Worst night EVER

Last night was seriously THE worst night of my entire life! Arabella had been vomitting all day. For a baby with GERD this is not abnormal. However, with GERD usually they will spit up right after they eat. Arabella was spitting up ALL of her food after about 30-45 minutes. She wasn't eating as much but sometimes she does that and then clusterfeeds in the evenings. This didn't make me worry too much. She had VERY watery stools and we only changed her diaper 3 times from the hours of 8:30am-8:30pm. Since I kiss the top of her head a milion times a day, I had noticed her soft spot was super soft. I found out later that, that was a sign of dehydration.

After all that, I sent Nathan to the store for some pedialyte to see if she could keep it down. What really freaked me out was her inablility to keep down the two ounces of pedialyte. Once she threw that up, I freaked out. At the urging of some of my mommy friends, I decided to call the pedi and figure out where to go from there. I called the pedi and waited 30 minutes for him to call me back. The entire time I was on pins and needles. He asked what was going on and I told him. He told me to take her immediately to the ER.

We drove across town to the children's hospital and the drive took FOREVER. It only took about an hour and half for them to call her back. Being in a triage room of a children's hospital is nightmarish. All these other kiddos are screaming at the top of their lungs because they are being poked and prodded. I heard several screams followed by wailing for Mommy. Needless to say, it was very unpleasant.

It got much more unpleasant from there. They came and looked Bella. They asked what her weight was at her last appointment. I told them 12 pounds and 12 ounces. She then told me that Bells had last 10 percent of her body weight. This immediately sent me into panic mode. They told me they were going to run tests on blood, stool, and urine. Since Bella had been screaming at the top of her lungs during the day, I mentioned that. Bells is a pretty laid back baby. Even with Colic she doesn't scream or cry. She cries only when she needs changing, is hungry or cold. Since it was out of the ordinary for her to be crying the way she was (inconsolably), xrays were also going to be done. I was also informed that she needed fluids.

They tried to stick and IV in her hand, but because she was so dehydrated,they couldn't get it to work. They put an IV in her foot and made this little shoe thing to keep her foot straight. They then gave her a medicine through her IV to stop the vomitting. Then it was time for the tests. They put a catheter in to get some urine and removed it right away. They took a stool sample, and did a heel stick to get TWO vials of blood. Nothing sucks more than having to help some nurses hold your baby down while she cries from pain. I managed to stay calm during all this, but once it was over, I just started bawling. I was holding my baby who I just held down and was crying from pain. After some snuggling she was perfect. She even smiled and laughed at me.

Time came for the Xray. We went up and the lady looks at me and immediately tells me I have to wait outside. She instructs Nathan to put on the lead apron and hold Bella down. So while I am waiting outside, I hear her screaming. Now I know xrays don't hurt at all, but I felt so horrible for her. I was really pissed that I didn't get to be there with her to comfort her. Luckily, all this was quick and we were back in triage in no time. Once we got back the nurse came back and said she wanted us to see if we could get her to keep pedialyte back. I had to give her 5 mls every 5 minutes. After she was able to keep down an ounce they told me to stop. We waited for another hour and they came back and told us all her tests were normal and so were her xrays. Then they told us they wanted her to take another ounce of the pedialyte. We repeated the routine and she was good. Finally we got discharged. The diagnosis was a stomach bug.

We were at the ER from 9:30pm to 3:30am. It was a compltely nightmarish experience that I hope to never repeat again. When we got home she was wide awake. I swaddled her, put her in her crib and didn't hear a peep until 11is this morning. She slept a full 8 hours. I gave her pedialyte all day long and finally this evening I gave her her night time bottle. She kept her pedialyte down and so far her night time bottle too.

I knew she would get sick, but I really thought it would be a cold. Never in a million years did I think the first time she got sick we would be at a hospital. I don't know where she got the bug from because I'm neurtoic about people coming over if they are sick. She is doing better now and for that I am thankful. I just hope this doesn't happen again.