Saturday, October 17, 2009

typing with one hand

I seem to be doing that a lot lately. The other hand is always busy holding Natalie!

I know I said in the last post that the steroid regimen worked and that Natalie was getting better. Apparently I was a clueless idiot when I typed that. :-p This has been the cold from hell. She seemed to recover a bit, then she relapsed. We've run the humidifier, given Benadryl, rubbed her with Baby Vick's, sucked out her nose with a syringe, and so on. And still it went on. She coughed. She sneezed. She sniffled and snorted and gasped. She vomited mucus. But the cold wouldn't quit. It's like an uber-cold.

In addition, something (quite possibly all the mucus drainage) was causing her to make almost constant dirty diapers. I have done more laundry than I care to think about, honestly. At the worst of it her bottom got so red, sore, and irritated that it looked sunburned and she screamed every time I had to change her (which was a lot!). I have tried just about every diaper cream there is, plus a few unconventional home remedies!

Thursday was supposed to be a well-baby check-up for Natalie, but clearly she was not a well baby. Her cold has now begotten an ear infection, and she is on antibiotics. But (knock on wood!), they appear to be working. After so many days of dealing with a fussy, clingy baby, Natalie is happy and smiling--almost giddy. I can actually put her down, and she'll play instead of wail miserably. So hopefully, we're finally through the worst of it. Fingers crossed, anyway!

In other news, Sarah got a new book Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? She likes it because SHE can read it to Natalie! She is quite proud of herself. :) She also made up a cute little song the other day: "Daddy's girl...I'm a daddy's girl," she sang as she danced through the house.

Nelson's job continues to go well, and since he's working from home, he was able to take us to the doctor for Natalie's visit. My car currently has a dead battery, so this was quite essential indeed (I couldn't borrow Nelson's car; I don't know how to drive a stick shift!). We did have a snafu with his paycheck this week, and that has been VERY difficult to deal with. But we are hoping (fingers crossed again!) that it will be resolved Monday.

Please forgive any typos here--I sometimes bobble the keys with all this one-handed typing! ;)

6 comments:

Tana said...

glad she's finally feeling better! the one time sean had a diaper rash that bad, balmex (the clear gel, not the paste) was the only brand that helped at all. have you tried olive oil? it was also a life saver once or twice!

Unknown said...

We actually had the best results with Lansinoh. I used straight lanolin at first, which didn't make her any less red, but did keep her from screaming with each change. Then I found samples I had lying around of Lansinoh diaper cream (a combo of lanolin, zinc oxide, and dimethicone). THAT actually healed her up.

Prior to that, we tried Burt's Bees, Desitin, cornstarch, Mylanta (no joke!), and so on and so on. Yeesh.

Carey said...

out of sheer desperation while on antibiotics with cora, I had read about the mylanta. I thought that sounded ludicrous and refused. then my SIL wrote and said it was the only thing that worked with her little one's diarrhea induced diaper rash. So, I decided to try.

She said she made a watery paste of diaper creme and the mylanta. This did not work for me... they never combined... ended up, just applying the plain old mylanta worked like a CHARM.

I literally could NOT believe it.

BUt it really seemed to neutralize whatever was so toxic in her poo that was eating her skin alive.

Sounds like that didn't work for you?

My favorite diaper creme is Arbonne... its sold like Mary Kay is... but its awesome. I have a tube that is almost used up if you'd like to try it without having to buy.

Carey said...

oh, and i confirmed with Dr. Ley that mylanta wasn't crazy. He said it wasn't.... : ) He said it was more for one situation than another, but now those details escape me..... i can't imagine why.

Unknown said...

Yeah, I read either Mylanta or Maalox were effective...by this point we had done baking soda baths, vinegar baths, antifungal cream, diaper creams, etc. So I gave the Mylanta a go. But no, it didn't really help her all that much, for whatever reason. She was in REALLY bad shape. Our landlord saw her bottom when he was working on the house and I had to change her diaper while he was here. He went home and told his wife, who promptly called us with additional tips. It was THAT bad. :-p

I've heard from my SIL that Arbonne is good, although I've never tried (and didn't even know they did diaper cream until she mentioned it!). But I was really impressed with the Lansinoh, and she looks MUCH better now!

Tara said...

Karen,

If you want a sample of Arbonne baby products, just let me know. :)

They have diaper rash cream, shampoo, body wash, sunscreen...all the regular stuff.