Parental and filial hardship

Well, last night we hit what felt to me like one of the worst trials yet of parenthood, and I'm sure if Daisy could tell us, she'd say it's been one of her worst times, too... she just couldn't stop barfing. She has been sick since Saturday with what I thought was just a cold, but I'm not so sure anymore. She is very congested and has a horrible, chesty cough. The doctor had assured us it wasn't anything like pneumonia so that we shouldn't be worried, but just try to get through it with her; baby cold medicines are off the market, as you probably know if you're a parent. But yesterday she seemed worse than ever. She threw up all over our bed while she was nursing; she had dinner afterward, but ended up throwing it up everywhere after she went to bed. It is all a blur, but I think she threw up once after that, too. She has been throwing up so many times each day that we had to buy new crib sheets because we can't keep up with the wash. It is scary and difficult and sad. She's exhausted but has been unable to nap because she's so stuffed up. On Monday I decided I'd rock her through her nap time, holding her fairly upright to help her breathing, but even so she could only sleep about ten minutes because she was drowning in so much mucous. So things are just snowballing: exhaustion, throwing up, then not having enough nutrition and getting dehydrated, I fear, all adding on to the original problem of the cold (or whatever it is). And she had JUST been recovering from this awful rash, the Gianotti Crosti syndrome, which manifested in all these awful red papules all over her body. She is mostly over that, thank God, though her feet are still blistering. I hate feeling so helpless... and I am tired myself and demoralized. We're back at school this week, too, and I am trying to start things off well with my students. Hard to do when you're so tired and when your whole house reeks of barf.