"I hope I haven't made her have allergies for life now."

Friday, March 20, 1992

    It's the first day of spring but yesterday felt more like spring than today does. Elizabeth turned 11 mos. old yesterday. She's still not trying to pull herself up even though she'll stand & hold on to something if you put her there. Hopefully, it'll be like chewing–all of a sudden she'll do it one day. She's getting better at drinking from the cup except she won't do it herself. I decided to give her milk to her only in the cup at lunch, starting day before yesterday.

     The week didn't turn out like I expected. Guy ended up coming home every night. Mon. at 8:00, Tues. at 8:30, & Wed. at about 7:15. Of course that disrupted Ez. every night. With him getting home so much later than usual she didn't get enough time to spend with him. I was putting her to bed early Wed. night & was just doing a final diaper check when he got home. She wouldn't settle for him just saying goodnight. I held her on my lap while he ate so she wanted to eat too. We gave her a couple of crackers. Guy put her to bed every night cause she wouldn't let me once she knew he was home. But last night was worse because he had duty but she was still watching for him to come home.

     I finally had to let her cry herself to sleep while I was doing my medicine. Thank goodness she did. She woke up a little before 5:00 this morning for about 30 min. then slept till 8:00. Oh, last night I decided part of her problem was teething. The bottom left molar started out over a week ago then disappeared & is now trying to come in again. I used Anbesol twice but it didn't last long so I finally gave her some Tempra.

     Since she slept late I was going to keep her up all morning but she was acting really tired so I put her down about 10:00 & it didn't take her long to fall asleep. Now I'm debating whether I should take a nap or not. Guy's supposed to have the aft. off but he'll probably need a nap cause he was on watch til midnight last night.

     Wed. morning Ez. & I went to get our hair trimmed. She did really well. She sat on my lap. I saved the hair in an envelope. She took the tiniest snips from the front and cut the back even all across. No bangs. Don't know how long we'll be able to use the barrettes though. The past few days she's discovered the one on the right and keeps trying to pull it out. I think I'll try just pulling it all straight back on top. Anyways she started getting fussy toward the end when I was getting blow dried. It was getting close to lunch & the only nap she'd had was on the way there–less than 10 minutes. But she did pretty good. For the first time without Guy going with us. I don't think I'll be going back there though. It just costs too much. It's gone from $15 to $17 and they'd told me over the phone that Ez's would be $5. But it came to $23 instead of $22 so I don't know who's was a dollar more. Anyway, you can get a haircut for $10 at Hair Cuttery which is right over her by Farm Fresh. And I may wait til we go home next Thanksgiving to get a perm again.

     I finally got around last night to getting started on cutting out our Easter dresses. But I only got the main part of Ez's cut out. My back gave out & I didn't feel like bringing the stool up here. I guess I should get to work on that now instead of napping. Easter is four weeks away & I'll probably need every minute to get both dresses done.

Later:

     Well, today was pretty much a waste. Guy got home about 11:30 & the first thing he said was "I'm sick." There's been some kind of virus going around the ship all week and it finally caught him. He went right to bed, slept til after 2:00, got up & ate some soup then went back to bed til 5:30. Meanwhile, Ez. slept til almost 12:30. I tried to put her down for a nap between 2:30 & 3:00 but it was nearly 4:00 before she went to sleep & I had to wake her up for supper. When I was reading to her before her nap, I noticed a red place on the left side of her neck & thought she'd scratched herself. She has such sensitive skin the least little rub & her skin turns red there. It was still there a little later & looked larger & like it had little helps in it. I thought it might be hives so I came & looked it up in the book but it didn't wasn't didn't say what to do about it. By the time I went to look at her again it had spread down her jawline to her chin. I figured it was a food allergy but she hadn't had any new foods today. Yesterday she had some yogurt that was mixed berries–blue...straw...boisen...& raspberry. She'd had only blueberries before so it could've been any of the other three. Before I called the per. I took her clothes off to see if there was any other places. There was one in the crease of fat above her left knee on the inside. It had also spread around the right side of her jaw.

     When I talked to the nurse she said it sounded like hives and that it could take up to three weeks to have a reaction like that to food. But since she had that berry yogurt yesterday that was probably it. She said to give her 1 t. of Benadryl four times a day. It could get worse but it should clear up in 24-48 hours.

     By the time she went to sleep & I could go to the store & get back it looked like it was all gone. But while she was eating supper a place came up under her left eye and one like a streak around her left arm from upper to underside around the outside. So I gave her the Benadryl then. She took it fairly well from the medicine spoon. The places went away after supper and I didn't find any more at bedtime.

     When I went to the store I also got some toddler cookies. We'd been giving her vanilla wafers for the past couple of weeks and I looked at the box for ingredients and there's eggs in them. She's not supposed to have eggs before a year. So the hives could be from that. I hope I haven't made her have allergies for life now.

     She had a hard time going to sleep tonight, I think partly because of her molar and partly cause Guy didn't play with her tonight. When it was four hours from when she had the Benadryl I gave her some Tempra. This bottom left molar started coming in last week then disappeared. Now it's sticking way up but it's like it's stretching the gum out & not breaking through. The first one came out really fast. The top right one has two or three points through. The top left isn't even bumpy yet. I just checked the baby book & she's still about 2 mos. ahead in her teething.