My baby's sick :(

I've been trying to write a post on sleep for over a week now.  I feel like I can't really finish it because Squirmy's sleep "pattern" is being directly influenced by a virus :(

Last Saturday we took Squirmy to Downtown Disney (DTD).  It's a shopping area full of all the wonders of Disney.  It was a HOT, hot FL day.  We had a lot of fun and probably shed a couple of lbs in sweat!  DTD also means a lot of time in the car, usually a grand total of 4 hrs each day.

It didn't come as much of a surprise that his butt looked a little off the next day.  Heat + probably less frequent changes + 4 hours in a non-breathing car seat = a recipe for butt irritation.  I figured it'd get better on it's own with an a/c day and frequent changes.  Monday told me I was wrong.  The irritation was still around so I mentioned it to my hubby.  No biggie, still.  Some extra nakey time and maybe a sposie with diaper cream were in order for the next day.

Tuesday--Things were still off.  I let him air out as much as I could and even stole borrowed a sposie from one of the kids I watch so I could lather him up with diaper cream.  Hmmm....nothing was getting worse, but it wasn't getting better either.  Then I asked how Hubby had washed the diapers (yes, he helps with the diapers on occassion!).  He'd forgotten the pre-soak.  I assumed the poop hadn't had a fair shot of getting out of the diapers and decided to send them all through the sanitary cycle in the morning.  Until then, I lathered him up and put a stolen borrowed sposie on him for the night.

He woke up SCREAMING in the middle of the night.  He refused to latch and couldn't be comforted.  Hubby ran off to get him a cloth diaper, thinking he was pissed about the pee laden sposie.  He finally settled and went back to sleep...never did nurse...odd.

Wednesday his butt was worse :(  I consulted Dr. Google and Dr. Twitter.  From the best I could tell, he had a yeast diaper rash.  The pictures didn't match what I was seeing on his butt, but some of them almost looked like it could be the same thing.  The descriptions of yeast diaper rash were mostly different from Squirmy's symptoms, but the pimply description matched.  The only kind of diaper rash that included pimply was yeast.  And pimply was the only way I could describe Squirmy's butt.  A couple of moms said my pictures of his butt were definitely yeast and a couple said they didn't think so.

I tried a bath in water and apple cider vinegar...WRONG MOVE!  His mildly red bottom turn red hot and irritated beyond belief.  :(  And I suddenly noticed bumps in other places on his body :(  I was worried about it spreading to the other kids I watch (I've heard some people say yeast spreads and other say it doesn't).  We packed up and headed to Evening Pediatrics which is like a pediatric walk-in-clinc...so grateful they have something like that.

Not yeast...Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease :(  No this is not hoof and mouth disease; two totally different things!  But that explains his low grade fever and general discontent.  She said he has terrible blisters in his throat...which she found out by shoving a tongue depressor down his throat until he screamed.  No treatment...just lots of cuddling, nursing, and a 4 hour cycle of acetaminophen.

Since Wednesday evening, Squirmy's been getting acetaminophen every 4 hours (except over-night) and losing his mind 3.5 hours after each dose.  Nights have been better simply because I've just kept him in bed with me and he's stayed attached to me most of the night.  I gave up trying to move him to his crib (which is like a big co-sleeper in effect) for right now.  His sleep is more important than mine.  His rash has gone away and so has his fever.  I think we're still dealing with throat blisters since he's still melting down every 3.5 hours (let me tell you, that 45 min between being able to give the next dose and waiting for it to take effect is HELL).

So here's hoping today is better and the end of symptoms...