March 22, 2009

  • I Hate When Babies Are Sick....

    I should have known there was something wrong when I was laying on the floor and Chewlee walked in, saw me and then went to get her blankey and bottle. She laid down next to me and stayed quiet with just the occasional patting of my head. I guess she thought I was sick or tired and she was trying to comfort me. When the Princess came into the room looking for her, she picked her up and put her in her crib for her nap (it was time anyway). She went totally without any protest at all, not even insisting on kissing everyone (including the dog) night-night before she would go quietly.

    When she woke up about two and a half hours later, the first thing I noticed was her rosy cheeks. She also was pretty lethargic (for her). She didn't fuss or give me a hard time about changing her diaper. I usually have to wrestle with her because she wants to be up playing, not laying on her back while her *mamaw* has her legs lifted in the air and her butt hanging out in the breeze. She has started calling me *mamaw* since she got back from Gatlinburg. I think it's really because she IS trying to say Grandma but that's the best she can do right now. Some sounds just seem too complex for her tongue to handle.

    Anyway, she only wanted to be up and have me holding her for the longest time. She had her bottle and her blankey clutched tightly and kept getting lower and lower in my arms. I think it was about a half hour before she finally felt good enough to actually get up and play. The ominous thing was that she played quietly on the floor so I finally gave her some Children's tylenol. She doesn''t like to take medication and can detect what it is no matter HOW you try to trick her. It's not just me either because Kim told me the same thing about when she tried to give her some while she was teething so bad last week. The Princess admitted that she does it for her, too.

    After that, she played for maybe 10 minutes and then would grab her blankey and bottle and lay down on one of the pillows on the floor and watch TV with me. If there are no good SciFi movies on Saturday, we pretty much watch the animal planet channel which she loves. She also likes for me to tell her what the animals are as they appear on the screen. That was pretty much our day. Play for a while, watch TV, play for a while, watch TV....the medication she DID get didn't touch her fever. She finally got into my lap, holding the two items she needed and laid her head on my shoulder. When I asked her if she wanted to go night-night, she nodded yes so I put her into her crib. She was sound asleep in no time. But her sleep was restless and she did a lot of tossing and turning. Mostly because her nose kept plugging up on her.

    When I called the Princess to inform her about the baby's condition, she called a friend to go get something for the congestion. I won't say what it was exactly but the dosage was just a half teaspoonful (good thing I wrote it down because I told Bratfink a WHOLE teaspoonful). Just can't trust my memory these days. Of course, because of the way Chewlee is about medications of ANY kind, I doubt we got even half of THAT much down her. However, it did the job because now her fever is gone and her nose seems to be working better. At least I didn't have to wipe it more than once after she took it. Before she finally went down for the rest of tonight (I hope) even the feverish look was gone and no more redness to her cheeks. I'll be staying up for a while longer just to be sure because the Princess gets so miserable and cranky when the baby wakes her up and then KEEPS her up. I'm not sure just who is worse.

    But it just breaks my heart when little ones are sick. You can't really comfort them and they don't understand why they feel so awful. All you can do is try to alleviate the symptoms so they feel a bit better at least. It was a bit easier with my kids when they were little because they still had decongestants on the market that you didn't have to sign away your life and swear two oaths to purchase. So many things today are now considered too dangerous for use. Yeah, right. Generations of kids managed to live through them. Little did we know. *This is sarcasm, in case you can't tell*

    For a footnote, so-to-speak, the Beast now has about 2/3 of the living room area finished. What he has left to do should go quickly now because he's gotten the alcove/hallway done and all the door jambs and thresholds done. What's left is just straight lines. All-in-all, he's done a nice job. I really love how much it has brightened up the house. We use to feel that the only real thing wrong with this house (other than we would have gotten a slightly bigger one if we had realized we would end up living in it full time) was the fact that it was dark. We attributed this to how few windows there are. Now, even though the flooring is a darker color than the carpet or the linoleum was, it has brightened it up due to how it reflects the light.

    If I have a complaint at all about it, it's the fact that the sounds in those rooms now are much louder. Even the Beast isn't turning up the TV the way he normally does since the sound seems to bounce and echo. We'll adjust to it, I'm sure.

    I'm going to bed now everyone but I love you all. I had a headache earlier (due to an argument I had involving multiple people which I will NOT go into) but I took a couple ibu's and laid down for a while when Chewlee was still sleeping.

    Have a great day and I wish you sunshine and mild weather.