It's been a rough couple of days.
Last Thursday, my dad was feeling sick. He threw up in the middle of the night and then sat around the house quietly the next day. Being the dad that he his, he kept saying he was fine and thought it was something he ate.
Then on Friday, my mom vomited in the middle of the night and spent all day Saturday in bed.
Brian and I went about our lives and kept ourselves and Cam away from my folks as best we could. Our best wasn't good enough.
Yesterday morning at 5am, I woke up feeling pretty crappy. I spent pretty much all day yesterday in bed. Chills, body aches, headache, nausea -- NOT FUN. I slept a lot because I knew I had to get better fast. I missed holding my baby already! I didn't think I could physically sleep as much as I did, but somehow my body took those zzz's without complaint.
Around 5pm, I was feeling better and just in time too. Brian started showing the same flu-like symptoms. Uh oh. So, I fed Cam and then handed him off to my dad who was now the only person in the house who wasn't sick (my mom had a relapse yesterday too). My dad is sitting on his chair with Camden in his lap. All of sudden, Camden throws up all over himself, my dad and the chair. At this point, I have no choice but to take care of him. Even if I'm not completely well, clearly Cam is sick so it probably doesn't matter now, right?
So, I comfort him, wipe him down and get him ready for bed. Then I call the doctor to see what we should do. He mentioned pedialyte at Cam's earlier appointment (just in case) so we had some in the house. Just needed more direction on how to handle this.
Doc says to give him pedialyte slowly, a half ounce at a time. Give him as much as he wants, he'll know when he's done, the doc says. Then, I have to give him soy-based formula for a couple of days to ease Cam's system back. Apparently, the formula we use, Enfamil, is lactose-based and harder on his intestinal tract.
After hanging up the phone, I try to give Cam some pedialyte. He took the bottle fine but made a funny face once he tasted it and fussed. I wondered if it's because the pedialyte is flavored? I have my dad go out and get the non-flavored bottle. He comes back and I try again. Camden is NOT having it. Now I'm freaking out because dehydration is the main concern here. If Cam won't drink the pedialyte, then what?! I start crying. I'm not exactly sure why. I'm worried but I think more than anything I just felt so bad for Camden. I can't explain in words what it feels like to know your child is sick and there's nothing you can do about it. And then what you CAN do, your child doesn't want. Crying seemed appropriate.
Well, I can't force Cam to drink the medicine so I decide to put him down for the night and see if he'll go to sleep. Surprisingly, he went down fairly easily and slept pretty well, considering.
I went to bed with a 100+ fever, as did Brian. Feeling a little better than B, I got up 3 times in the middle of the night to care for Camden and give him pedialyte (which he took, thank goodness!!). It's amazing what a mother can do when she has to. I mean, really. When I was sick, I could somewhat only focus on me being sick. But when I knew Camden was sick, my sickness no longer mattered. I just needed to take care of my baby.
Mommyhood is an amazing thing.
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