Miller Time: First Sickness and Up North

Well, we made it just over 6 months before Ellison got sick. I had never even had to call the doctor for anything at all, and now we have an extra trip to the pediatrician last Friday, a call to the answering service on Saturday, and a visit to urgent care on Sunday all under our belts!

Poor sick peanut hanging out up north

I took Ellison into the doctor on Friday for a couple reasons, but the main thing was she seemed to have an excessive amount of wet diapers for a few days in a row. The first couple times Jay and my mom said it seemed like they were changing a lot more diapers (I was on a three night stretch of work, so I wasn't with her a whole lot), I brushed it off and thought she must just be really well hydrated. After I had a full day home with her on Thursday and realized it was multiple diapers in an hour sometimes, I was a little worried about a UTI or even diabetes. So I called our doctor's office and took her in later that day. She also had not been eating great and had a dry cough, mostly when she was sleeping. The pediatrician said she looked fine and the coughing might be from allergies, but she wanted to catheterize her to check her urine for infection or signs of diabetes. I don't know how the parents of my patients at work watch all the procedures their kids go through, because I thought I was going to lose it watching her be straight cathed! The nurses seemed impressed by how calm I was, but I felt like a basket case. Everything looked great though, no UTI and no diabetes. They also weighed her and she was 13 pounds, 12 ounces, which was over half a pound more than the week before! So I thought everything was good and we headed up north on Saturday.

Sick baby being watched over by her friends

By early Saturday evening, Ellison seemed worse. Her cough sounded more wet and she just looked miserable at times. She was rubbing her eyes constantly, coughing a lot more, and sneezing a little too. It really looked like she was struggling with bad seasonal allergies (just like Mommy...). It was hard to think of her as being sick because in between coughs and sneezes she was smiling and laughing, but I called the answering service for her doctor's office and spoke with one of the pediatricians about giving her something for allergies. He said to try Children's Benadryl and if she seemed better the next day, we could give her Children's Zyrtec every morning until the weather cools off. It was almost bedtime when she got the Benadryl, so we couldn't really tell if it helped that night.

Unfortunately Sunday morning she woke up coughing. She had such a long coughing fit that I was worried she wasn't going to be able to eat or even breathe. Now her nose was runny and she felt clammy. We decided it was time to go to urgent care. We had to take her to the Marshfield Clinic since we were still up north. On the way there I was having all these horrible thoughts that probably only pediatric nurses would have...mainly that something was really wrong and she would have to be transported home to Children's. Of course, the cough seemed to disappear while we were at the hospital, but they did swab her for whooping cough. The doctor said it's probably just a virus that needs to make its way through her. Poor baby! The cough returned after we left...why does it always happen like that?!

Monday morning she seemed much better, other than mostly refusing food. The hospital called to let us know that the pertussis swab was negative, so that was a relief! By later on Monday she was eating better and coughing much less. I guess we have all survived our first illness!

Besides Ellison being sick, it was a nice trip up north with Jay's parents, sister Litz, brother in law Brian and our niece Isabella! Lots of good food and a hilarious game called "The Game of Things". If you haven't played it, you should. It is hysterical!!! We went on the Point Brewery tour on Monday afternoon, and Ellison was such a good girl. She is such a little people watcher. She loves looking around at new places and people and almost never cries when we are out in public. We are very blessed to have such a good baby!

A few pictures from "Up North"

Ellison also got her 6 month pictures taken over this past weekend by Krystal, who did her newborn pictures. I can't wait to see (and share) them! I know they will be amazing!!! Funny note about her pictures, to get Ells to smile and laugh during the session, Jay, Krystal and I all took turns making coughing sounds at her. She seems to think coughing is hilarious (when other people do it). What a weirdo!

Something else exciting happened at pictures...Ellison decided to sit on her own! We had been "practicing" sitting in the hope that she would be able to do it before picture day, but it looked like it wasn't going to happen. She had only ever balanced by herself for a few seconds. Something must have clicked during her photo session because all of the sudden, she was sitting by herself for several minutes! Hurray! She has been balancing in a sitting position on her own ever since. She still needs a little help getting into position, but once she is up she will stay that way for a few minutes!

Yay! I can sit!!!

Ellison starts swimming lessons in less than two weeks...hopefully she loves the water as much as her mommy. Can't wait to get her in the pool! She really likes splashing and playing in her tub so hopefully that translates to a swimming pool...