Sick Baby Boy Day 4! :(

Thankfully I don't think this post will be quite as long as the others and I'm hoping to finish it right now while James attempt to feed Parker a LITTLE bit of rice cereal to see if he keeps it down.

Day 4: Tuesday February 24, 2009

Well this day started out VERY early for us! I'll start with the end of day 3...after going to bed at 7:40 Parker woke up for some reason at about 10:45pm. We're not sure what exactly caused him to wake up but after a short time of rocking, he went back to sleep. Then at about midnight, he woke up again...this time the reason was obvious. We went in to get him and found that he had ONCE AGAIN thrown up! He had made it SO long without throwing up that we had thought he was finally feeling well enough to keep food down but I guess we were wrong. The last time he had had breastmilk was 2:40pm the day before since he had refused it before going to bed so it was the rice cereal that he had thrown up. Even with trying to transition him into the rice cereal, it was still too much for his poor sick tummy! :( We cleaned him up and I rocked him back to sleep. He then proceeded to wake up about every 2 hours after this, so he woke up at about 10:45 pm, 12am, 2am, 4am and was then up for the day at 6:15am! He clearly still felt just aweful! :( When he woke up at about 4, I got the pleasant surprise of feeling exactly how he felt...I threw up! I won't go into all the details of my illness but I ended up throwing up at least 6 times yesterday, (hense the delay in writing the Parker updates), but am feeling a lot better today. Still have an upset stomach but haven't thrown up since yesterday morning and am going to attempt to eat more than 1/2 cup of jello today...wish me luck! I spent most of the morning and early afternoon sleeping since I felt so terrible so I don't know exactly how Parker's morning went but from what I was told, he was pretty wimpery and still felt aweful! James was able to give him a bath (more for our benefit than his...he really stank and we could hardly stand to hold him). He said he wasn't real happy about being bathed but it was alright. Sometime between about 2pm and 6pm (don't remember for sure when since things have been such a blur around here), Parker had some diarrhea. He took about an hour and a half long nap in my arms from about 2:30-4pm. When he woke up, he acted like he felt a lot better! :) He loves reading books and pointing at the pictures and feeling the textures if it's a touch and feel type book. Before when we would read these books to him he'd just sit there staring off but he was actually feeling the different textures and chattering away in his happy baby voice! He even CHOSE to take drinks of water from his sippy cup! Before he had been refusing the water but now he would not only take drinks, but he would reach for his cup and sign "please"! What a blessing that he was finally acting more like himself and choosing to drink, (and drink a lot), instead of rejecting it like he had been. At about 6 he started acting grumpy and tired and just kind of sick acting in general so we decided to take him up and get him ready for bed. He ate for a little while but wouldn't rest and go to sleep. We ended up taking him back downstairs and put in a Baby Einstein's DVD hoping that would relax him enough to make him tired and ready for bed. We took him back up at 7pm, he ate again and finally fell asleep at about 7:30. Oh and a tip for parents with a sick baby...Baby Einstein DVD's are WONDERFUL!! I am not a fan of TV or videos for children as young as Parker but recently got some Baby Einstein DVD's through a lady selling them on Craigslist. We decided to put one in the other day when he started getting grumpy and felt super sick and he instantly quieted down and watched intently. There have been numerous times since then when he has been grumpy and really sickly acting and he calms down and is able to rest and be content when he's watching them. I'm sure this wouldn't work for every baby but it sure seemed to do the trick for Parker! Well we're going into sickness day 5 so hopefully I'll have the update for that tonight.

On a more pleasant note, today is Parker's 1st birthday! Not exactly how I thought he'd be on his first birthday but at least he is starting to get better and not SUPER sick still!