Manic Monday

One week to go before I have to go to work.  It feels like an eternity since I was last working at school.  I went in today to clean up and get my room organized.  I managed to clear some things up and get the room looking nice and clean.  It was hard to find the motivation to continue getting things down so went home earlier than I probably should have.

My mom has been here now for three days.  She is enjoying her time with her grandchild and has been very vocal in expressing her thoughts on our parenting.  Thankfully there are a lot of spirits to make things go smoothly.

Back to Monday.  When I got home, things were OK.  Z had her third consecutive night of great sleep and no fussiness.  Shannon has weened herself off of dairy in that time and it may be the reason Z has been less fussy.  However all was not perfect as Shannon scheduled an appointment that afternoon for the lactation consultants over at Mission Hospital.  Her right breast had been feeling tough and she felt that she may have blocked milk ducts.  It could also be an infection.  

We made the trip to the hospital and came away with what we felt was great information.  Apparently, Shannon had a yeast problem.  Her nipples were infected and required some medication, which the consultant recommended.  The consultant, noticing we were using cloth diapers also suggested using grapefruit seed oil in lieu of the medication if we did not want to go the traditional medicine route (which made Shannon very happy).  Z, we were also told, had a case of thrush.  So we needed to go to the pediatricians and get a prescription.  All of these things were typical in breastfeeding mothers, the consultant told us.  No big deal.

Well, think again.  After we left the hospital, we made a trip to Earthfare to have lunch and procure the grapfruit seed oil.  We asked someone to help us out with the oil and found that it would make Shannon's nipples very bitter tasting to the baby.  Shannon was then told she could take it orally to help with the infection.  OK, minor detour but we bought the stuff anyhow and headed home to see what the pediatrician would say.

Of course, the pediatrician, upon hearing our diagnosis from the lactation consultant, refuted that our child had thrush.  They still wanted to see her anyhow so I guess we will resolve that issue tomorrow.  In the meantime, they informed us that Z would have to go through the awful procedure of having her foot punctured and have blood drawn because the hospital botched the it up the first time.  I guess we have no choice.  I remember when Z had to have this done at the hospital and it was no picnic.  I mean, Shannon was in tears after listening to Z suffer for about ten minuted while some large lady squeezed her foot to have blood squirt out to collect for a test.  I was not to happy either but I knew it had to be done.  It just irks me that the whole time the lady was causing Z to cry like a siren, she proudly kept letting us know how she was being careful to do it correctly so it would not have to be done again.  

But the best is yet to come my friends!  I went to get the medication for Shannon's nipples, some hydrocortizone and some anti-fungal ointment.  We decided to do this just because Shannon and I were hesitant to put the grapefruit stuff on her on account of messing Z up with her feeding.  The consultant at the hospital told us to mix those two together and place it on Shannon's nipples.  We asked if that stuff was OK or Z to take in and she said it was fine.  Well it turns out that on both bottles, it clearly states that if this product is ingested, to call a doctor immediately!  What gives?  Are we just paranoid or is that on the bottle for some reason?  Just another manic Monday.