Sick Woman

I am so sick. I am trying to be as whiny about it as possible. I took today off work for two big reasons, first, Smug-Baby was really sick too. Her eyes were gunked shut this morning and she spent the whole night crying and it was after 1am before I got her to bed and then she was up and down all night. That is the second reason I stayed home today, I got no sleep! Poor baby wanted only mama and daddy just wouldn't do, so I sent him on to bed about 11 and I stayed up with her.

She would cry and want to be picked up and then want to nurse, but I guess that nursing didn't make her feel that much better, so she would pull off and cry and want to get down. As soon as she was down, she would cry and want back up again. I had no voice and one of the worst sore throats I can ever remember having. My head felt like it was going to explode and my eyes hurt to blink. I kept thinking this time she nursed she was would fall asleep and every time, just as she was fluttering her eyes closed, she would pull off the breast and hop down.

When she finally did fall asleep and I took her into bed, Smug-Hub woke and informed me that he wasn't taking no for an answer, that I was staying home from all my jobs and taking care of myself and the baby and NOTHING else. I agreed and sent e-mails from my phone to let my bosses know that I was going to be out.

Smug-Baby and I slept until about 8:30 this morning and I called Smug-Grandma to bring me anything and everything she could think that might help. I wanted to have symptom relief as well as immunity building. She also picked up Gramps' pills and took care of him for the day. I didn't have to go anywhere or do anything but take care of me and my baby.

I probably could have worked once I got up and moving around, but it was more important to stay home and just nurse Smug-Baby all day long and get her feeling better. Smug-Hub thought we should consider something like baby-Tylenol or baby-Motrin to help her feel better. I got online and started doing some research and found that the FDA is not recommending giving anything chemical to children especially any child under the age of 2 because of the huge risk of fatal overdosing. They are stating that any benefits are far outweighed by the risks. Apparently the line between normal dosage and fatal overdose is so small that they don't feel that the child is helped enough my the medicine to risk it.

We decided that breastmilk was Smug-Baby's best medicine (did I post on here about her diaper rash? She had scratched herself so deeply that it got infected and was starting to ooze puss. I thought that perhaps I should take her to the doctor, but it was the Christmas holiday and everything was closed. I decided to put some breastmilk on the rash and did that with every diaper change - the rash was completely gone within 24 hours!) so, I just tried to keep her nursing as much as she wanted or would take. We decided not to give her anything else, not even water, because that would take up room in her stomach that would be better filled with milk. It worked, by the time Smug-Hub got home of work today she was at about 75%. Her eyes were still a little goopy and her nose was running, but both were less than they had been.

My head is starting to really hurt again as the sun has gone down and things are always worse at night. I have to go into work tomorrow no matter how badly I feel. My company has this rule that in order to be paid for your holiday you must report to work the day before and the day after the holiday unless you have a pre-approved vacation request. Since Friday is the paid holiday for New Years Day, I have to work Thursday. I guess my company really doesn't care so much if I infect others :) I really do feel like I would report to work anyway, I'm just complaining. I probably could have made it through the work day today I had really needed to, but I'm glad that I stayed home and rested and took care of my girl. I spent 100% of my time and energy on us and we needed it!

Maybe I should be drinking breastmilk too!! She is totally bouncing around the house now!! She and daddy are rolling around the floor and having so much fun! The only problem with this, is that he is getting her all worked up and she probably will be up late again tonight - oh well, she is having fun and feeling better so that is all that matters!

UPDATE: She was up until 11!! But I'm up and ready for work and she is sleeping and while I feel like death at the moment, I'm sure after a little Emergen-C, I'll be able to get through the day!