red berries and puke

well, we had a scare here last night...

i had planned on coming home, working on my bid for days off this next year, then going to bed. instead i get home and amy is sitting in the recliner with meira, in the semi-dark, lit only by the solstice branch lights (more on the solstice branch later). "what's up?", i ask. meira had been throwing up, that's what. she had eaten some red berries in the backyard.

amy had spoken to an insurance on-call nurse, the doctor and erika. i didn't understand the erika connection until amy told me that perry had eaten some, too. but perry wasn't throwing up. erika was also able to positively identify the berry since her husband geoff is majoring in a very obscure botanical field...i don't remember what, but it's something like anthropological botany.

anyway, the doctor said meira didn't need to go to the emergency room unless she threw up again. he said they wouldn't treat the cause, only the symptoms. of course the danger was dehydration. meira had thrown four times already. but in between one of those times she had managed to nurse and keep down the milk. she was asleep, the doctor had said no need to keep her awake, but woke up and vomited bile...then fell instantly asleep again. while i changed the sheets on the bed (she had thrown up there earlier) amy and i talked about what to do.

we both felt that meira was not in danger of dehydrating and that a trip to the emergency room would only be traumatic. we agreed to see what happened the next time she woke up. i sat down with meira in the recliner while amy went to change (she had been thrown up on) and do some research on the web. meira was sleeping like the little sleeping angel she is, not like the little troublemaker she can be while awake. her breathing was deep and steady. she was getting good rest. after a while amy came back in the room and began pinching meira's fingers and toes. she was searching for signs of dehydration. apparently, if you pinch one of the extremeties and the color comes right back, plenty hydrated. meira seemed fine.

amy decided to stay up with meira. i went to bed. eowyn woke up and got in bed with me. that meant i was perched precariously on the edge of the king size bed with eowyn shoving against me. i slept fitfully. at sometime during the night the door burst open and meira came in squealing and laughing. she blew right back out just as quickly. i figured she must be ok. i fell asleep again.

a few minutes before six am, amy came to bed with meira. meira had thrown up once more, just as amy had gotten meira's pajamas on her. all seemed well and they went to sleep. i got amy up at 7:30, she called work and said she'd be in a little later. eowyn and i got up and went to my work so i could turn in my vacation bid before 8:30. we came back home and went to the kitchen. eowyn wanted to watch a movie so i put in alladin. i went to get her some water, came back, and there stands meira staring at the television, smiling. i gathered her up, changed her diaper, got some water for her, made oatmeal (which eowyn calls apano...more on that later) and fed her as much as she would eat (about what a bird would eat). she was smiling and laughing and playing with, for want of a better description, a male barbie. she started calling out "mermaid, mermaid?". she wanted the ariel barbie!

we got amy up at 10:00 and she went to work. as i write this meira keeps coming up asking for "bapo". that means "apple". so i feed her some apple and she plays happily. crisis diverted. red berries lose.