Rachel, Rachel, Rachel....

Rachel recently decided to get sick. hehe... We think its because she knows Mommy has been reading a book about getting her to sleep through the night all on her own. She was literally days away from this sleep training! So she went and got sick instead.... Just to avoid learning how to sleep without mommy right by her side.

My poor baby! It started Friday morning. She was really fussy and refused her morning nap. She just cried the whole time. I had sort of starting the 5 minute check in, followed by a 10 minute check in....When she changed her cry after a while of me trying to get her to nap, I knew something was up. I think it was a little past noon when she puked. She had pretty much been refusing to eat all morning too. I didn't realize she was sick until she semi projectile vomited. It got worse as the night went on. Silly me...I didn't know you weren't supposed to try and feed a baby who puked. And I didn't know I should always have pedialyte in my house. She was fussy and it was time to feed her... I gave her rice cereal mixed with a little banana. She didn't puke again until late Friday night so I had thought she was getting better and that the earlier barf was just a one time thing. Our poor baby then puked several times overnight. I had to wait almost 45 minutes on the phone for a late night advice nurse. We ended up making an appointment for her Saturday morning to see a doctor. (Not her doctor, but one at the weekend clinic.)

She did really good at the doctor's office until it was just a few minutes before the doctor came in. She started screaming and was completely inconsolable. Then she puked all over the floor, a chair.... and the towel that I tried to catch the puke in. It was awful. We ended up having to stay for almost 2 hours while they tried to rehydrate her orally. They would have me give her 10 mls of pedialyte every ten minutes for an hour. (I gave it by syringe in her mouth.) By the 4th time, she was puking that up too. She wasn't sick enough to need an IV so the doctor sent us home and told me to keep doing what I was doing with the pedialyte and syringe. However, Rachel started to refuse the pedialyte too. She would NOT open her mouth for it and would turn her head when I tried. She hadn't pee'd for six hours too.

Then finally around 4pm, she drank a couple of ounces of pedialyte in a bottle. I thought she was better since she FINALLY wanted something to drink. About 15 minutes later, she puked that up too. I felt so helpless. Then she mostly slept the rest of the evening.

When she woke up, I could tell she was hungry and wanting to eat. I knew I was only supposed to offer pedialyte, which clearly, she didn't want! I called the advice nurse line (only waited on hold for a few minutes this time) and she told me to make a rice cereal mixture. 2 cups warm water, 1/3 cup rice cereal, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. I spoon fed her a few ounces over a course of 90 minutes. She was so hungry she was just eating it up as fast as I would let her. I had to wait about 15 minutes between giving her little spoonfuls to make sure she would hold it down. She did! So we went to bed and she slept for three hours. Woke up hungry of course.... so I gave her two ounces of formula and she did fine with that too.

She slept really good overnight....better than she normally does. Then napped really good all day today too. We slowly increased the amount of formula in her bottle over the course of the day. She has been MUCH better. No puke since yesterday around 5pm ish. It was such an awful weekend. The ONLY way Rachel would sleep too was if she was in bed with me. And of course tonight she doesn't want anything to do with her crib. Ugh... I was going to have her sleep with me again, but I'm so tired that Bob has her downstairs and is going to sleep in the recliner with her on his chest....if he lasts all night with her. We have a follow up appointment with her pediatrician in the morning because Rachel has lost almost one pound since her last appointment a month ago. I'm really concerned about it, but the doctor yesterday thought it was just water loss from all the throwing up. I'm hoping her weight is better tomorrow. I'm interested to see what her doctor thinks of this.

I'm proud of Bob and I for getting through the weekend. We were both very sleep deprived on Friday night and all day Saturday. I was up with Rachel and I had him get up for a while too because I needed him up to help me. Then Saturday I had to hold Rachel for most of the day because she was so miserable so he had to take care of Morgan and Sophia. We were both exhausted! Thankfully, we both got a little more sleep last night and my mom came over today so we could nap. Bob napped...I was too wired. So our house is a mess, the laundry is backed up....and I smell like baby barf...but at least we handled it. We are really hoping and praying that Morgan and Sophia don't come down with this stomach bug too. But if they do, at least I know what to do now. This really was our first experience with a sick baby. Needless to say, I was completely freaked out. I'm just so thankful Rachel is better. We're keeping a close eye on her sisters. Right now, neither one shows signs of illness. Whew!

Anyway...I better get some sleep while I have the opportunity! I will update about Rachel's doctor visit tomorrow.