My Saving Grace

Hubby out of town all week.

A bad case of eczema for one little girl with one tube of steroid cream to administer 3 times daily (for a possible skin infection) and another tube to administer 2 times daily (to tame the eczema) along with the application of Eucerin cream as much as possible. Do you see her poor legs? Can anyone guess how long it takes to lube up a toddler all over with Eucerin and apply steroid cream? 15 minutes if she's cooperating the entire time! That is just another hour and 15 minutes out of my already crunched for time day (around the nursing every 2 hours, diaper changes, tee tee wipes, toddler meals, snacks and drinks, clothes washing, and the list goes on and on and on).

The above picture was taken to document Annabelle's first shower because the doctor recommended we keep baths to a minimum (5 minutes at the most) to help keep the eczema from flaring up again and again. Ha! That is probably hard to do with any toddler much less my Annabelle.

A viral infection with an awful croupy cough for the same three and a half year old. At least we hope it is a viral infection as the diagnosis for strep is still on the table until 48 hours from 10:00 a.m. on Saturday.

And an awful rash caused by the viral infection because my poor child has skin and allergy issues and her body overreacts to illnesses. Annabelle is rarely ever sick, but this will be the third time her body has reacted with a nasty itchy rash. The rash started earlier in the week, and the doctor and I both thought it was just a flare up of eczema on her face. I should have known better since she has not had eczema on her face since she was a baby. But then it spread to the rest of her body in tiny little bumps. And then it flared up to look much like a sunburn on Friday.

We made a special visit to the doctor's office on Saturday (surcharge for that I assume) because she woke up looking like the above. And, that was after we gave her a dose of Benadryl the night before. I am so glad that hubby took the above picture on Saturday at the Peachtree Dekalb Airport's Air Show because this one time I failed to get a picture, and she is finally starting to look a lot better.

Thank goodness we have already met our deductible for the year because I don't feel so bad taking my children to the doctor for every little thing. Thank you Sophia!!! Did you feel the sarcasm?

And a CRAZY, weird child when doped up on Zyrtec.

But, this folks, this is my saving grace for the week!

Sophia normally will only sleep during the day when snuggled up against me in the Baby Bjorn. But, I decided to try something new on Friday. I swaddled her and then placed her in the swing on the highest setting. She normally hates the swing, but this time it worked! She will sleep for 2-3 hours straight in the swing when she is swaddled.

Thank you Dr. Harvey Karp (The Happiest Baby on the Block)! You are a genius!