A bump in the road

Last Wednesday Betty and I took Abigail to the doctor because her urine was smelled really strong, like ammonia. Doctor said that she was probably dehydrated and for us to give her Pedialite. We also switched her formula to one specific for Acid Reflux (it is thickened with rice starch to help it stay down). He said there was a possibility of a urinary tract infection or UTI. But it is hard to diagnose because if she cries or is fussy we check her diaper...so if there is pee we assume that that is the cause for the crying.

I took Betty to the airport on Saturday and came home, exhausted, so Abigail and I took a nap. When we awoke from the nap she was BURNING hot. I took a rectal temp and she was at 104.5!! WHAT? I fed her and took her rectal temp again, 102.5! Oh no! At her age anything above 100.4 is considered a fever and justifies a trip to the ER.

I packed an overnight bag because I had the feeling that she was going to end up getting admitted.

Well I was right unfortunately. If you have to look on the positive side, at least it happened on a weekend when it was less busy, and that Gabe was able to stay with us too. It would have been more difficult had he not been able to do that.

She did have a UTI and we ended up having to stay until Monday afternoon. She had to have the IV put in through a vein on her head. The ER nurse couldn't find a good vein in her hands or feet and I just couldn't bear the thought of them poking at her over and over to find a vein, so I said "she has two good veins on her head if you want to use one of those."

The nurse later thanked me for being so calm (I guess she figured that because I didn't cry and freak out?) and for offering a head IV. She said it made it much easier for them to get the IV going. Apparently that is the last resort for them most of the time because parents are usually really upset by seeing an IV in their child's head. I figured, you gotta do what you gotta do, and it was better than her getting poked multiple times. Poor baby.

They gave her IV antibiotics and fluid to hydrate her and to get her temp to come down. She had an ultrasound done of her kidneys and bladder to check for any anomalies, which there were none found. She still needs to have a VSUG test done, which does a reflux scan of her kidneys to make sure that no urine is going back up into her kidneys, causing infection.

I don't think they will find anything. My gut feeling on this is that she got an infection from the three blow outs she had that went out the front, completely covering her little vagina with poo. There just wasn't any way that I thought that would end up being a good thing.

We are thankful to be back home again. I celebrated by baking an apple pie. I am also thankful that I work at the Children's Hospital, so we both knew our way around and we felt 1000% confident in the care that she was receiving. The team of nurses on the pediatric unit are GREAT!

Poor little baby. She is ten weeks old today, and missed her two month vaccination because she was hospitalized. We are going back to the doctor tomorrow morning for a follow up and to hopefully get those vaccines.

Thanks for all the prayers and support.