Poor Madison...

This morning was terrible.

Chris left the house early so I was alone with the 2 kids. Normally this isn't much of a problem but today Madison suddenly got up at 6. I couldn't figure out why, but before I could do anything the baby woke too and started crying.

I kind of panicked, and went in to feed the baby first. Watching Madison through the baby monitor throughout... she stood in her cot for awhile, and I had this sinking feeling that she had done something nasty in her diaper. When I had finally settled the baby, Madison had fallen back asleep.

At 730, Warni arrived for the day and Madison woke again. I immediately went in and OMG... the smell was terrible. I took her to the bathroom to wash and the poo was all over her diaper. After that she refused to wear a diaper, and I couldn't understand why.So she went diaperless for breakfast, then afterward she said she wanted to pee so I took her to the potty. Nothing. I decided to give her a wash and that's where she started to howl in pain.

Her perineum was excoriated and macerated. It was BAD diaper dermatitis. Poor baby. There was still some poo inside the vulva so I had to gently use wipes to clean again. Then used Desitin ( 40% zinc oxide ) to cover the affected area. The rest of the morning she went without any diaper/underwear.

The ironic thing is that she FINALLY voluntarily used the potty consistently the entire morning, apart from the first poop that landed on the floor! But poor Madison, had diarrhoea 5 times this morning. I don't know what caused it... was it left over banana cake that her grandparents gave her( even though i was against it! ) Or dirty swimming pool water? Or too much dried fruit?

Now I feel bad that I had to choose between the 2 kids as to who to attend to, and Madison had to suffer from bad dermatitis as a result. I know she doesn't blame me, but if I had cleaned her up earlier she would not have had to suffer the pain of excoriated skin.

I'm not sure what we're going to do tonight, because she most certainly should not be sleeping in a wet diaper ( not that she'd agree anyway ) .. I have to see if one of us works something out.

As for Annika, I'm still trying to work out a regular schedule for her so that she's less grumpy and settles better at her afternoon nap. Yesterday things were slightly more settled, she slept in the morning for an hour, then settled beautifully in the afternoon for a decent 2 1/2 hour nap, and one more later in the afternoon for another hour or so. I figured that should be roughly what she needs at the moment during the day. Night time is a different ballgame! It's still variable as to when she wakes, so I take it one night at a time. The only thing I have learnt is that I do need to pump a little just before she nurses at night so that she that she doesn't choke, gulp huge amounts of air and then fuss over gas and then refuse to settle.

Sigh... that's motherhood for you, I guess...