I'm not sure what is going on, but Gwendolyn had an enormous meltdown today and it really scared me. She woke up from her nap and seemed a bit crabby, but then she hit the wall and hard. I gave her a treatment, it was about time anyway, because I thought she may have a plug making it difficult for her to breathe. I remained calm, but she just kept escalating. I can usually soothe her pretty quickly, but my usual tricks were not working. So I took bi-pap off, a risk since she needed the extra air from crying, to do my magic forehead and eyelid massage accompanied by a little “Twinkle, Twinkle.” Yes, Mommy was bringing out the big guns. It worked. She stopped crying and went into the normal trance this technique usually puts her in, but then her breathing pattern began to change and her lips started turning a different shade — not the scary blue color I have seen too many times, just slightly different. I was still calm, but not calm enough to think clearly and put the pulse-ox on so that I could get a better picture of what was going on. (I will remember that next time.) The moment I would lift my hands from her, she would start to cry again. I didn't know what to do. I tried walking her around, showing her herself in the mirror, and even started the bath water — sobs. I quickly put the bi-pap back on and massaged around it until she calmed again. But again, the strange breathing pattern. I called Bill to come inside. I was getting rattled now and was scared. I put her on her side and gave her a pacifier and the moment Daddy walked in the room she smiled. She was still fragile, but not sobbing. Then she saw the balloons and everything became perfectly rosy!!! Ahhh, balloons…I love them.
Gwendolyn is drooling like crazy from teething and I think she just felt extra tired from the effort of constantly managing them: pushing them out, being suctioned, trying not to swallow. In fact, it has gotten to the point that the excessive drool interrupts her sleep at night and during naps (the drool usually lessens when she sleeps), in addition to the extra energy it takes to manage them in the day. I called Dr. Yuan, our Pulmonologist, and we are going to start Gwendolyn on a new thickening drug, Robinol. This makes me nervous, but we have to try something. We will start with a low dose and see how she does. We will be nervously watching for signs and negative side effects and hoping this was only teething!!!
But, again, I love balloons!