poor sick baby

Two weeks ago Natalie got sick. It's hard enough to see your kids have a cold, but this was even scarier because it was such a rare weird thing going on! :( Poor baby! The first day she was just grumpy and had just a few bumps on her legs. It looked like a mosquito slept with her. Nothing that snuggling with her bunny couldn't help...

But, by the following day, she had what looked like infected chicken pox all over her arms and legs, and a few around her mouth too!

I immediately took her to see the nurse practitioner (my doctor was out that day), whose jaw dropped when I dropped Natalie's pants. She quietly said, "Um, I'm just going to call in another doctor to look at this..." (That's certainly not what you want to hear!) They determined that she had developed a secondary bacterial skin infection that had something to do with her eczema (which until that moment we weren't totally sure was eczema) and they prescribed her an antibiotic.

But that night things got worse. She started throwing up, became lethargic, and was running a fever. And her bumps all started turning into blisters.....


I called the office again, and my doctor was in & wanted to see her. Her jaw also dropped when we dropped Natalie's pants. She asked me to tell her every disease that's been exposed to my family lately and I called school to ask them the same thing. They told me hand foot mouth had been going around the little kids' classes. "Oh my gosh!" the doctor said and started examining her closer.... "Oh my gosh!!! She has hand foot mouth! But I would have NEVER known that by looking at her because the rash has spread into her eczema and become infected!" Apparently, it doesn't usually look (or feel) that bad. Poor baby!

She had to stay on her antibiotic and also got a topical steroid cream along with ibuprofen for the pain and benadryl for the itching.

She came to work with us the next few days, which really made me appreciate the room we built in between our offices for the kids to play.

She missed a whole week of school and fun, but thankfully all she has left now is scars that I'm hoping will fade over time. At one point during the week I truly thought she might be dying. Leave it to me to be dramatic, but it's scary to see your child so sick! Now we also have treatment for her eczema too. :)

Meanwhile, Sammi kept her usual routine with my parents, school, and Krystal, and had a fabulous week of being "an only child"! :) This photo was of her waiting on Krystal to pick her up...


And Krystal sent me a text with this one while they were lounging at the Carmel pool & splash park...


I'm glad my baby is better! This was not a week I'd wish on any parents!!!!