Update, including another ER visit

Signs, signs, everywhere signs Sylvie has added several more signs to her repetoire including: grapes potato grass laugh pear peach car strawberry walk carrot One morning recently she woke up around 6am, which is quite early for her (and us!) so I brought her to our bed and tried to coax her to go back to sleep for a little longer. I signed, sleep more please to which she responded, also in sign, milk please thirsty. How could I say no to that? In sickness and in health A little over 2 weeks ago, our girl woke up in the morning crying for no apparent reason and it took quite a while to console her. She felt hot but when I tried to get her temp, she was too fussy and wiggly for me to get an accurate reading and since she seemed to rally later that day, we put it off to teething. But that night she had a great deal of trouble sleeping, only nodding off for short periods of time before waking to cry fitfully for longer periods. I brought her to bed with us in hopes that she would be soothed to sleep more readily but it didn't help. Theron tried to help out with soothing her but she preferred to be glommed onto mommy 99% of time...which continued for the next few days. As did the whining, crying and fever. I managed to get a temp on Thursday morning and since it came up as 102.2F we called up her pediatrician who had us come in immediately. We'd given Sylvie baby Tylenol so by the time we got to the doctor it had kicked in and while she was still quite miserable, her temp was much lower. The doc checked her ears and throat which (at the time) looked fine and asked us to try and get a urine sample...no easy feat with a 17 month old girl. There we were in the examination room; me holding our miserable, crying naked child on my lap, atop a puppy pad to soak up any urine which might miss the specimen cup that Theron held to try and catch the flow...which didn't come and didn't come... About 40 minutes into this excruciating activity, the doctor told us that she wanted to get a blood sample (joy) from Sylvie and that we could try to get the urine sample again back at home. During our second attempt at pee-catching, we received a call from the doctor around 5:30pm saying that the test results were enough of a concern that (double-extra-super-happy-joy) we should take her to the ER for further tests. It wasn't an emergency per se, but we needed to get there sooner rather than later. To sum up our most recent oh-so-enjoyable- visit to the ER: It was almost a carbon copy of the first time we were there. Once again, they used a catheter to get a urine sample (during this lovely procedure, Sylvie's eyes got very big and she frantically signed ALL DONE , which was somehow, both horrifying and funny at the same time) and more blood drawn had to be drawn and she received, that's right folks, ANOTHER IV FOR DEHYDRATION. I'd been doing my best to get her to drink and I thought we were doing pretty well but I guess because of her fever she'd been sweating it out almost as soon as she took it in. She was only slightly dehydrated but since she's so small, it was judged best to get her fluids back up asap. The worst of it is that she'd been rallying up to the point when they came to do the needle pokes, and was acting quite like her usual self...but we were soon both bawling our eyes out as the needles were put in her tiny arm. HOW I HATE THAT! None of us had been getting much sleep for the past several days and Sylvie was doubly depleted of energy having just shrieked her lungs out so all three of us pretty much zonked out in the little room they'd put us in for her treatment; Sylvie and I on the bed and poor Theron in a less-than-comfy chair. The nurses came in to check on us periodically and finally after a few hours the doctor came in to say that all of the test results looked normal so far but that they would need to 'cook' for several more hours to be sure they were all clear. Since Sylvie was now rehydrated to the max and her fever was responding well to the Tylenol, we were finally sent home around 12:30 am with instructions to keep Sylvie hydrated and her fever down (well, duh), and to follow up with our pediatrician the next day. Upon examining Sylvie for the second time, the doc saw inflamation in her left ear and deduced that all of this grief and agony had been the result of a developing ear infection. I know it sounds as if she was a bit extreme in checking Sylvie for more serious problems but she told us that because of Sylvie's heart defects, she wanted to rule out an infection in her heart. I never thought I'd type this but, Hooray it was only an EAR infection! We were given a prescription for amoxicyllin and told to come back in a week to follow-up. But WAIT...there's MORE! Sylvie started acting more like herself after having been on the meds for a day and a half but we noticed that her skin seemed to be turning a blotchy, red color. It wasn't raised and didn't make her itch but we called the nurse help line and were told it was a fairly common non-allergic reaction to the medication and nothing to worry about. However, the next day I noticed Sylvie scratching at her thigh where a lovely, welty, hive had reared it's ugly head...and like magic several more popped up on her body. Once again I called the nurse help line and this time I was advised to stop the meds, give her some children's Benadryl and check in with her pediatrician when she was back in the office on Monday. Long story short (ha), the doc called in a new 'scrip to our local pharmacy, we dosed the kid up as per directions and today she appears to be fully recovered. Hurray! All's well that ends well, indeed. M is for MEL-MO During this time of illness, Sylvie was sorely lacking a 'wooby' or comfort object to cling to in her misery (well, other than me). This is not because we have no dolls or toys (ha!) but none that she has any particualar attachment to. BUT...she did request the presence of a certain red-furred, high-pitched-voiced monster who goes by the name of "MEL-MO" who you probably know as Elmo, a popular Sesame Street character, and yes they are one and the same. In fact, Sylvie met Elmo early in her life while visiting Sesame Street and stumbling into a fantastical place called, "Elmo's World," a place so amazing that it has it's very own theme song! That gets caught in your head and buzzes around and around inside ones noggin like a psychotic bee! Yes, Sylvie had fallen hard for MEL-MO and it was his sweet furry countenance gazing at her through the TV that helped to sooth her in her time of need. And when MEL-MO was not to be found on the TV, why, he was easily discovered on the internet! Sylvie would lean into the comfort of the chest of her father or I while happily murmuring, "Mel-mo...Mel-mo..." over and over again. Now that she is all better, her MEL-MO fixation continues. She has noticed that MEL-MO appears on her diapers and tells us so each time we change her. She asks for her MEL-MO bath toy when bathing and upon wakening each morning, points out her bedroom door towards the livingroom and the TV and says...what else?..."MEL-MO". I have it on pretty good authority that Santa is bringing her a MEL-MO doll for Xmas this year.