December 30, 2009

She’s pulling on her ears again.  It snuck up on us, I think as much as two days ago.  Even before she finished her second round of antibiotics.  Today,  not even 24 hours after her last dose, she was tugging away.  On. both. ears. <sigh> 

I’ll be calling the doctor tomorrow to see if we can get her in and have her ears checked.  I’m going to do all I can, if she does have another infection, to get her on something other than Augmentin.  She’s just getting over the torture now.  She initially balks at the vitamin D in the morning.  Once she realizes that it’s not the Augmentin, she’s fine and sucks it out of the dropper.  Just like she used to.  Same thing with the Motrin.  She used to love just about everything we gave her – vitamin D, Tylenol (both flavors), Motrin, even the Amoxicillin.

Now, she doesn’t trust us.  We are slowing wining back her trust, which is good though.

I hope her ears are ok, and this is just teething now.

 

PS.  She’s curling her tongue all the time now! :)

December 27, 2009 bis

By the way…  Merry Christmas!

December 27, 2009

This thing is a life-saver!  OMG.  It’s been horrible giving Teagan her twice daily dose of Augmentin.  She clamps her mouth shut, turns her head and waves her arms.  Stu has been helping hold her down while I shove the syringe in her mouth and towards her cheek, push some drug in and blow on her face.   I’m sure it’s a lot like waterboarding. 

One good thing is that I’ve been pushing the medicine that’s been oozing from her mouth back in with a pacifier.  She’s been fine with sucking away on that – with the Augmentin on it. 

So we thought something along the lines of a bottle might be good, but didn’t want to dose her with milk or anything.  I also thought today that the syringe might be bothering her cheek or gums.

We finally found one dispenser today, and it worked a charm!  I added a little water to her dose, and the piglet had no problems!  Yay!  Now that we only have two more doses, they should be much more pleasant than the past 15.

I love solutions with no tears.  All around.

December 22, 2009

Sometimes I wish that people would offer up information.  Like that you can flavor icky tasting drugs.  Go figure.  I never knew that!  Neither the doctor nor the pharmacist even suggested the idea, which I find surprising, as they treat little kids, and fill little kids prescriptions all the time.  

Teagan cries now when she has to take her Augmentin.  She use to muddle along, closing her mouth and turning her head.  Now she slams her mouth shut, whips that head around and cries.  Horribly.  Last night and this mornings doses got mixed with just under an ounce of breast milk.  She did take them, but really it’s not the best way to give her medication.  Someone on-line suggested flavoring the Augmentin.  Great idea!  I wish someone had mentioned it when I got the medication the first time. 

I called the pharmacy to see if they would add in the flavoring to the bottle I had but they wouldn’t.  They needed a new prescription.  I called the doctor – I’d do anything for the piglet! – and had them call in a new prescription.  Pharmacist said that I would need to pay again, which, honestly, is fine.  I’d rather pay for another prescription than force my kid to take something that obviously she really dislikes. 

The other things that I wish someone had mentioned was that Augmentin is a total poop maker.  diarrhea is very common while taking it.  Yay.  Like we need more poop coming out of Princess Poopy-Pants.  Also, it messes with their stomaches and they don’t eat as much.  Granted this was printed on the paper from the pharmacy, but it’s similar to EVERY. OTHER. drug warning, I completely ignored it.  I had to find out about these two lovely bits from day care (stopped in to pay for the week and drop off cards for the teachers) and Kris.  Thank goodness they mentioned both.  I thought it was odd that the piglet had stopped wanting to eat, although her nursing has gone up.  The diaper thing, well, apparent enough.

On a side, I do have to say, that this is probably the first thing that she’s shown such a strong dislike for.  I hope that this isn’t the start of her not wanting/liking her medications…  I hope that I don’t need to medicate her too much.

December 19, 2009

So, I’ve been meaning to write up a new blog entry, but somehow never seem to find the time.  Then there’s the immobility behind actually writing something, that gets bigger and bigger each day.  Then I end up not actually writing the entry.  Repeat cycle. 

So.  I’m doing it, sitting in bed, with my hubby, while my Sister-in-Law sleeps on the sofa.  Mother-in-Law is in the guest room.  They arrived yesterday, even with all the snow in the UK and the soon to be snow here.  They haven’t been able to get over to see Teagan until now.  It’s fun. 

Anyway…  bullets to catch up!

1. This made me sad.  So much history, culture gone.  Sort of the same as Route 66 going away too.  The trip to then Leningrad on the train from Moscow was one of the highlights of my past.  Taking a sleeper car to Rome from Toulouse was another.  I’ve never been on the Orient Express, though I wanted to.  I don’t think any of my trips counted as being on that line.  I probably never would have had the chance, even if it hadn’t gone the way of the dinosaur.  It feels like we lost something important.
2. This made me go “huh? WTF?!?!?!?!?!!?” and then laugh a little.  I thought the article might have been making it up until I saw it myself on TV.  Stu said he didn’t want to spoil the surprise, but he also scheduled my mammogram.  I’m hoping he found a place that will read lactating breast images :D
3. I really like the MamaPop site.  Bunch of interesting blog writers writing about current events, with attitude :)
4. 1,000 Awesome Things.  The site name just says it all.  Interesting site, a visit always leaves a smile on my face.
5. Ear infections suck.  Double ear infections 10,000 times worse.  I suppose this should be higher on the list, but I’m trying to forget.    Teagan doesn’t seem to do well with ear aches.  We did 10 days of Amoxicillin, went for the follow-up, only to be told that her ears were filling up again, and we needed to do a second round of antibiotics.  Welcome Augmentin.  I need to put some food coloring in it or something, it’s a pain to fill the syringe thanks to the creamy whiteness.  Although she doesn’t seem to like it as much as the Amoxicillin, she does ok with her doses.  I love shoving the syringe into the side of her mouth twice a day.    Poor kid.  She needs a non-medicated break.  The doctor we saw for the follow-up didn’t mention anything about tubes, which was nice – the first doctor did though :(  THis is the second ear infection (double trouble even!) in her now seven months.  Not that bad considering she’s been in day care for four of them.
6. I’ve been able, more or less, to keep up with Teagan’s breast milk needs, though pumping has become less and less enjoyable (like it ever was!!).  She also is less frustrated while nursing, which is good, although she’s still incredibly distracted.  Food, so far, hasn’t completely ruined our nursing relationship.  It’s still there.  I do know that it will end – it does have to – but the little blip we’ve had recently made me realize I wasn’t quite ready for it to be over yet.  I will miss her little hand reaching around and gently hugging my back as she nurses, the free hand grabbing my finger, hair, necklace, whatever.  The little puppy whimpers and cries when we switch sides and I’m not fast enough.  The way her eyes flutter and roll with pleasure at the beginning as hunger begins to retreat.  The way she stops and smiles up at me and then dives in for more.  Even the way she’ll try to talk around my nipple after she’s had her full but doesn’t want to pull away.    It’s little gestures like that I’ll miss terribly.
7. Thanksgiving was fun!  Teagan tried grabbing the turkey during the pictures…  I need to see if I can get a copy of one of those pics :D
8. Teagan is SEVEN. MONTHS. OLD!  Wow.  Where has the time gone?!?!?
9. I need to finish Christmas Shopping.  <sigh>  Where has the time gone?!?!?!?!?
10. I can’t remember the rest of the stuff I wanted to write about…  I’m going to bed!

:)

December 2, 2009

So today was the first day that I wasn’t able to keep up with her appetite.  I didn’t pump what she normally eats while at day care.  <sigh>  I knew that starting her on foods would eventually lead to her weaning – can’t nurse her forever now, can I – but I didn’t expect it to start so quickly.  Then again, seeing her excitement with each new food she tastes, well, that might eventually be worth it.  :)