thumb infection

It sucks being a mom sometimes. Not that I would trade motherhood for the world. But inevitably in this fallen world, there will be hard times for your children. And part of being a good mom sometimes is having to do something that in your children's eyes is mean.

Yesterday morning I noticed that Lily's thumb looked like it had some junky black stuff under the skin of her thumb. She sucks that thing to death! It normally looks raw and gross but it just looked unusually abnormal to me. So off to the doctor we went. The doc checked it out and said that she had an infection. What happens is that the cracks she gets in her thumb can get infected if they open up. He gave me a prescription antibiotic topical cream and an oral antibiotic to give her to help clear it up. The big thing is though that it really needs to be dry and out of her mouth to heal. HAH! So of course I ask him how I'm supposed to do that with a 13 month old who can't just obey instructions yet! He said to put a sock/glove/mitten on her hand and try to keep that on there so she doesn't suck on it. That's another HAH! I was thinking in my mind... "you really think that my toddler is going to keep that on her hand?!"

Off we went to Walgreens to get her prescriptions filled and then to Target to try and come up with some options to keep her thumb out of her mouth. I got a bunch of different tapes/bandages to try including some waterproof bandaids and these "tattoo" bandaids for kids. But I knew that I couldn't leave something like that on her unsupervised and she would probably somehow get it off anyways. So I bought a pair of socks to try and do something with. Couldn't find any mittens or gloves at this point in the season much less small enough to fit her little hands. When I got home I sewed a sock on to the end of her pj's to cover her hand so she couldn't get to her thumb. And that way she couldn't take the sock off. All the way to bedtime I was DREADING having to do this to her. It felt so mean and awful even though I knew it was to help her thumb get better. I thought we were going to have a VERY bad night.

In the end, I probably cried more than she did! :) Last night she cried off and on for about 15-20 minutes before going to sleep. Really not that bad considering! For naps today she cried off and on again this morning for about 45 minutes and then this afternoon for 15 minutes. She's been taking a long time to go to sleep for naps though anyways because I think she's on the verge of cutting down to just 1 nap a day.

Last night I brainstormed about how today was going to work and what I could do for her. The sock thing during the day would be hard for her because she couldn't really grab anything. And like I said before, bandage stuff would probably just get ripped off. So I took the other sock I bought and cut a slit down it and sewed it into basically what a mitten would be. So there was a place for her thumb in the sock and then the rest of her hand in the other portion. That way she could at least use her grasp to pick things up. Then I sewed that on to a long sleeve onesie. It worked out really great actually and she didn't seem to mind it too much.

I actually feel pretty proud of myself for being able to make that and come up with something that would work. Did make me feel like I was a decent mom despite having to keep my child from sucking her thumb. Around mealtime today I would just take that onesie off and just leave the see through waterproof bandaid on it. If I got her distracted she was okay with just that for a little while.

So tonight I was expecting some more crying for bedtime. And as I speak, I have just heard her babble a little bit in there but that's it since I put her down!!! Yay!!!! I don't think she's quite to sleep yet so still hoping there's no crying.

Always seems like there's some saga going on in our household...

In good news, the church vote is tomorrow. So hopefully I will have some great news to report tomorrow!