Just Say No

Well in the grand scheam of things I am really blessed to have such a great little daughter. However in looking back at everything I have had a little bit of a problem that seems to be coming up consistently. During my labor I had internal monitoring. Basically they attached a probe to her head to monitor her heart rate and my contractions. The reason they did this was that they were not getting accurate contractions on the monitor. Though it did help in looking closer at her because I had meconium in my water (when my water broke there was evidence that she pooped inside). She was born on a Thursday night and I was discharged on Saturday with her from the hospital. By Monday I had noticed a bump on the back side of her head, about the size of a big pimple on my face. And I scheduled a normal wellness doctors appointment for Wednesday. By Wednesday, right before the doctors appointment, I noticed the bump developed a white head. The doctor ruled that it was an abcess infection. And we started on 10 days of Keflex (Cephalosporin) antibiotics three times a day. We also had to apply hot compresses to the area for 10 minutes every 3-4 hours. This got a little tiring especially in the middle of the night. She did really well and the infection cleared up without her ever developing a fever, or getting really sick.

However, about two weeks after finishing the antibiotics I noticed she was getting white patches on the inside of her cheeks. This is thrush, kind of like a yeast infection that is inside the mouth from antibiotics that kill both the bad bacteria and the good bacteria. I called her Pediatrician and she recommended that I just keep an eye on it for a couple of days and see if it goes away on its own before we get started on more medicine. This is where I became a bad mom. : ( The thing is as a nurse, I should have known better. The white spots stayed the same. I looked at her tounge, her gums, the roof of her mouth. But I didn't see the same white spots. I did start noticing the roof of her mouth started getting generally whiter. She did seem gassier. And near the end she was starting to get really fussy nursing. Oh, and this whole time she has had a horrible diaper rash that dispite everything I could think of was not going away (bathing her almost every day, giving her naked time, putting tons of diaper cream on, changing diaper very frequently). However, I let it go for a whole week before a friend recommended I read a site called www.kellymom.com. Where I read the symptoms of thrush with a baby: diaper rash that does not respond to typical rash ointments; creamy white patches that cannot be wiped off on the inside of the mouth, along the inside of the gums, inside of the cheeks, roof of mouth, throat, or tongue; a shiny or "mother of pearl" look on the inside of the mouth
breast refusal, pulling off breast, or a reluctance to nurse due to mouth soreness
repeated clicking during nursing; excessive gassiness due to the yeast's invasion of the gut. She had all the symptoms except the clcking during nursing. At this point I looked at my daughter who was whimpering during her sleep due to the discomfort and felt horrible. She looked like such a pretty healthy little girl, I really didn't want to admit she was sick with yet something else.

So now we have 4 different treatments we are giving her bottom, have her in cloth diapers at night, and giving her hydrogen peroxide mixture and nystatin swabs in her mouth. Oh and plus I got to treat my nipples with cream, and steralize every thing that goes in her mouth every day to not spread the infection. Bottom line just say no to internal monitoring if it is not completely necessary. I know I am sure going to next time. Only 3-5% of the population develop an infection like Penelope did from the monitor, but this is way too frustrating. Don't do it unless it is required, ,just say no.