Croup

Well, we didn't go to the Dr., but Amber was sick over the weekend. So much for sleeping through the night! Friday night she woke up at 11pm and had a fever (low grade), about 100.8. I gave her Motrin and it seemed to help, but she woke up several times.

Along with the fever was a barky like cough and difficulty breathing. Saturday was tough for her, she obviously didn't feel very good. Saturday night was better and she slept most of the night. By Sunday she felt better with no fever, so we decided that she could go to daycare on Monday.

When I got to daycare there was a sign on the Infant B room door - 1 confirmed case of croup. I'm pretty sure that's what she had. I looked it up and it is pretty common for her age group and encompasses a large range of upper respiratory inflammation type viruses. Monday she had a great day and was completely over it.

I think about how much easier it is to parent the second (or in our case third) child. If this had happened to one of the twins, I'm sure I would have panicked and gone to the Dr. over the weekend. As it turns out, Amber is fine, viral infection that can't be treated anyway. It is so much better to be more laid back about these things. So much easier on everyone.

80 Diapers

The stomach flu! The Nurse said the diarrhea could last 10-14 days! Despite a constant gush of watery liquid, Amber's spirits were still pretty good. Since I've had experience with diarrhea and resulting horrible diaper rash, we were able to keep enough goop and powder on her bottom that we've actually come out quite good. A little red, but no bleeding or infection -- yet anyway. We're only on day 8 (only??).


The Nurse also said that day 4 is usually the worst. Day 4 was Thanksgiving day. The good news was that we didn't have to take her to daycare all week (except Monday), the bad news was that it was Thanksgiving and we were not at home. The boys have been to Jamie and Anjie's before, but this was Amber's first night sleeping in a bed other than her own.


Every time she tried to eat, it would come right through. Poor thing. There were some diaper changes that I would change her three times just as she was laying on the changing table. It seemed to get worse as the day progressed. By bed time, we probably changed 30 diapers (this is not an exaggeration!). She was up all night needing a diaper change or trying to eat. To make matters worse, Miles had left on a fishing trip with his buddies.

But we survived the night and Amber is still in good spirits. We used up a whole package (80) of diapers this week on this flu bug. Miles got the bug over the weekend and now it looks like Bumpa (one of her caretakers during the week) has it! So far I've avoided it and the boys have avoided it - thank goodness.

This is one of the reasons I don't like the kids in daycare. Although, I suppose they'd get these sicknesses once they started school, so better to get it out of the way now? It's really hard to see the baby sick, though.

We can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Day 9 and it's starting to slow down. Just hope we don't get anything else before Christmas.