This is now the second time in less than a month that I wrote a “Cate is sick, but it’s not so bad” post, only to have things immediately spiral into “holy mother of crap, we are in Baby Sickness Hell.” Cate’s cold got a lot worse yesterday, and the three of us were awake most of the night because she was so miserable. Her nose was so congested that she couldn’t even drink a bottle – she had to keep stopping to take big gulping breaths through her mouth since she wasn’t able to breathe through her nose. Poor baby. We tried everything we could think of to help (Baby Motrin, humidifier, elevated her head), and nothing seemed to comfort her.
Our pediatrician’s office has one branch location that’s open on Saturdays for urgent care, so we headed over there and found out that she has yet another ear infection. This one appears to be pretty bad. The word “pus” was mentioned. I may have nearly thrown up a little.
Hello, amoxicillin, my old friend. We meet again.
The stuff coming out of her nose is just… wow. Dave has helped me hold her down a couple of times so we could use the baby snot-sucker on her, and I am just awed and amazed that someone with such a teeny-tiny nose could possibly have that much gunk stored up there. It’s insane.
(And yes, it really does take both of us to hold her down to accomplish that one little task. Dave holds her head still, I hold both of her hands with one of my arms, and I use the aspirator with the other hand. And hoo boy, does it ever make her mad.)
So that’s our weekend. I bought one of those VapoRub plug-in thingies for us to try in her room tonight. No idea if it’ll help or not, but I’m desperate. Cross your fingers for us. Mama and Dada really need a good night’s sleep.
Oh, boo. Have you ever used those dissolving Sudacare Shower Soothers? They fill the bathroom euclalyptusy congestion-busting mist. Maybe if you sat on the side of the tub with Cate in your lap? I think Johnson and Johnson makes a eucalytpus baby wash that I took a bunch of bubble baths in when my local CVS ran out of Sudacare Shower Soothers last time. Poor baby.
The shower soothers are a good idea. But since Cate seems to have the most sensitive skin in the world, we only use non-perfumed soaps and things, so I think the eucalyptus wash is out, even though it sounds like something that would help. We’re also trying the version of Vicks VapoRub for babies – called, appropriately, BabyRub. (It made me giggle.)
Poor Cate! That sounds like a terrible monster of a cold. My mom would say to keep her as well-hydrated as possible, so water, formula, etc. as much as she’ll tolerate. A warm bath probably helps a lot, even if you can’t use shower soothers (which I’ve never tried, but I’ll make note for our next baby cold). Since c-baby loves baths, htat ought to be OK.
And all babies hate those nose suckers. They work, but they’re EVOL.
The baby/kids version of Vicks always works for Gaby when she gets really congested. We started using it when she was just a baby.
Hope the amoxicillin begins to work soon. If you don’t see an improvement by Monday, call the ped again — especially since she was just on the antibiotics not too long ago.