Little Bear’s condition didn’t get any better on Monday so when I talked to the nurse at her pediatrician’s office on Monday evening, she advised us to take Little Bear into Urgent Care. I was worried about dehydration at this point (she only drank 3 oz. or so of formula when she was with Grandma all day) so we chose the Urgent Care closest to the hospital where I delivered. The receptionist put forth the enormous effort to look up from her In Style magazine and inform us that the wait was an hour (without even asking about Little Bear’s symptoms) so we should go to a different Urgent Care office. This reinforces my belief that, while it may be called “Urgent Care” they neither act like your situation is urgent nor do they care.
In any case, my poor baby’s fever had gone from 100 to 103 in a matter of hours and she was having trouble breathing and still wasn’t eating anything. When we were (quickly) seen at the second Urgent Care office, the doctor (whose name sounded appropriately, I thought, like “Caveman”) very helpfully told us to use a humidifier. He also said she did have an ear infection (can you say “I told you so?”) and prescribed amoxicillin. Boy, did that smell take me back to my childhood! Anyway. we were sent home with orders to double her up with acetaminophen and ibuprofen and call the ped in the morning.
So fast forward to today, even though the night was anything but fast. Our wonderful pediatrician saw us this morning and decided that Little Bear has croup, which is apparently baby laryngitis. She prescribed an oral steroid to be administered in food or drink. Which was difficult because she still was not eating or drinking. I worked hard on making something she’d like: warm cream of wheat with whole milk and maple syrup but I still had to spend an hour force feeding her which culminated in me holding her head and shoving the last bites into her mouth. We were both crying by that point.
She’s still not eating much but she’s asleep again in her car seat, in her bedroom. Our bed looks like a war zone from the past few days but boy is it inviting right about now. The only thing I want more than sleep is lots and lots of ice water, as I’ve been trying to nurse constantly for the past three days. In any case, in short order, I will have both and be blissfully passed out until she coughs herself awake again. Please send lots of prayers for my little angel. She doesn’t deserve to feel this crummy!
