ER

Maisie has been out of sorts for the past few days, most of which I attributed to major teething. Her bottom first molars are almost fully erupted. Her upper canines, upper first molars and final two lower incisors are all pushing their way through. Well Sunday night she was a complete misery, beyond exhausted and wouldn't go down to bed until almost 8PM (usually she's in bed and asleep somewhere between 6:30-7:30PM), only to wake at 9:45 at which time there was no getting her to go back to sleep in the p-n-p. She wanted to either be sleeping on my chest or kicking me in the chest. On top of that, she spent a good three hours in the middle of the night jumping, playing and just generally keeping me awake. Well, come Monday morning we were both quite exhausted but she was so unhappy being in the house, being held, not being held, I put her in the car to take her to story time at the library only to find out it was cancelled. Oh, what to do?? It was a really cold day so we couldn't go to the park so I packed her back into the car and we headed to the mall so that we could walk around and see some different sites. I took her to the mall's play area only to have her scream and hate everything. Oh joy!

We were home by 1PM but I could have sworn it was at least 6PM as I was so exhausted and all Maisie wanted to do was to be picked up so that she could push away and get off so that she could cry to be picked up, over and over and over again. Luckily when I called Eammon, he said he could do some work from the house so he came home early to help me out a little. Once Eammon was home, I took the opportunity for a quick run to the store sans Maisie. As soon as I pulled back into the driveway I saw Eammon holding Maisie, frantically waving me into the house. Seems that the only time Maisie stopped screaming was when she was throwing up all over Eammon. He had her stripped down to her diaper and wrapped in a blanket but needed me to take her so he could clean up the mess. While Eammon cleaned himself up as well as a few spots around the house, I got Maisie cleaned up and into her pj's. She settled down to bed around 7PM only to wake, screaming at 8:30, 10:15, 10:50 and midnight at which point I brought her into bed with me where she settled down quickly sleeping most of the night on my chest. She had fitful sleep, waking screaming like something was biting her, only to settle back down quickly usually after head butting me. Around 3am she was quite fretful so I gave her a light bottle of rice cereal and water which she quickly drank down.

Tuesday morning she seemed better but only wanted a couple of cheerio's and just a few ounces of another rice cereal bottle. I figured that her teeth were still bothering her and decided to follow through with our plans for the day. We were going to the Atlanta China Town Mall with Kathy and Lisa and up until 10:15am, 15 minutes before they were due to arrive at the house, Maisie was doing well. Then once again she threw up, this time all over me!! I had just changed and was leaving a message at the pediatrician's office asking for some advice when the girls arrived and since Maisie seemed to feel better after emptying her tummy we headed out.

The mall is tiny, tiny but they have a good grocery store and food court. Just as we were sitting down to lunch Maisie spit up and seconds later the doctor's office called. Their advice was to just get some pedialyte into her slowly and see if she would tolerate it. I had thought that would be their advice and luckily before leaving the house I tossed a few packets of the dry mix into my bag. Maisie would have none of it though she was not going to allow anything past her lips. Well, I would try once we got home as we weren't going to be out too long. After lunch the girls did a little shopping at the grocery but Maisie was quite chilled so we walked around the bakery, Maisie of course looking adorable as you can see from the piccie Lisa snapped.

On the drive home Maisie was quite miserable but then fell asleep for about 20 minutes. Once back at the house I attempted to give her some of the pedialyte from the bottle but no go, tried to use the medicine syringe, nope on that one too. Put her in the hip hammock as that usually calms her but she proceeded to do her Linda Blair Exorcist routine. After the girls left Maisie went into complete meltdown and no matter what I tried she would not take any fluids yet she managed to throw up again, all over me. All she would do was scream and there was no comforting her. Since throwing up 24 hours earlier, she had taken in less than 8 oz. of fluid, at the most 6 cheerio's and had thrown up 4, nope just as I changed my shirt again, make that 5 times. It was close to 4 PM when I called the doc's office again only to be told that she probably was dehydrated and may need an IV and to take her to the ER. Not anywhere near what I was looking to do, but little M would not settle down and was screaming uncontrollably.

I packed her back into the car and we were off. I can't even tell you how much I hate having to go the ER and the people there. First there was the family that arrived just before us, Mother and Grandmother with seven children all of whom had to be seen by a doctor as they were all extremely ill according to the Mother...Yeah, so ill that the Grandmother had to keep yelling at them to settle down and stop running up and down the halls...Thank you very much!! Then there was the staff...I heard them call for Marissa Shannon to come register, after hearing them call three times and knowing that I should be after the "sick" seven, I asked if they meant Maisie Shanahan and oh yeah, that's how you say her name...Are you kidding me??? Then when the doctor came into the room she sweetly said "Hi there Shannon sweetie." I said it's Maisie Shanahan so she had to leave the room to see if she had the correct patient. Sure enough they had her listed on the board as Shannon Shannon!! Give me a break, to top it off, Shanahan is phonetic, sound it out!!! OY!!

While we were waiting for the doc to come in, I kept trying to get Maisie to drink some of her bottle and wouldn't you know it was after all the waiting that she decided to drink. Well, the doctor was really quite nice and said that Maisie was not yet in need of an IV and now that she was drinking some we could avoid it. Maisie does have a stomach flu and some major gas so it was probably the gas pains that were waking her, making her scream in pain. I called Eammon from the hospital so that he could go out and get some gas relief meds and we headed home. By the time we got home it was after 9PM and Maisie was quite subdued. I gave her the gas meds, some ibuprophen for her teething pain and some more pedialyte and she settled down to sleep quite easily. At 1am she woke screaming so I gave her more meds and pedialyte and she was back to sleep by 1:38, I of course was awake until after 3am but hey, why do I need sleep!

For most of today, Maisie has either been sleeping on me or miserable and screaming. She was up early, around 6:30am but at 8:15, fell asleep on me. She awoke at 10 and seemed OK so we went off to a Music Together class, which was quite wonderful. She participated and did well during the class but by the end just had had enough. Once in the car she was asleep for the 20 minute drive home and then I gave her a little lunch of dry toast (no go), Cheerio's (ate lots) and more pedialyte. After lunch she was wanting up, down, up, down until she finally settled on me for a long nap. All afternoon was a scream fest and nothing I did calmed her down. When Eammon arrived home she was all happy to see him and wanted to be hugged but even that only lasted 5 minutes. I'm ready for another rough night and I can't wait for the teething to be over with. I think her tummy is doing better as she has tolerated everything she ate and drank today so tomorrow I'll add a little more into her diet again.

Well, I'd better get to sleep while I can and before she wakes me up. Nighty night.