Sick Day

Sweet Bailey came down with her 3rd official ear infection this past weekend. Poor thing, I'm pretty sure it started on Friday, as we noticed she was tugging on her ear then.  We were going to take her in to see the pediatrician on Saturday morning if she had a bad night, but then she slept all the way through the night until 7 a.m. Saturday morning, which is definitely NOT typical these days and made us think that she must be ok.  Unfortunately, it only got worse from there (after the pediatrician's office had closed, of course), as she had a rough time in the car Saturday afternoon and would cry when we hit any bumps.  Thankfully, she slept through the night AGAIN on Saturday night, but then had a very rough day (for her, at least) on Sunday and a rough night Sunday night. 

So, I decided we would go to the pediatrician first thing on Monday morning.  Well, Bailey's ear had apparently gotten pretty bad, as she started screaming the minute we got in the car, which is highly unusual for her.  I started singing to soothe her (even typing that makes me giggle - my voice is TERRIBLE and I would never, ever have thought I would call it "soothing" to anyone, but for some reason my singing is pretty much the only thing that will calm Bailey down when she starts melting down. Bless her sweet heart.)   Well, my sister called in the middle of about my third or fourth song (I'm thinking it was "On Top of Spaghetti."  Or maybe "Rocky Top."  I have a rather limited song selection).  Bailey been calm and quiet for several minutes at that point, and I knew she'd be able to hear me talking on the phone, so I thought I'd be ok to stop singing and take the phone call. 

Apparently not.  About 30 seconds into the phone call, Bailey starts fussing.  About 45 seconds in, she starts SCREAMING.   Then, 2 seconds later, the "silent, yet heaving scream" began, and I immediately knew what was happening and hung up on my sister. 

We were about 10 minutes away from the doctor's office when she threw up.  EVERYWHERE.  So, I'm driving on the interstate, I'm crying, Bailey's crying, I'm trying to see how bad the damage is (fyi, it was really, really bad - I'm talking apricot and applesauce out of both nostrils bad), and I'm trying to go faster so she doesn't have to sit in it any longer than necessary.  I'm also simultaneously trying to find the container of wipes that I keep in my diaper bag (which was somehow MIA, of course), calling Scott to see what he thought I should do, and trying not to kill us both by swerving into the median or an 18 wheeler.  All the while begging Bailey to PLEASE stop crying and apologizing profusely and telling her I was going as fast as I could (and I was - probably faster than I should have been).

So, we finally got to the parking lot of the pediatrician's office and as soon as I saw the full damage, I knew Bailey was not getting back in that car seat until the whole thing had been scrubbed clean mostly because I was NOT touching it again until it was clean.  I took Bailey out, took off all her clothes, wrapped her in a probably dirty blanket I thankfully had in the trunk of my car, and called Scott and told him he needed to leave the office, go home and get some wipes and a change of clothes and drive over with the other car seat. 

Then we went to her appointment, both of us reeking of puke and Bailey naked except for a diaper and wrapped up in a dirty blanket.  I'm sure our elevator companions were thrilled. 

Of course, the ear infection was confirmed, and the predictable mommy guilt ensued, as I mentally flogged myself for not bringing her in on Saturday and causing her more pain.  Not to mention for stopping singing on the way to the pediatrician, which appeared to have led to the whole vomiting incident.  Uhhh.

After the diagnosis, I decided we would both stay home on Monday, as she's not supposed to go to daycare for 24 hours after vomiting, our pediatrician likes for her to stay home until she's had 2 doses of antibiotic, and she was so mommy-needy I couldn't stand to leave her.  Plus, we both still reeked of puke. 

So, we had a fun day of playing and just hanging out together because she wouldn't nap or let me leave her side without screaming.  I got out our nice camera, which I have no idea how to use, and I took about 389 pictures, most of which were deleted immediately due to my terrible photography skills.  But a few turned out pretty well, so here are my favorites from our afternoon:

If I had to pick one picture to sum up Bailey's personality right now, I'm pretty sure this would be it.  She is so fun and sweet and HAPPY!  (even with a terrible ear infection)

Cuddling with JR as always, he is her favorite toy on the planet right now (I love Reilly in the background on this one).

Hey mom!

Stretching is very important.  Especially when you like to eat your own toes.

SO close to crawling - she does a slithering almost-army type crawl right now and can move forward to get whatever she wants to get, but she's just about to take off in full-crawling mode.   Yikes!

This is her "teething/grinding face" that she makes when she's moving her (brand new and tiny) upper teeth against her (now enormous) lower teeth.  I don't know if she just likes the new sound or if it makes her gums feel better, but this face is pretty cute.

There are no words.  I just LOVE this sweet girl. 

If it was up to me, we'd have "sick days" every day (minus the ear infection and any sickness, of course).  But that's a whole different post for a different day......