29th December 2008

Taking Care of Fussy, Unhappy Newborn Infant 2 replies

It’s amazing how your entire day will pass you by when you have a sick newborn, or sick child.  A friend of mine called and told me to eat - and I thought, “When?”  When your baby is sick, you are in 100% monitoring, consoling, trying to alleviate and/or investigate this discomfort - and it’s a little like total chaos in the beginning.  It’s been two days now, and I think, I think she might be turning a corner.  I go to the doc tomorrow morning for a regular 5-week checkup with lots of questions. 

This evening, every part of my being hurt - and I wondered if I was coming down with something.  Determined to sleep tonight as she calmed down, and seemingly cooled off - I thought maybe we could go to sleep early.  I cat-napped - but she did not. 

I think I might have figured something out - so, she seems happier to sleep in the carseat in her crib - but she also seems to get hot and perhaps even trouble breathing - but that could be related to the low grade fever too - or she just started to feel better tonight and had less issues.

 But today, we struggled with complete upchucking of the milk, regardless of whether it was mine or formula.  I learned a new look on her face and movement when she’s about to do this - Then, a rash around her right ear.  Not a horrible rash, but seems to be a growing rash.  It could be heat-related, maybe, from being in the car seat. 

One thing is for sure when Melina is not happy, when she doesn’t feel good - there is an amazing amount of learning going on here to understand her signs, and try to console her.

Some people say don’t hold her too much - but I can’t think of anything else I should do when a sick baby doesn’t feel well - if she wants consoling, then I’m going to do that for her.

In her case, it was increased milk, but if her thirst is up, that’s okay with me.  I have felt extraordinarily thirsty as well and have chugged ice water all day long, as if I couldn’t get happy either.  I wondered if we were fighting the same bug, or viral infection?

All I can say is if she caught a virus, I’m amazed at how she could.  We’ve been cocooned here, with only one visitor actually touching or holding her, for the past couple of weeks.  We did take a walk, twice, but they say you can’t get a cold from this. 

Regardless, please understand if I say you can’t hold the baby, or if you can’t come over for now - it’s obvious I need to limit her activity and find out what’s wrong first before coming in contact with others.  

When she is sick, after visitors are long-gone, I’m the one that is trying to figure out what’s wrong, and dealing with a very uncomfortable infant - there is nothing worse than that - and I’m going to be a lot harder about not touching her.  I hate to offend people, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do for the health of Melina, not to mention Mommy.

It made me realize tonight, after feeling such joint and muscle pain in every corridor of my body, that I’m not going to be any good to Melina if I’m sick.  So, lots of fluids, calcium charging and protein charging foods -

I think she’s settled down now - I can sneak back into her room and go to sleep.  She’s back in that carseat - though - and has fallen asleep.  Now, it’s just the challenge of keeping her cool.  Her room seems to radiate the warmth that the rest of the house does not - and despite fan and humidifier, sometimes that room seems warm - or is it just me? 

Okay - let’s hope she’s better in the morning.

2 Responses to “Taking Care of Fussy, Unhappy Newborn Infant”

  1. OneMama.com » Blog Archive » Taking bCare/b of Fussy, Unhappy Newborn Infant says:
    December 29th, 2008 at 9:45 pm

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  2. Kristi says:
    December 31st, 2008 at 7:50 pm

    Who in the world told you not to hold her? Hold her all day! Hold her in a bjorn!

    And don’t worry about the car seat in the crib. I’ve heard of that, it’s funny :) But whatever works, works. My friend let her twins sleep cradled in their boppys for MONTHS! haha :) I laugh, nothing happened, they are fine - but it is funny now. They slept next to her in the pack and play so she pretty much watched them.

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