Eliza in a box!

Today was my first mom's group meeting. I have been looking forward to it since I put up the flyers a little over a week ago. There were eight mom's in attendance- so nine altogether counting me. Two member are moms-to-be! I was very pleased with the turnout and Eliza had a great time playing with her new freinds. We are going to have meetings every Monday at the same time. I am bummed that I brought my camera and completely forgot to take pictures. TYPICAL DANIELLE MOVE!

I finished my book (The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes) today. Eliza took two long naps and I held her the entire time. SHH it gave me a good excuse to sit and read. The book was very good. It moved along quickly- which I like because I have zero patience. Our book club meeting is on July 21st! Usually we end of discussing everything but the book- but it is always good time. This is the first book I have read by this author but now I am hoping to pick up a few more of her titles at the library.

Eliza is supposed to start up swim class again tomorrow. However, she is having a bit of a feminine problem and I am currently waiting for the doctor to call me back. Waiting, and waiting, and waiting. I get so annoyed when I have to speak to that DAMN answering service. I go into panic mode as soon as I think something is wrong with little E. I go into this bad place in my head where I just start to worry about everything. My big fear is another UTI. I get all teary just thinking about our first trip down that horrific road and do not want to go through it again. So depending on what the doctor says I might be making the hour trip into the office tomorrow.

Here are some pics of E playing in her car seat box!

Our Weekend

I know I have been kind of MIA. Sorry I haven't been around the blogosphere much. This weekend pretty much stunk. I missed one of my dearest friend's bridal showers because I was laying on my husband's bathroom floor suffering from the stomach flu. At one point I was banging on the tile for about 20 minutes hoping my husband would hear me and come up to bring me a new pair of underwear. DON'T ASK! It was that wonderful kind of stomach flu where you get it on both ends. Tons and tons of fun. Of course my hubs thought it was the neighbor playing around with his tools and did not answer my desperate tile plea.

Enough about me and on to little E . . .

Eliza was really on and off all weekend. She was certainly never 100% and her appetite was really weak. She still had a cough and a stuffy nose with occasional vomiting but nothing like Thursday night. We really thought she was getting much better- until last night...

She woke up her in her crib crying at around 5. She was them projectile vomiting for a good hour and a half. I swear my nerves were so shot that I was like we are going to the E.R. I couldn't bear to see my baby in pain anymore.

My husband tell me to get what I need and we will go to the E.R. So I think I pack the diaper bag and we head out in a flustered mess. She is continuing to throw up this entire time. My husband was in such a rush that he ran over my dad's garbage cans when we drove away. He wouldn't even stop to fix them. In the car I had to lift her car seat out off the base so she wouldn't choke while puking. This is not something I want to experience again. The hospital is only about 5 minutes away do we arrived quickly.

Once we got into the E.R we realized Eliza made a mess in her diaper. I go to check my diaper bag and realize I only have that horrific Target diaper and about 3 dried out wipes in the wipe case. I also realize we have no bottles, burp clothes, or anything else we might actually need. Here is how that went...

Dear Husband inquired, " I thought I said to get everything we need ready for the hospital."
Dear Wife responded, " I thought I did. Do I need to remind you that you ran over the garbage cans. Nuff said"

It turns out that even though Eliza threw up she was still hungry and more than a little tired. They informed us that they wold be taking blood to check her electrolyte levels and hooking her up to an IV for fluids. Now the hubs and I argue over who should go home and get everything we are missing. We decide to call my dad and see if he can bring some bottles, wipes and diapers for us- to which he happily responded yes.

They hooked Eliza up to an IV and put on a pee pee bag to see if she is urinating. We settled in for a few hours watching bad t.v, waiting for blood results and for Eliza to get her fluids. Pete held Eliza while she slept and I laid on the comfortable hospital bed wishing I had not worn flip flops because my toes were ice cold.

It is at this time that my husband decided to tell me how annoying he finds my yawn. Apparently I make a noise at the end of my yawn that in irritating. I personally find it endearing and will now continue to do it more loudly than ever. Let me tell you that husbands have such wonderful timing.

When the blood results came back they said her electrolyte levels are good and that her CO2 was a little low but that is normal with her vomiting . They said that we would be going home shortly because it seems viral and there is nothing really to be done for that. They also told us they just needed to call our pediatrician and let her know the results before we could go home.

Here I am thinking we are on our way out when the doctor comes in and tells us that the pediatrician wants a urine sample so they need to put in a catheter. Due to the previous UTI the doctor wants to be safe and make sure it has not returned.

Anyhoo, to make a very long and boring story short, her urine was clear and we are home. The doctor has us giving her soy formula and rice water until she feels better.
I tried to make rice water three times and it just doesn't seem right. It is a bit thick in my opinion. Has anyone had experience with this? I googled it and this is the only thing that popped up.


Dr. Reddy's Pediatric Office on the Web TM had this to say about rice water

Although we have occasionally recommended boiling rice in water, pouring off the water, and serving the water (which contains sugars, minerals, and proteins from the rice) to a child with gastroenteritis, we no longer recommend that; there aren't enough minerals or carbohydrates in the rice water for it to be well-absorbed. Giving rice in the cooking water, however, does seem to help.

If you read this far you are a true bloggy friend and I thank you. I am sure I have a zillion typos and my tenses are way off because I have been typing like a maniac with my stream of conscience thoughts. I am a ball of nerves at this point and certainly have not been feeling well myself. I am not sure if the constant ache in my gut is remnants of my own tummy bug or just nerves. Regardless, this too shall pass and I it just can't be soon enough for me.

E.coli anyone?

The results are in...

Eliza does in fact have a UTI caused by E.coli bacteria. Can you say yuck, ew, and gross? The fact that anything is growing in urine is disgusting. The ultrasound that was done on her kidneys did not show any abnormalities- thank goodness. I was so worried about damage to her kidneys. I started reading about things that can go wrong yesterday and burst into tears. The word relief does not even come close to describing how I feel. If left untreated UTI's can cause kidney damage- especially in children under 6.

On the bright side we were released from the hospital today. At first when my husband told me I thought it was an April Fool's joke. Now that would have been cruel. We met with our pediatrician this morning and he wrote a scrip for us. I will administer oral antibiotics to her for the next 7 days. We also made an appointment to see the doc on Thursday for a check. I want to be SURE she is getting better.

How the heck did she get this UTI? That is the questions people keep asking me and I don't really have an answer. Sometimes I say poo poo in the choo choo, sometimes I say day care is the devil, and sometimes I say I haven't the foggiest idea! Of course I have looked into what caused this infection but have not really found any clear answers. I did find that it is most likely not caused by poo in the choo- as many have told me. It is important to wipe from front to back-but if that were truly the cause the rates of UTI would be even higher.

I never would have guessed she had a UTI. The symptoms in an infant are unexplainable fever and urinary findings suggestive of a UTI. I am so happy they chose to catheterize her and take a sample. At the time I was ready to scoop my baby off of the table and rescue her from the men and women torturing her in the E.R. I am so thankful that I let them get the sample. If I had not discovered it as early- I don't even want to to think about that. The only other symptoms were stinky urine and scrunching up of her face and hands. Yes! I originally thought that was caused by the oatmeal but now I think it was discomfort from urinating.

To read more about UTI's and infants check out this site.

I go to the doctor tomorrow. I am hoping it is nothing serious.

We are also looking into alternatives to day care.

Come back tomorrow to see my list of things I learned during my hospital visit.