Update

The past two weeks have been so long! My poor Mia has been so sick. For 3 days I dealt with croupy cough and a fever and then the day the fever went down she started throwing up and having lots of diaper blow outs. I assumed it was Rotavirus (opted out of this vaccine since I felt uncomfortable making my 8 lb baby drink it) and just dealt with the symptoms. But 6 days later I thought maybe she would die and I would go crazy so I took her to the Doctor knowing they would do nothing. The Dr told me to take her straight to the ER to be re-hydrated, which I didn't do since it costs upwards of your life savings to take a trip to the hospital and I had already vowed that 2010 would be a doctor free year. I started syringing pedialyte into her mouth 1 oz every hour and she started to be a little more responsive. At this point she couldn't even lift her own head, had lost 2 lbs, and was very listless and lethargic. By the evening she looked awful again and when Hans got home he decided we needed to rehydrate her, which would be cheaper at Urgent care. The Dr there said that while she would benefit from rehydration it wasn't bad enough that if we had to pay for it out of pocket that it would be totally worth it. If we kept up with pedialyte the virus should be done - since 6 days is usually the max time for these things. So home we went and slept with Mia between us waking occasionally to syringe pedialyte into her mouth. In the morning she seemed a lot better, although she was still having diarrhea and she only slept most of the day not all of it. By the evening though she started throwing up again and being miserable. She did this for 3 more nights. Every day I thought she might die so I'd call the Dr and talk to them - she'd lost 3 lbs at this point - my 23 lb baby down to 20 lbs. She looks emaciated. Her skin is gray and her eyes are lifeless. I'm pretty much just sitting on the couch holding her watching endless TV. I hate TV. And the Dr would say - well take her to the hospital - but all we can do is send you there and tell you to feed her whatever she'll eat and hope the virus runs its course soon. Ugh!! But then every afternoon she would start to seem a little better after not eating anything and we'd feed her stuff and she'd be cranky and screaming at me and then she'd go to sleep and wake up vomitting again. We finally gave her a blessing and both Hans and I independently thought that this must be Gluten intolerance like me and put her on a gluten free diet yesterday and she hasn't thrown up since. She woke up twice last night to eat. I am so so so relieved. I think she might be able to grow and tolerate food again. She's eating and keeping it down. Over the last two weeks when I would try to have her eat something she would scream at me "I don't like food!!"

So that is why it's been a really long couple of weeks for me. I am so glad she is better because now I get to go to SLC for my birthday with Melanie and ski. I can't wait. We leave Thursday. The other 3 kids have been so great. The girls started art classes and we have still managed to find time to spend with them through the complete exhaustion.

I am excited for this week to start and for all this to be over.