23 November 2007

Back to the hospital


Yesterday was a great day, we finally got to bring Sophia home, and though Annie's leg made it a little more challenging than expected, we were ready to start being a family at our own home. Annie's mom, Dennyce, even brought home some Thanksgiving leftovers from Annie's aunt's house were her and Chris ate dinner.

The day was going great until the evening when Annie began to have an allergic reaction. The swelling began in her hands, then her face, eyes and ears. She also began to get hives on her neck, hands and around her hairline.


We tried Benadryl and tried to let her get some rest to see if that would help the swelling. I stayed out on the couch in the living room with Sophia to let Annie rest and I fed her with bottles just in case the allergy would affect the baby.

At 6 a.m. I went in to check on Annie to see how she was doing and she was not only still having a reaction, but the swelling had increased to the point her eyes could barely open. Dennyce and I immediately got the baby ready to go, and ran down to the ER.

After they checked her out, they determined that it was a reaction to something that we will probably never find out because of the amount of variables that would have to be tested to find out the cause of such a reaction, but some prescription Benadryl, and some other allergy meds prescribed by the doctor helped the swelling go down in just the few hours we were holed up in a tiny room in the ER.

It just so happened that Sophia needed a second PKU test to make sure she didn't have jaundice that same day, so it made it easy enough for me to head around the corner to get the test done. I also got my first taste of juggling everything to get her fed, changed and burped all on my own. Quite the deal to do for the first time in a small bathroom on the changing table.

The doctor finally let us go home in the afternoon and said we should probably keep the baby on formula just in case - plus Annie's mom was worried the Benadryl would make the baby groggy. This was a little hard on Annie, who wants to breastfeed so badly. To keep her milk coming she is now pumping her milk and then pouring it down the drain just to keep it coming in - also not very easy for her to do.



Even with all of this, we are so in love with our little girl.

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