The last few days have been hell

Audrey has been so, so sick. We've never experienced anything like this stomach virus before, and it's horrible. Before now, she's only had thrush and an ear infection, and those were nothing compared to this.

Our niece, Nichole, spent the night with us on Thursday, and we all went to the pool that evening. Here's Nichole:



Isn't she cute? (And yes, she IS holding duplicate cut-out copies of the Jonas Brothers on either side of her head. And her favorite brother is the oldest one...kind of strange).

Well, Audrey seemed fine at the pool; she floated around in her little duck float, and this time (unlike at the beach), she was able to hold herself up in it. Last time we swam, one of us would have to hold her little tushie so she wouldn't sink into the water. Like this:



Anyway, she seemed fine at the pool. She was kicking her legs around, as if she was actually swimming. So when she was a little lethargic on Friday, I just thought she was worn out from the pool. It always tires out my nieces, that's for sure. Which is why we take them swimming when they spend the night;)

But no. It was (and is) a big, nasty stomach virus. She's had so much diarrhea since Friday that I don't even know how many diapers we've changed. A LOT.  Matt called the doctor once on Friday, and they told us to give her .8 ml of Tylenol and some Pedialyte. We were going to take her in on Saturday morning, but her temperature was only 97.7. I was hoping it was just some kind of 24-hour thing.

It was not. Matt ended up phoning and talking to the on-call nurse twice on Saturday, which was the day her temp went up to 102.6 and she projectile-vomited all over the floor. It even splashed up onto the end table. Nice. I have to give Matt credit, though, because he actually held his hand out to catch the vomit. Ugh.

Saturday was absolute torture. Audrey cried in pain all day long, and it's horrible to hear your child in pain. This is the first time I've had to do that, and let me tell you, I would've taken that pain on myself in a second to spare her.

The nurse said, the second time Matt talked to her, that if she threw up again we'd have to go to the children's ER. I was NOT down with that. I would have gone if she needed it, but I really didn't want to spend hours in the ER with Audrey in so much pain, when she was at least getting some sleep here at home.

My mom came and spent the night on the air mattress in Audrey's room Saturday night, thank goodness. Matt and I still had the monitors on in our room, of course (we love you, AngelCare!), but it was nice to have a third pair of hands.

On Sunday night, just when Mom was about to leave, I was giving Audrey another dose of Tylenol when she vomited up everything in her stomach. I was practically in tears, thinking this was going to mean a trip to the ER and another dose of these:



http://bestdoctorpharmacy.com/images/prodimg/mediumthumbs/klonopin.JPG

which are Klonopin, by the way, a really kick-butt anti-anxiety and insomnia pill. But thankfully, another call to the nurse revealed that we just needed to keep doing what we were doing.

Needless to say, we took Audrey to the doctor on Monday morning. The pedi said there was a bad stomach virus going around. And then I thought, that's where she probably got it! We went in last week for a re-check on her ear infection. Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhh.

So, there's really nothing we can do but encourage her to keep eating and change her ASAP after her bouts with diarrhea. There's nothing worse than seeing spasms of pain cross your daughter's face as the stomach cramps take over.

Now I understand what Mom meant, all those times she'd tell me she'd take my pain from me if she could. I get it now. And that's one of the hardest parts of being a mom.