Yesterday morning started out a little rough; Allie had a coughing fit so bad that she vomited again. She whimpered, eyes and nose red from the strain, then jumped right back into her smile. She napped pretty decently all day, sleeping past the time I’d expected and missing a feeding. Maybe it was the hard rain pouring that made her sleepy. Late morning, she woke up sloshy and congested and seemed crabbier than normal, so I did the saline + nasal bulb aspiration. Of course she cried. I got some stuff out, but not an incredible amount. I’d read the instructions on the nebulizer while she was napping and tested putting it together, so I gave her a treatment. She struggled, screamed and cried through the whole 15-20 minutes, a heartbreaking little tear trickling out from the outside corner of each eye.

It started raining harder during her afternoon nap, which seemed to make her sleep deeper. I had plenty of time to research RSV viruses and it scared me. I went on the social networking site and shot out a status message regarding the rain and the nanny interview scheduled for that evening in an outdoor shopping mall where I’d have to take the baby in a stroller and hope she doesn’t get too wet from the parking structure to the meeting place. Should I change the meeting place to our home? But then given how contagious and bad this virus is, it’s pretty effed up to risk giving it to someone else. With the encouragement of friends, I called Susanne (the German lady) and left her a voice mail about 2 hours 15 mins before we were supposed to meet. I explained that as it was raining so hard and Allie has a bad virus, we should reschedule our meeting. I figured she lives about a half hour from the location, she wouldn’t have left yet, but when I got her voice mail I was concerned. She called me back when I was changing Allie and left a voice mail, saying she’d left to meet us already and was driving so she couldn’t pick up the phone. She was nice about it, said with the baby sick and the rain, she understood, and we’ll just reschedule the interview. When I called back later, I again got her vm and I apologized, saying I didn’t realize she would’ve left that early and sorry for the drive for nothing. I explained it’s hard for me to get the phone sometimes with the baby and maybe email is better. Later in the evening, I got an email from her that I was afraid to open, but she was very nice, again.

“Hi Cindy,
sorry it didn’t worked out today. I hope the baby is doing better soon. I completely understand that you didn’t wanted to take her out in the rain today and it wasn’t any problem for me. I just hit the freeway and wasn’t far away from home at all so I just took the next exit and turned around. So no worries… I love driving 😉
Well just let me know for when we could rearrange the appointment and I hope to meet you soon.
Have a great night and Happy late Valentines…
Susanne”

Mr. W was sure we’d lost her. Now I almost feel obligated to hire her. =P I also emailed Diane, the woman with the looong drive to come to us, and explained about the sickness and asked to reschedule. She also wrote back nicely, said her son had the same virus when he was a baby and it was scary for her. She wished our family a speedy recovery and asked me to schedule the interview once we’re well.

The rest of the evening and so far today, Allie seemed a little better. Altho she still coughed and occasionally gags after a coughing fit, she didn’t vomit again. Mr. W had her between 6-7p while I took a shower. At one point I heard him say he needed to clear her nose and I heard crying (from the baby). Later I peeked downstairs to see Allie sitting on his lap looking at the computer monitor while baby rock music (Journey) played on media player, and he was giving her the nebulizer treatment…with no protest! Allie was fed at 7p, fell asleep soon after, but woke up again around 9:30p and had a hard time going back down. I stayed with her in her room until past 11p to do the pacifier thing.

She was napping nicely but now is having a fit. I thought she was better but maybe not yet… Gotta run to her.