Yesterday, Mi Pequeña Niña was sick. Not the sniffly, sneezy, coughy kind of sick (she has yet to get a cold [insert sound of me knocking on wood here]) — but the worse kind of sick. Things coming back up kind of sick.
The three of us (Janice is also down for a visit, which was already a very welcomed event, but became a significant blessing with her presence) tried to figure it out yesterday evening. What had MPN ingested? Was it something more serious? Did we need to go to a hospital?
These are the things that all new parents have to go through at some point, until they begin to understand the physical attributes of their children: allergies (if any; so far, so good on our end), what might make them sick, how well they recover from illness, how they handle warm and cold, and so forth.
Last night, we got to see how Mi Pequeña Niña handles a stomach bug. I’ll spare you the details (no-one really needs to hear them), but it wasn’t pretty. I missed most of it myself (being at work), but by the time I got him she’d already thrown up at least five times (likely six), and was very quiet, which is unusual for her right now (talkative and babbly is her normal state).
Each time I experienced it, the event was preceded by a burp, she would start crying, and then she’s start. In none of the cases did I see much — her stomach was already largely empty of anything of substance — though it was important to try keep her from laying waste to a piece of furniture. (Thankfully, all of our floors our tile.) Unfortunately, she had hit a borrowed duvet earlier on.
The last time, she hit the dry heaves. It doesn’t matter who you are, it’s a sad thing to watch a toddler dry heave. (I’ve been there myself, a victim of Montezuma’s Cousin’s Little Brother back in high school, when my family went to a resort south of Cancun. It’s anything but fun.) After that, she seemed to calm down a bit, and even became a bit more talkative.
At that point, we called Janice’s sister Kinella, who’s a nurse in Ottawa. Yes, we could call a doctor here, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s always good to talk to a nurse (they know as much as doctors for things like this, in my opinion, because they deal with it more often), and especially one who’s a family member and more sensitive to the needs.
MPN ended up going to bed without any additional food or liquids. Although Kinella suggested we wake MPN up about four hours later to feed her something (Pedialyte), when I went into get her at 22:30, she was so soundly asleep, I felt it better for her to rest.
Today, she ended up feeling a lot better, downed the entire Pedialyte bottle (though not in one sitting), but didn’t really eat too much. Still, before she went to bed this evening, she seemed a lot better.
We still have no idea what caused her bout of sickness, but we’re glad she’s solid and back on her feet. I imagine tomorrow morning will be a little more regular … even if we all have to get up early so Janice can go to the airport to catch her early-morning flight.
