Sick, poo, puke, medicine, aspirator

We are all three still sick. I think I might be just a few days from better, and Mark and Amy perhaps next. Amy’s cough sounds deeper today, but it’s still only occasional, along with her stuffy nose. Mark has dorm duty tonight but he was relieved from football duty last night and we’re all staying home from church tomorrow (even though I was supposed to play a dulcimer offertory and play guitar to accompany the dulcimer group which is leading worship).

This evening during Amy’s naked time, she squatted on the old comforter, holding on to the playtable, and very neatly plopped out a poo — very messy to clean up from the comforter, but leaving her bum nearly spotless. We’re just made to squat. It works so well. Anyway, the comforter is now bunched up in a corner waiting to be washed.

Yesterday evening, we got take-out chinese (which was disappointing). In the car on the way home, Amy puked.

I think it was my fault. At lunch, I’ve been giving her bits of nectarine or mashed cooked blueberries mixed with yogurt, which goes down just fine. But yesterday the only fruit in the house was an apple. I felt too lazy to cook it, so I just stuck a few slices in the food processor, thinking that would mash it up well enough. Still raw though — so even though the pieces were tiny they weren’t really mush, and perhaps there’s something about raw apple that just doesn’t digest well in a baby.

She objected strenuously to the vomiting experience. However, she eventually calmed down during and after a bath, and was fine the rest of the evening. And the car seat cleaned up very well, too.

She objected to her medicine the first two dosings. She is supposed to get two droppers three times a day for a week. After that first dosing I was so dismayed at the thought of having that ordeal so often and so long. But around the third dosing or so she discovered that it tasted fine, so now she mostly accepts it and even opens her mouth eagerly for it.

She continues to object to having her nose suctioned. We try to let her be, as much as we can. When we do feel that a good suctioning would benefit her, we at first have to hold down her arms and cradle her head still. However gently and cuddlingly we do that, she still hates it and is not comforted until it’s all over. But while she cries vehemently, the rest of her mostly goes limp — poor little one, I guess she knows it’s no use to try to fight it.

Reminds me of the great William Carlos Williams short story (go read it!) “The Use of Force.” A benefit is sometimes worth the cost of using force, but it is never a solution to use lightly.