elves don't like bottles. true story
When we left our intrepid hero she was sinking in plague ship, trying to float on a sea of vomit and poop covered laundry and going down fast.
No, but seriously, as hard as the first few days were, the recovery has been long and hard and stupid. I’m feeling better except for the fact that I’m dog tired and my brain has pretty much given up the ghost. Brain wants two days of uninterrupted sleep. It get’s 2.5 hours.
The hubs and toddler seem to be back to almost normal, that’s the good news.
The bad news is where the Plague Part II comes in. The baby didn’t fare as well. You know how they tell you not to give a person who is vomiting and has diarrhea any dairy? No? You didn’t know that? Well I knew that. What I didn’t know, or failed to realize in my plague fatigued brain is that the lactose in milk aggravates those two symptoms of a stomach virus. What I also failed to realize is that breast milk has oodles of lactose.
Enter, supermom (that’s me) thinking she’s doing a superfantastic job of taking care of her baby by continuing to breastfeed her baby through his illness because breast is best and what could be better for a sick baby in keeping him hydrated than to breastfeed him every chance you get?
Well, apparently that was the very last thing I should have done. My poor baby got nothing but worse by the end of the day on Wednesday. By Thursday morning I took him back to the Dr because he was crapping it out faster than I could put it in, his hands and feet were no longer moist, warm and plump (classic peanut with his chubby moist hands) but dry, cold and shrunken (I don’t even know if anyone else noticed, but I’m his mommy, I noticed). He was weak, listless, couldn’t (or didn’t want to) stay awake, and his eyes began to look sunken in. I was so scared for him, it was breaking my heart. He was becoming dehydrated.
The Dr. checked him out and told me to stop feeding him breast milk and start giving him soy formula. Now I remember her mentioning soy for the preshus, but it never occurred to me to give it to the baby. That said, I did buy a canister earlier in the day, but that was because I was tired, dehydrated myself and my poor boobies has pretty much started giving up puffs of milk dust. The kid was no longer getting enough liquid from me, and, as it turned out, I was only making him sicker with it anyways. Thankfully my exhausted brain remembered something about the “no milk products” lecture on Tuesday from the Dr and I picked up the soy formula for the baby to supplement breast milk.
In hindsight I know that my tired brain just couldn’t put all the pieces together on its own. Thank the gods we have an excellent family Dr. who was kind enough to put the pieces together for me, the worried and obviously struggling mother.
Long story short (too late, I know, I’m rambling) the baby is now on Soy Formula, Water, Pedialyte and Juice for 72 hours (ending Sunday) in order to give him a chance to recover from the plague and the resulting lactose intolerance.
Did you know that stomach viruses (norovirus, stomach flu, food poisoning etc.) cause temporary lactose intolerance? I didn’t know that. My brain couldn’t figure that out. Sick moms are pretty much useless in the thinking department. Well, not all of them, but I am, that much I DO know.
Anyhoo… I know this post is rambling all over the dang place, but I’m pretty upset with myself for screwing this up so badly and making my poor peanut so much sicker than he should have been. Yes he’s recovering but its taking longer than it should have. I just feel so stupid. And I’m crying. All the time. For days now. The hubs caught me once and we ended up in a stupid fight because it was 3-something am and I had just been thrown up on for the umpteenth time. Fatigue, frustration, vomit, sickness, it’s all just too much.
Water, soy formula, pedialyte, juice. Small frequent doses. Repeat after me stupidhead. WATER, SOY FORMULA, PEDIALYTE, JUICE. SMALL FREQUENT DOSES. STUPID. OR ELSE YOU WILL MAKE YOUR TINY SQUISHY BABY SICK. DUMBASS. *sigh*
The current game plan is to feed the peanut water, soy formula, pedialyte or juice, whatever he’s in the mood for, as often as I can at the rate of one or two ounces every 5 minutes per feeding session. So he doesn’t throw up on me (dumass) *insert tiny voice* >> but he’s so thirsty *weeps* I just want him to drink as much as he wants *crying softly* I don’t have the heart to stop him *sobbing now*<< I DON’T CARE DUMBASS!! YOU’RE JUST MAKING IT WORSE!! Repeat after me. Water, soy formula, pedialyte, juice. Small frequent doses. And for the love of blog, stop all that crying. Daayum.
*sigh*
We’re on this regimen until Monday at which point I can slowly (key word SLOWLY) start introducing breast milk and solids back into his diet.
In the meantime, he doesn’t have much energy to do anything, not surprising what with his liquid diet. Plus, to add to the fun, he’s starting to reject being bottle fed. My poor peanut who hasn’t had to deal with bottles this much, ever. Just looks at me and my boobs and is all like “but mama, I wants the bewbs…I can haz?”, and I have to turn him away. It’s for his own good, but it’s hard. Cruel. To the both of us. I miss breastfeeding.
And I hate pumping.
But I’m being a good girl and pumping as often as I can to help keep my supply up. Not that I’m getting much, what with my crappyass hand pump and all. About 3.5 to 4oz per session (both sides). Sad. But at least it’s something.
I’m just so tired. And stressed. And feeling so damn guilty. I should know better. I really should.
Stupid sick mom brain.
So tired.
Ok, now that that’s over with.
Moving on.
Technorati
