Today's sickness scare

I know that childhood illnesses are common.  My mom likes to joke that babies go from having the sniffles, to stomach aches, to growing pains, to teething, to having the sniffles again. (rinse, lather, repeat)  This doesn't make it any easier when they are sick, specially if you've been told your baby has MCAD and a common illness could land them in the ER.

We are currently going through Cupcake's third cold of her life. The first one was just a stuffy nose and dry cough that would. not. go. away.   The second was at about 4 months, and included coughing, stuffy noses and a slight fever.  We gave her L-Carnitine and were in touch with the Metabolic center, but it never got out of control.  Then we had this scare.

Actually, I don't know if we are fully out of the woods yet, as we are in the middle of the cold, but things seem to have stabilized.

After having a HORRIBLE night where Cupcake's coughs kept waking her up, she seemed to "wake up" around 7 am.  Now, this is ridiculously early for her, as her usual morning starts around 9:30 am.  Since she'd been waking and feeding through the night, I thought it was just another cold related issue and proceeded to feed her while lying next to her in bed.  She ate, things were normal, and then she projectile vomited all over herself, my pillow and the fitted sheet.  Gross.

Also..... the he!!?  I'd never seen so much partially digested breast milk in my life.  I didn't even know my boobs could hold that much liquid.   She calmed down after a couple of minutes and I set her on her stroller (her new favorite place to sit and play) while I removed the sheets and attempted to clean up.  Then, about 10 minutes later I tried to feed her again, and half way through she started to cough and.... she projectile vomited again, this time mostly on my pajama pants and the floor.

I'm usually not an alarmist, but man, this is exactly what her Metabolic doctor warned us about.

So I'm having a thousand thoughts a minute while I try to figure things out.... I have Mt Sinai on my contact list and have to call them..... where is our ER letter.... why isn't Nate back from dealing with our car battery.....  do I feed her? do I wait?  Does she have a temperature?   Do I have to go to the ER right NOW?   And if so, do I just take her on the carrier? Should I pack the stroller?  And where is my insurance card?

The Metabolic doctor called back and didn't really help my nerves.  Basically, they said to try feeding her one more time, and if she vomited again we should go to the ER immediately. I was in slightly hysterical tears at this point, and its a good thing Nate got home, because I was probably making Cupcake anxious. 

So I tried feeding her again, this time holding her head very high and very slowly.  After a couple of minutes, when she pulled off to breathe, Nate took her.  She cried, probably still hungry, but calmed down when he took her to the bathroom to look at her reflection.  After 10 minutes, when were sure the milk was staying in her system, I gave her a little bit more.  We did this 5 more time, and she thew a couple of more times, but this time we knew that at least some of the milk was staying in her system.

So we decided that she was okay.  I was still plagued with doubt.  Were we mocking the gods, playing it too close?  Since she had still thrown up, had she ingested enough?  Would we recognize when she became lethargic, and would it be too late at that point? 
I hate second guessing myself, specially since I tend to believe little colds are just part of the human experience.

We ended up going to our regular pediatrician, since Cupcake had a low-grade fever, who examined her and informed us that she did not have an ear infection or bronchitis.  In other words, just a cold, and the fever should pass.  At this point I allowed my body to finally relax, secure in the knowledge it wasn't anything serious.  It wasn't a major infection, it wasn't the flu.

She might still throw up again tomorrow.  Hell, we could still end up in the ER. But I think the worse is over.