Second Trip to the Doctor

What happens when I put Calliope down to "play"

Finally, yesterday, I just got fed up and also worried. I couldn't put Calliope down to play at all. She just wanted to be held. All. The. Time.

Rocking in the glider was just perfect for her. And I didn't mind. For a while. But then I would get kind of lonely and claustrophobic. But all trips outside the apartment quickly led to misery for her. Silent crying, because she'd lost her voice.

I had been planning to hold out for Wednesday, but when I realized that Wednesday was July 4th, I decided to make an appointment to see the pediatrician on Tuesday  (we'd seen one, not our regular person, last Friday, after she's had the fever for 36 hours). I waffled for quite a while over this decision, not wanting to waste our time with another fruitless visit, but ultimately decided that with the holiday, I definitely didn't want to wait until Thursday.

But then, after her third nap of the day yesterday, she seemed a bit better! She was able to play on her own for fifteen minutes! She's always been very independent, so this wouldn't ordinarily be impressive, but after days of being glued to my (hot and sweaty) body, it was real progress. I almost called the doctor to cancel, but decided to hold off for this morning.

When I went to Calliope at 4:30 this morning, I was surprised to feel that her body was radiating heat, given that she looked more like herself yesterday than she had in a week. I nursed her and put her back to bed. An hour later, she was up again, feeling very toasty indeed. This time I took her temperature... 101.6 axillary, which is equivalent to 102.6 oral. No wonder she felt warm. I gave her some Motrin and she slept until nearly 9 am... the latest she's slept since she was a newborn!

We saw a different pediatrician today, one who remembered who I am and that I work in school health. She was lovely, and asked very collaboratively, "so I'm thinking it's a sinus infection. Is that what you are thinking?"

I agreed that it made perfect sense, though I'm embarrassed to admit to all of you that I didn't even think of that until she suggested it. But OF COURSE she has a sinus infection. This is why I bring her to someone else, and don't treat her myself!

Another dose of Motrin plus her first dose of amoxicillin plus two naps and my girl is more like herself than she has been in a week.

She's still not any eating solid foods, and was down to 17 pounds, 2 ounces, which is 7% for her age. I keep offering lots of different foods, and to be fair, she has tasted a very few things, so that's progress. I have decided, as I've said previously, that I am not going to make food a battleground. But neither am I going to offer junk food to entice her to eat. But I've offered all sorts of berries, and yogurt (her favorite), and cheese, and a cracker and buttered bread (neither of which I would normally give her), and occasionally she's let the tip of her tongue touch one of these, and other than that, she has refused to open to her mouth. Exceptions: she enjoyed a piece of freeze dried seaweed last night, and exactly one tiny egg of salmon roe tonight. But she's nursing tons, and I assume my supply has picked up as a result, since she's nursing on only one side at a time (if she was still hungry, she would want both sides). Since she's only lost two ounces since last week, I figure she's not starving.

Still, I'm feeling a bit burned out and exhausted. I feel like I can barely remember my happy, adventurous baby... though I got a hint of her tonight when we met a friend for dinner. By the end, confident that Mommy wasn't going anywhere, she was flirting across the table with him, and even snuggled into his chest with a smile for a goodbye hug. Now I have to wonder if I was too quick to start the antibiotics (the doctor suggested I could wait 24 hours to see if Calliope got better on her own... she did seem to be acting more like herself... but on the other hand... her fever was going up.)

In other exciting news... i FINALLY have a mortgage committment letter AND the co-op board is ready to meet with me! I've very excited. Unfortunately, my mother has to meet with them also, since she's on the application (because she's helping with the down payment) and she's leaving the country on Friday to take my niece to the Galapagos for her (my niece's) bat mitzvah gift. So we begged, via my broker, for them to let  her do the co-op interview via skype. My broker said they are considering it. Fingers crossed!

I really want to get this done because once we close, the current owners need two weeks to give notice to his employer and move out, and then I need at least a few days to get the floors re-done. And I'm absolutely desperate to get moved in over the summer, while I'm off from work. The sooner the better.