Alaura's 4th Birthday was Thursday!!! Unluckily she had the stomach flu. It all started Tuesday when I picked her up from preschool, her teacher told me that she had been acting under the weather all day. We got home and she slept most of the afternoon while I tried to get ready for Camie's Baby shower at my house that evening. Sydney had a bad cold and was being very clingy, and I was wondering how in the world I was going to get everything ready!!! About an hour before the shower started Alaura started complaining that her tummy hurt, then threw up all over the couch and rug in the living room...where we were having the shower in an hour!!!!! Poor baby was laying on her back when she threw up and it was in her eyes up her nose and all through her hair. Eric grabbed her and tried to keep as much as possible off the couch. After giving her a bath and back into pajamas he took her out to get some saltine crackers and things to settle her tummy while also keeping her away from the guests at the shower. We warned all of them and they chose to stay...I sure hope no one gets sick.
That night she threw up a few more times. Wednesday we kept her on clear fluids and she seemed to be getting over it. But that night she woke up throwing up again. By morning she was dry heaving and throwing up bile. Unluckily this was her birthday and it just got worse. She hadn't actually eaten anything since Monday evening and starting to get really weak. She kept crying and telling me that her whole body was so thirsty. I tried to get her to sip water a teaspoon at a time but she kept throwing it back up. by 3:00 I was really getting scared. She kept falling asleep and I couldn't get her to wake up very well. So, I called the Dr and they had us come in at 6:30, I had a feeling they would need to do an IV to get some fluids in her but figured that it wouldn't be more than a couple hours so I told Eric to come and just bring Sydney with us.
We got there and got in pretty quick. When the nurse weighed alaura she had lost a little over 4 lbs!!! That's 10 % of her body weight and she was looking thinner and soooooo pale. The dr saw us and agreed that she needed and IV. Alaura was not happy at all about having to be poked!!! She kept holding her arm and saying "ow ow oooowww!!! I don't want a shot!!! Owwwey!!" Keep in mind that they hadn't even touched her yet. So around 7:30 the nurses were ready to start the IV.
I layed down in the bed with her and wrapped my my legs around her and held her down in a way that seemed like we were cuddling. It took them a while to find the vein they wanted to use. Poor baby was really worked up and crying and trying to flail around. Unluckily they couldn't get it in and when they finally did it busted and they had to start over. :( She got braver the second time. They moved to the other arm on her hand. Eric and Sydney were standing next to us and Eric had Alaura squeeze his finger with her free hand as hard as she could...this seemed to distract her a little while they moved the needle around trying to get it in...unluckily she has my veins which means that they roll, disappear and break like crazy. I never leave without bruises all over me either. So they had to start for a third time, She was getting angry by this point and telling the nurses to stop poking her. They tried the arm of the hand they had just tried. She squeezed my hand and talked to me while they worked on her, unluckily the third time was not a charm. SO they gave up and gave her a shot. 20 minutes later they gave her a pedi-pop and then the lab came in to poke her again to get blood to see how dehydrated she was.
This picture is of alaura getting her blood drawn...she was much happier with the popcicle LOL
After getting the butterfly needle in, the original nurse decided that they would run the IV fluids through the butterfly needle. They stabilized her arm and taped it straight so the needle wouldn't poke back through. She had to keep her arm straight like that for a few hours.
Syd got a pedi pop too!!! She would not fall asleep...it was midnight before we left and she fell asleep. ( she still woke up at 6:00 the next morning too)
Once the Dr got the lab results back from the blood and urine tests she wanted to have her transported to a hospital to get fluids through the night, unluckily the needle in her arm was not something she could be transported with, they would have to remove it then redo it again at the hospital...I don't think she would have handled that very well so we asked to keep her hooked up as long as possible and have her re evaluated at midnight before making the final decision.By this point Alaura was very tired and grumpy. She kept getting woken up and they made her move to the adult holding area which she didn't like. She got pretty mad at the nurses. She told one to "just get out of here and leave me alone!!!" She kept saying " This is the worst check up ever" and "This is the worst Dr ever" among other things.
We had a different dr check us out and she felt that alaura was fine to go home and return first thing the following morning. They sent us home with a prescription for some anti nausea medication that we picked up at midnight on our way home. Needless to say it was a horrible birthday. The next morning she ate a little bit, kept down water and Gatorade and got thumbs up from the dr. She kept saying "please don't poke me again, no more shots." When we left she said "mom this was a good check up!!! No shots!!!"
