Preschool Germies and Doctors :(

Zoya has had a tough start to preschool. She is usually very healthy and I can count on one hand how many times she's been sick since being home. We kept her home last year and had a sitter come to the house for many reasons, one of those was to give her body a chance to heal and build up immunities after orphanage life. So now that Zoya is in preschool she's being exposed to all kinds of germs and her poor body is not liking it!

Last Friday I kept Zoya home because she woke up with a little cough (no big deal) but then she threw up on me a little :( She hasn't thrown up since VACCINATION NIGHTMARE of May 2010...so definitely not normal for her. She bounced back by the next day and went to school Monday and Wednesday and then Thursday night she was throwing up again. Poor thing. Thursday night she woke up at about  11:30and threw up about every hour until 4:30am. She was pitiful. Even being so sick she was the sweetest thing. We kicked Daddy out and told him to go downstairs because he had to work in the morning (although he did go to the store to get medicine and then came running upstairs when he heard Zoya crying and me trying to find the light and catch her vomit all at the same time...TMI?). She was also coughing a lot and sounded very congested but was afraid to cough because that made her throw up...so that made things even worse.  After getting sick at about 4am, I put her back down in our bed and layed down next to her. She put her hand on my cheeck and said her scooby doo version of "I love you." At 4am after being up all night that made my heart so happy. She just kept looking at me smiling through it all. I loved how she needed me and my Mama-love made it almost all better! Today she woke up happy as could be but had a fever that has gone up over the morning. She's taking her second nap of the day and hopefully she will start feeling much better soon!

Yesterday I took her to the doctor just to make sure there was nothing more going on than a bug because she can't really tell me if her ears or throat hurt. Also we've had some concerns about reflux lately and wanted to talk to the doctor about that. Over the last month of so Zoya has not been wanting to eat and gagging on her food sometimes, which has NEVER been an issue before. She has been waking up here and there gagging and when we check on her its almost like she might throw up (never does) or is choking. She gets hiccups 5-6 times a day sometimes too, which has always been the case with her. She also goes through periods where she coughs throughout the night-a dry cough. Soooo, the doctor wants to try her on Prevacid and see if that helps some of these symptoms, if not we will go through some testing to see whats up. The doctor thought she just had a little bug and some big reflux. (But at that time she didn't have the fever yet)

She has a follow-up appointment with the ENT Tuesday to get her tubes checked, so I'm glad they can take a look again and make sure nothing more is going on (like an ear infection or something) since she started the fever today. She also gets her new Sure Step orthodics Tuesday as well! She outgrew her other ones. When she came home her shoe size was a 2...she is now up to a 6 and will need a 7 with the braces.

She was at the dentist Thursday morning and did a fabulous job. She has gone twice before just for a real quick check and teeth count and "get to know the dentist" type thing. Shawn took her both times and she did NOT like it either time. So he was not looking forward to taking her this time. So we made a deal, I told him IF he takes Zoya AND Laina for all the bloodwork they need for the rest of their lives, I will take them to the dentist! LOL. I can deal with anxiety better than I can deal with watching my child be poked and be in pain :( So he laughed, but since I took Zoya the deal is on! She cried a little bit but was so brave and let them clean all her top teeth as she just laid there watching videos on my phone. She even wore some cool sunglasses! Then she thought she was done and they hadn't cleaned the bottom yet so she started crying but easily calmed herself down, which she NEVER would have been able to do months ago! She's making so much progress with the anxiety! In the past if she would have started crying at the dentist or somewhere else, she would not have stopped until we left...this time she calmed down and then charmed the entire office staff and didn't want to leave :) She even stopped by to visit a little boy having some cavities filled...he didn't mind :)

We have a new strategy for her anxiety called "take a deep breath" :) and I started it with her not really thinking it would work but its working amazingly well! She even does it on her own when she starts getting upset and 9 times out of 10 it keeps her from getting really upset or crying! She puts her hands above her head and takes a deep breath. This has been helpful to me because she will do it sometimes when I don't even realize she is feeling upset or anxious, so that has been a clue to us that she is feeling some anxiety. She initiates the deep breath on her own a lot and will do it easily if I remind her. In the middle of her crying I can say "take a deep breath" and she stops crying to take the deep breath, and then it's enough to calm her down. Whereas previously we would have had tears for hours sometimes. Yay for progress!

Here's hoping my little girl feels better soon!! And no more germies!