Re-Rash Rachel

So here we are again. Sick kid with a diaper rash.

Monday I took her to day care and they called at the end of the day to tell me that her diaper rash has gotten worse. Having done everything I could find on the internet to bring her comfort and healing, I finally made an appointment and took her to the doctor.

Although diaper rash is really common in infants, and I shouldn't feel this way, I felt like a horrible parent. Certainly if you change your kid's diapers often and keep them clean you are preventing diaper rash, right? It's like saying you wash your hands all the time, therefore you won't get sick. Unfortuntaely, that's just now how things work.

Since we spent 4 days last time getting rid of the rash and it was only gone about 2 days, I knew something wasn't right. Hence the doctor visit.

We found out that she's 14 pounds 7.5 ounces now. Moving right along on weight, which is great!

The doctor informed me that we'd done everything she would have suggested. (whew! relief! That made me feel better). Then she suggested another remedy I hadn't read of. She prescribed a creme that is an anti-fungal and healing cream for babies. She said that if we didn't want to pay for the prescription creme, there was some OTC stuff we could get. I didn't mind paying for the creme, so she called it in and we headed to the pharmacy.

I get to Walgreens thinking the prescription creme would probably be around $50. If it was more than that, I wasn't willing to pay for it. So I get to the counter and am stunned: $284. Seriously!? For diaper rash treatment?! Well, no I felt silly paying that much for diaper creme. So the pharmacist helped me find the OTC stuff to combine and make my own creme that does the same thing as the nearly $300 creme. Ridiculous! She also told me I'd see improvements quickly.

Can I stop and ask here....if I'm going to see improvements "quickly"....why on Earth wasn't this what I started with!? Had I known this remedy I would have done this from the start instead of going the route I did. The combo stuff I picked up: Lotrimin and Hydrocortizone 1%. So, athlete's foot-type of stuff and skin irritant stuff. I know I wouldn't have been comfortable using this stuff without permission from the doctor....but still.

Since this rash was bad and required a "mixture" of ointments, I went ahead and kept her home from day care. I'm almost tempted to keep her home again today (Wednesday) just to make sure she heals. However....as much as I love this kid, I do need the break day care offers. Especially when she hasn't been sleeping well.

And through all of this, with her bum being as red and irritated as it was, she's still smiled and coo-ed and been such a good kid. We had fun playing yesterday:

And secretly, is there anything cuter than a naked baby rolling around? I think not! And I know she's loving it. Tonight has been the first night in weeks she's slept well. Yes, it is 4:30AM and I'm up posting, but I let her fall asleep after her 7PM bottle and didn't wake her up at 10 to feed her, so of course she woke up really early.

Yesterday was also the first time I've seen her roll over. I'm sure she probably does it at day care, but I hadn't seen her do it. And what luck: I caught it on camera!!!!! I'm so happy. She can finally play on her tummy and is rolling around. While this is a momentous occasion for her, it kind of makes me sad that it won't be long before she's crawling around and that "Golden Baby Age" that we have been enjoying so very much will come to a close. You know, where she can't talk or move around, so she just loves to cuddle and is intrigued by everything you do?

Also yesterday she was cracking me up. I have her laying on her boppy pillow some of the time so she's not on the hard floor constantly, which raises her up just enough that she can reach her little hand out and touch the mobile we have in the living room for her:

She has really picked up the reaching out and grabbing for stuff. Her aim has improved in just 24 hours which is both sweet and it's also a wake up call. This weekend I'm hoping to re-baby-proof the areas where she's in the most. We kind of got lazy since she couldn't move around or touch anything. That's all changing now, so we're going to try to get anything she might be able to get into put away or secured.

We're also going to invest in more baby gates for the living room. I have a couple that I purchased when we lived in Decatur to keep our dogs corraled and we'll probably use those as well. But in hopes of keeping her in the living room where there really isn't a door way, I want to get the extendable gates. My hope is we'll be able to use it outside as well when she gets older and it's nice out.

Sadly, at the doctors office Rachel only had a diaper rash. It wasn't but just a few hours of getting her home that I noticed her voice was gone. *sigh* So I think we're about to hit round 2 of another bout with germs. I'm running a vaporizer to try to help, and she doesn't seem to feel bad. But her little voice is gone and it's so sad that she can't cry. Thankfully, she does cough, which is what wakes me up to let me know she's waking up. Oddly, she doesn't cough in her sleep so much, just when she's waking up. I'm just grateful that in the midst of the diaper rash (again) and her "cold" (again) she's at least sleeping well. I can cope with this if we're sleeping!