The Puker

Last year, about a month after Darcy was born, my older siblings came to meet her and visit us. Of course, one the honours of meeting a baby for the first time is getting to hold them. I asked who wanted to hold her and Eric volunteered. Darcy graciously greeted Eric by puking all over him. Down his shirt, onto his pants, onto the couch. At the time, that put the amount of puke that had hit him ahead of me. In the year since then, I have been lit up several times.

With good reason, Eric calls Darcy 'Pukey'. Although it is rare that she vomits anymore, it's a good name for her to have. Especially this weekend.

Sue got called by the babysitter Friday afternoon. Darcy had a fever of 102 F, so she went to pick her and went to a walk in clinic. The doc diagnosed an ear infection and prescribed some antibiotic. She came home and gave Darcy a dose of Advil, and then the antibiotics. Darcy puked all over. Poor little girl. Fairly messy, but not too bad because she hadn't eaten in a while. She didn't eat much for supper and was pretty miserable all evening. We tried to give her some cereal before bed and she actually ate some of it. Then we tried the antibiotic again she gagged on the first taste and did a mini-puke, and then she blew up. Apparently she ate a lot more cereal than I gave her credit for. She was sitting on my lap at the time and it went everywhere. I ran and put her in the kitchen sink. This girl was in rough shape. Her whole body was quivering, she didn't even have the strength to stand up.

We made through the night, only having to get up once. Sue gave her a cup of water and she drank the whole thing really quickly. We both thought that might be enough to set her off again, but things went well. She got up at 7am, her normal time, and had sucked back 2 cups of milk by 9am. She then took a two hour nap. Good for her! Or so we thought...

We went back to the clinic and got a new antibiotic. One that won't make her puke.

She didn't eat much for lunch, but that didn't really surprise us. No big deal, she was still drinking well, so she wasn't getting dehydrated. Sue had to go get the new prescription and by 1pm, Darcy was ready for another nap. I meant to give her some Tylenol before the nap but forgot. She had only slept for 40 minutes when I heard her crying. She was burning up, so I gave her some Tylenol. Again she gagged and I knew that she was going to blow. I saw lunch again, then all of the milk she drank this morning. Huge chunks of cottage cheese like white barf. All down her, all down me. On the carpet, on the change table. I ran her to the bathtub this time and sprayed her off with the shower. But then she was in a remarkably good mood, laughing and talking to me as I tried to get milk barf down the shower drain. What a good helper.

Darcy is on the mend now. She didn't vomit new antibiotic and we've given her Tylenol suppositories to lessen the fever. Better her than me!

So, all this to say that 'Pukey' is certainly an apt name for her. The difference between one month old baby puke and thirteen month old baby puke is the smell. When babies start to eat grown up food, everything that comes out of them smells like it could have come out of me.