Sick House Update

I'm fine. Tired, but fine. Craig is about the same--full of mono but generally no worse. Ava? Not so good but hopefully on the mend: she's not been able to shake this cold she's had for, oh, two months now. That's not really normal and definitely not good, however, I've tried all of the "remedies" the doctors have recommended (humidifier, saline nose drops/aspirator for clearing mucus out of her nose, using a wedge in the crib to keep her head elevated, etc.)...apparently cold medicine is no longer available for infants because babies were dying--other moms have told me that based on their personal experience, the meds were fine, it's idiot parents overdosing their kids that caused the problem. So of course, everyone suffers now. I don't know how true that is but it sounds about right!

ANYHOW I've tried not to be a nuisance to the doctors (I don't want to be one of those people constantly calling or going in for every little thing because when something IS really wrong I want to be taken seriously) and other than her routine physicals, today was only the second time I've taken Ava in--the other time was two weeks ago when she was making a wheezing sound, which the doctors tell you to come in for. But anyways, things have been getting worse for about a week: the coughing fits were causing her to gag and throw up, and have been preventing her from getting a good night's sleep--maybe that's part of the reason she's not sleeping through the night? It's definitely responsible for her not getting good sleep, at any rate. The last straw was last night, when she pretty much coughed continuously from 2am on...nobody got any sleep. Craig got up with her in the morning so I could sleep a little but I was too anxious and ended up getting up and calling the doctor. We went in this afternoon and they gave us two prescriptions: a steroid to help with the inflammation/irritation and an antibiotic. She should start to improve in the next couple of days--gave her the first doses a little while ago and now she's napping, but not well because I can still hear her coughing. I hope this is over soon, for everyone's sake.

Anyhow that's about it--aside from the coughing, when she did the waking up "hungry" thing last night I took advice I'd been given to try giving her some water, and it worked! She guzzled it down and then put her head down on my shoulder and went to sleep (well, until she coughed again)...so I guess she's just thirsty! (Thanks Jen! ;o) The doctors say not to give babies water but I don't see why not, I mix it in her formula so the water itself can't be bad. So my theory is that they have to tell people no water because some people would probably not give their babies the proper amount of food, and just give them water, because formula is expensive (and people are stupid). Given that she's supposed to have 28-32 oz. of formula a day and is currently consuming 35+ oz. a day plus two cereal feedings, she is clearly in no danger of starving and therefore, having some water at night is just fine.

That's about it. I've rambled long enough....sounds like the kid is down for at least a little while so I'm going to go work on my photo album, which is nearly complete! It covers basically the first three months of Ava's life....it's not completely chronological, as different pages have different themes: pics with the grandparents, pics of Ava sleeping, etc. etc. I'll take pictures of the album and post them one of these days because I'm quite proud of my work! ;o) It's far from professional but looks pretty good. In the next day or two I'll have to order another batch of photos so I can continue my work.