Sick Baby

We knew it was going to happen sooner or later - we were hoping for later.

Last night, we went out to eat dinner and Kaitlyn was being very quiet even though it was about the time she should have been fussing for a bottle. We ordered our food, got our salads and then it happened at about 6:15pm - Kaitlyn started to throw up. She was still strapped in her carrier since she seemed content, so Shawnna jumped up and tried to hold her head up so she wouldn't choke while I unbuckled her so we could take her out of the carrier.

We finally got her free and Shawnna took her to the bathroom while I asked for our food to go and tried to clean up the carrier as best I could since we'd have to put her back in there to get her home. Shawnna brought her back in a new outfit, I strapped her into the semi-clean carrier and we drove home.

Throwing up must take up a lot of energy for a baby since she fell asleep right away in the car. When we got home, we brought her in the house, but left her in the carrier to finish her nap. At about 7pm, she woke up and threw up again. This time, there wasn't much left in her, so it wasn't as messy, but she cried more than she did after the first time. Again, we got her out of the carrier, changed her and I threw everything in the laundry.

She seemed to feel much better after that since she was talking and smiling at us. We thought it might be over, so we gave her a bath and I started to feed her a bottle at 7:45pm. She ate the first half of the bottle and then stopped sucking and got quiet (which NEVER happens when she's eating). I knew what was coming, so I positioned her over the makeshift barf zone we had constructed and up came the 3 ounces she had just consumed.

OK, so feeding her was a bad idea, but it had been 4.5 hours since she last ate and she typically only goes 3 hours between eating. After the third clean-up, Shawnna called the doctor (who said to watch for a fever before worrying) and daycare (who would still take Kaitlyn if she seemed OK by morning). Then, we laid Kaitlyn down and she promptly fell asleep. We got ready for bed and Shawnna created a makeshift bed next to Kaitlyn on the floor so she could keep an eye on her during the night.

At 9:30pm, I went upstairs to watch TV so the girls could sleep in peace, but at 10pm I heard Kaitlyn starting to cry and when I came downstairs, Shawnna was holding her after another spew. Not a whole lot came up and mostly got on her blanket, so after a blanket change and comforting from mommy, she was back asleep and slept the rest of the night without incident.

Back-story: The kids at Kaitlyn's daycare had been getting sick for the past couple of days. It was just a flu bug that lasted about 5 hours and then it was over. So, when Kaitlyn threw up the first time, we weren't completely surprised and knowing about the other kids probably helped us stay calm. If we weren't told about the sickness going around, we probably would have freaked out a bit more.

Anyway, Shawnna fed Kaitlyn a couple of ounces this morning and she kept it down, so we took her to daycare like normal. Since she was acting like her usual self this morning, we think it must have just been that 5 hour flu bug. So, chock up another parental experience for us. Hopefully these days are few and far between.