by: Emma Aguirre
I spoke too soon. We were one sick household this weekend. My husband was sick with “man flu” i.e. a cold, and is still coughing. He did get a prescription nasal spray which helped some, but I was basically on single-parent duty for all of last week. It was really tough. I have a deeper respect for parents who do it on their own, and thank my lucky stars that it was only for a week. We have such a good system normally, so it was quite a shock to my system. Then Friday rolls around – and that ice storm – and I came down with stomach virus. For a second I was questioning my own cooking, but quickly realized my husband had eaten everything I had and seemed fine (besides of course, his “sniffles”). It hit me like a ton of bricks and I immediately had to back away from my daughter. So my husband who was over the worst of his, jumped in and took care of our daughter for the best part of 24 hours while I rested. It was much needed and I wish it had been under better circumstances. But I missed that little pudgy face! I tried not to touch her or get close and we practically bathed in sanitizer. A sick baby is probably up there with one of my worst nightmares. My stomach bug passed as quickly as it came and by Sunday morning I was ready to go again! We were almost out of diapers and a drama with bottle nipples had appeared so Babies R Us was calling.
We’ve used the Playtex Drop-In system since day one. I’ve been happy with it thus far. But last week (of course while I was ill), the nipples began to clog it seemed. My daughter was really having to work hard to get any formula out, if any came out at all. We’ve been going between the slow and medium flow. Since we have reintroduced a little cereal to her evening bottle, we even bought the special Y-cut nipple. None of these are quite working as they should, and we’re having to check and often change out nipples at least once before a feeding…it’s become a bit of a nightmare. We clean and sanitize probably more thoroughly than ever before since our grubby hands are all over them trying to figure out the issue. I’ve sent Playtex an angry email and will see what kind of response I get. We may just have to switch bottles completely, which I’m not exactly comfortable doing at this point. It’s bizarre.
Today, we’re all doing great! Thankfully, my daughter doesn’t seem to have contracted anything and I hope it stays that way. It feels wonderful to be out and about again after being cooped up indoors most of last week, despite that it’s likely short lived. It also feels great to get back into our routine. No one can quite take care of this home like I do and I think my husband was beginning to sink in the madness a bit. Bottles are made at a certain time, dinner starts getting made a certain time, there’s usually a load of laundry that needs to be folded…my daughter and I have a system, and it works just great.
PS. I’m not sure why, but my daughter’s cheeks appear to be a bit rough and dry – could be a number of things, but I think it’s likely the heating inside and cold outside – but it doesn’t seem to bother her. They get a bit red at times as well. I called the pediatrician today and she recommended Aquaphor, a ‘healing ointment’. I’ve never used it personally, so hopefully it takes care of it!
