A Trip to the Emergency Room

Well Mr. Gillen let us know just how stubborn her really is upon deciding not to eat or drink anything. He refused to nurse Saturday morning around 10am biting me if I offered. We figured he was teething so we let him be. I continued to try thorughout the day and he wouldn't take even one drop. We had a wedding to go to, and couldn't leave a tired hugry not-eating baby with our sitter so we brought him with us. He was perfectly content, but not eating.

When we arrived home we tried to offer him a cup, water, anything and eventually ended up force feeding him breastmilk with a syringe. No pee all day and we told ourselves that if by morning there wasn't any eating or any peeing... our guy needed to go to the hospital.

So at 10am Sunday morning a friend came and got Owen (we didn't want him along if Gil needed an IV and/or a feeding tube) and off we went.

I had flashbacks of being in that very same emergency room when Owen was burning up and was a complete mess. All the while, our little guy was smiles and happy.

The second the resident walked in the room to evaluate him, he latched on an nurse like nothing was wrong. OF COURSE HE DID.  With that and his adorable smiles, I honestly don't think they believed us. They told us to bring him back if he stopped eating again but as long as he was happy, drooly baby sometimes it's okay to have no wet diapers and an eating strike.

He didn't latch again until Tuesday morning (despite a visit to the pediatrician on Monday declaring him okay to continue his strike). A friend of ours told us her family came down with the most horrible sore throat she's ever had. So perhaps Gil had that and just couldn't tell us.

72 hour eating strike. This guy was letting us know who the boss is :)

Sick toddlers are the saddest thing ever

A few weekends ago Owen came down with a nasty cold. He had snot running EVERYWHERE, eyes watering and hacking up a lung. Within a day he had pink-eye in both eyes and was waking up every half hour at night screaming for me. The doctor said it was most likely viral, but he gave us drops for the pink eye to prevent spreading it to Jeremy and I.  Our poor little guy was so miserable. It was a beautiful weekend so we took him out for a hike in the pack carrier. He was happy to be outside, but quickly fell asleep in the carrier. This picture breaks my heart, poor little guy! :(

Anytime he awoke from sleeping his entire face was crusted shut. Snot everywhere and his eyes were a mess. It took me 15 minutes of holding hot compresses on his face each time, with him mostly screaming through it. I'm not sure if it is because I'm pregnant, exhausted or just grossed out by mucus but I was on the verge of gagging. I've been barfed on more times than I'd like to count (my kid is a puker) but this was by far the worst for me. It's all part of being a Mama, but it killed me that I was so totally grossed out by it all.

For over a week I was getting up with him, hot compressing his face, washing his towels, washcloths, sheets, blankets, EVERYTHING. I basically scrubbed my own hands raw trying to avoid it. We thought he was in the clear this past weekend, but then today both Owen and I woke up with pink eye. I also have a stuffy nose and killer sore throat (which explains some of his screaming at night,it hurts!) So needless to say, we're a little yuck over here.

I have my 16 week OB visit tomorrow so I'll post about my cervical measurements and our plan for this pregnancy soon.

Owen's First Ear Infection

Owen has had a cold for the past few weeks (which he has graciously shared with Jeremy) but his cough and runny nose weren't too much of a concern until the other night when he woke up screaming at 4am and slept/cried on me from 4am-9am pulling at his left ear.  This was so out of character for our boy so I brought him into the doctor.

He's never had an ear infection, but sure enough, the doctor said his left ear looked red. Owen has been taking significantly less milk from me over the past few weeks, and I couldn't help but to feel guilty. That Mama-milk kept him really healthy for close to two years and the minor illnesses he did have were short-lived at best. Jeremy reminded me that even breastfed babies get ear infections and we were just lucky to have avoided it this long, and for it to have been so minor.

He was acting fine later in the day, and good as new the next day so for now, we're holding off on giving him what would be his first round of antibiotic, ever. We have his 2-year well check coming up so he'll have his ear re-checked then.

Owen only really visits the doctor for vaccines so naturally, the visit was pretty traumatic for him (even though EVERYONE assured him, he would not be getting a shot). He cried in my arms for the entire visit, but did let the doctor look in his ears and mouth and listen to his heart. Poor little guy, can't wait for spring to clear out some of these nasty toddler germs!

(O was tired/cranky in the morning and didn't want to be filming this but I wanted his first-hand account of our visit)

Tackle Me Elmo

Owen and I came down with our first nasty cold last week so we spent a lot of time indoors, with tissues just the two of us.

We stayed in jammies most days, took long naps and played toys. Owen really likes his tickle me Elmo right now and I snapped a few pictures of our sick little buddy playing.

(of note: He also calls his elbow "Elmo" and sometimes its hard to make the distinction...)

This boy shows Elmo no mercy!

Oh, Owen also enjoyed a snack (as did our carpet)

I have no shame

See that juicy snot-river? It ended up on my pants five seconds after this picture was taken.

Last week was rough to say the least. Jeremy was slammed at work and Owen and I came down with a nasty vomit/cold he picked up at the gym daycare.  Yes vomit/cold is an official diagnosis and yes, we survived.

I FINALLY got up the nerve to leave him at the gym while I worked out and this is how karma repays me.

Karma clearly hasn't seen my thighs.

You can read more about how awesome last week was here on Kveller.com

Better

Sorry about the delay in posting, Owen is much better. His fever broke completely on Wednesday. No rash, no diarrhea. We still have no idea what caused it to spike so high and for so long, but we're hoping with all our hearts that it is gone for good. Now we're working on getting him to eat (cue frustration...) Today's success? He ate 1/4 cup of black beans ONE.BY.ONE.  It took him nearly an hour but whatever works, right?

Today was a beautiful day and we celebrated a healthy baby (and Daddy's day off!) with a morning trip to the zoo. We were able to see the tiger babies for the first time today and they are HUGE already!

Things around here are so busy lately. We are in the process of looking for a new apartment - bigger and cheaper seems to be quite the challenge. The thought of packing up and moving again makes me want to poke my eyes out with jalapeno pepper fingers. I cannot believe we've almost lived here a year. I've been missing Dayton, missing our house and temple mostly and lately I find myself daydreaming about a place that I didn't know I considered "home" until we left.  Thankfully we're making a trip there VERY soon!

Update

I thought we were out of the woods this morning when Owen woke up a cool 98.6 and stayed that way through much of the afternoon, including his follow-up appointment with the pediatrician. No fever, no ear or throat redness - still a mystery what caused it.  Then he woke up from his afternoon nap at 103.5, a fussy crying mess. He still isn't eating for me, with the exception of nursing. He weighed 20.5 lbs at the doctor today, which is pretty much the same thing he's weighed for the last two months. The doctor said he is still in the 20th percentile for breastfed babies and not to worry too much.

If the fever continues we'll be back in for a more extensive work up -- right now Roseola is on the table and we're just hoping for a rash in the coming days.

I never thought I'd say that I am hoping for a RASH.

He was really, really hot

Owen is really sick again. He woke up Saturday with a mild fever, which I thought might be teething since I noticed he has an incisor breaking through. By mid-day I realized he was definitey sick; cligy, crying, temperature rising. He nursed but wouldn't eat. He took a nap from 3-7pm and when I went in to get him his fever was 104 and he threw up all over me. We gave him a cool bath and tried to bring it down. He was pretty cool by the time we put him down at 10pm with some Advil. He was fitful so I went in and out rocking him back to sleep and finally got to bed myself at midnight.

I set my alarm for 3am to check on him and redose his Advil. When I went in he was sleeping in a huge pile of vomit and when I reached in to get him he was burning up.

I was already so upset about the vomit, how did I not hear him throw up on the monitor? I woke Jeremy to put on fresh sheets while I changed Owen. I took his temperature and it was 106.4

and I took it again because I felt like I was going to faint.

106.4

I got really upset and we realized we needed to take him to the hospital. Jeremy wanted to get his fever down a bit before we went and waited in the ER. We gave him Advil and called the doctor while we put him in a cool tub. He was such a trooper. The water was COLD, but he let me read him his splash book over and over without so much as a complaint. After an hour we could only get the temp down to 104.9.

Jeremy dressed for work and we carpooled to Children's Hospital. They got us in very quick and by the time they took his temp is was almost under 100. When the doctor came she said she had never seen a temperature register that high and that they wanted to run some blood work  -- given this was the second episode of high unexplained fever in the last month. We decided since he was having an IV blood draw we would also get him some fluids, since his wet diapers have been scarce.

He was SUCH an angel. My sweet boy barely made a fuss when they put the IV in his hand.

The doctor came back and to let us know the blood work all came back very good,

"we were a little worried about cancer."

CANCER. I died a little inside.

I guess some forms of leukemia present with very high fevers that appear to be sporadic. I didn't want Owen to be sick, but I was thankful for a virus and not ... well something I hadn't even considered.

We were able to bring him home mid morning and I've been trying to keep his fever down all day. As soon as the Advil/Tylenol start to fade his fever spikes again. We're hoping it will break soon. It was a beautiful day, so after he and I took a long nap we went for a walk and I blew some bubbles for him. He loves to be outside.

 We're still trying to keep his fever down tonight, but here's hoping some spring sunshine on these baby toes helped a little.

Wordless Wednesday

No one said being a Mama was going to be glamorous...

Apparently, O is still feeling a little under the weather. Just ask the cheesy-calliflower-scrambled egg shower he gave us this afternoon.

Oy.

We have our baby back

Thank you for all of your calls, texts, messages and prayers.We went to the doctor yesterday and while O was still miserable (he slept on me and nursed for most of the visit) it was just a virus running its course. We did feel even worse for him when the doctor looked in his mouth and declared it a "war zone" with four molars half-through and two incisors pushing in. Teething has not been kind to Mr. O.

Owen's fever finally broke early this morning. He ate breakfast for me for the first time since Thursday so that was a relief.

I knew he was back to his old self again when he was dancing with Ellen DeGeneres this morning.

I'll admit, both Jeremy and I took advantage of the sick baby snuggles over the past three days. He hasn't slept on us since he was a newborn and it felt nice to have a cuddly boy who needed us, but we are thrilled to have a happy, healthy boy back and I'm happy to not be sleeping on the couch anymore.

Our first real sickness was quite the experience. I now have to stop myself from buying a plastic bubble to lock him in until he's 18.

Fever persists

Unfortunately O wasn't much better today. We struggled to keep his fever below 103.5 and had to put him in a tepid bath when it reached over 104 -- he was NOT a fan. He nursed and slept on us for most of the day so the good news is he's hydrated. I'm so glad we're still nursing and he can find comfort when he's ill. He hasn't eaten in two days and is only drinking a few sips of water for us out of the sippy cup. We're trying to avoid going to the hospital so we've been in contact with the doctor and as long as he's nursing and we can keep his fever down a little bit it is fine for us to take care of him at home. The doctor wants to see him tomorrow morning at 10am.

Tonight as I was rocking Owen to sleep he threw up all over me. Jeremy came in to grab him and help me get cleaned up. Oddly enough, Owen's fever broke and all of a sudden he wanted to play with toys and eat some cheese?


We'll see what the rest of tonight brings...

It was bound to happen

Today Owen woke up at 6am screaming his little heart out. I rushed in to get him and my heart sank as I picked up a burning hot baby. I stripped him down to his onsie and took his temperature, 102.3.  SHIT. I fumbled around for the Tylenol while he screamed on the changing table. O has had some low teething fevers before but never anything over 100. I brought him into our bed and tried to comfort him but he was having none of that. I brought him back in the nursery and rocked him and nursed him and finally he found sleep around 9am. He woke up screaming again at noon and I took his temperature again, 105.  I almost cried when I saw the thermometer reading. I actually started to get light headed and felt a little nauseous with fear, but forced myself to get it together. I gave him more Tylenol and called the doctor. They said to keep him hydrated, dressed cool and loose, give Tylenol every 4 hours and to call back in an hour to report if the fever had gone down, "even a couple points it good, just know you're not going to bring it back down to normal and that is fine as long as you can bring it down a little bit."

An hour later it was 103.2 so apparently that was moving in the right direction. I literally spent the entire day with a firey ball of crying, nursing, sleeping baby attached to me. My heart was breaking for him and I did everything I could to stay hydrated and try to sneak in meals for myself. Each time I tried to put him down he would cry hysterically so I scooped him back up and made my way to the couch. We stayed in the same spot most of the day, he nursed and slept while I cleared out the DVR. It was 70 degrees and sunny today and I so badly wanted to bring him outside for some fresh air but he just wanted to be held and nursed.

Jeremy came home from work around 7pm and tried to relieve me. Owen was asleep nursing when Jeremy walked in the door and in a groggy, sleepy voice he said, "Dah-dy?" MELT ME WITH CUTENESS WHY DON'T YOU!!

It was long day and even with Jeremy home, Owen wanted me. It felt nice to be needed, but I was longing for that smiley boy from yesterday. In the last few days we've been around a toddler who goes to preschool, we've been on a plane and he's licked a few shopping carts (much to my horror). Somewhere along the way he picked up a nasty bug that is tearing through his little system.

Today I learned a new lesson in being a Mama. I learned to be calm and patient. I learned not to take it for granted when O is too busy playing to nap. I savored the snuggles and was so grateful I was able to comfort our boy. Today was hard, but we made it through. 

Please keep baby O in your thoughts and prayers, hopefully he'll be on the mend soon.

Three down

Owen's behavior last week was DEFINITELY SICK creeping up on us. Sleeping in until 11am everyday, not standing up in his crib, whimpering, OH AND BARFING ON ME. Poor little one was fighting off a nasty bug, which finally hit me (duh) at 6am on Saturday morning when I was having all kinds of strange dreams. I dreamt that we were running errands and I kept having to find the bathroom in each store... to throw up (You know, like one of those dreams where you dream you are peeing in this huge white porcelain toilet and it feels OOOOOH SO RELAXING and then you realize you are THIS CLOSE to pissing the bed? Apparently that works with vomiting too.)

CUE WAKE UP AND RUN FOR IT.

Oh god, and it was Jeremy's day off so I was trying to be quiet so not to wake him. In between losing it and crying (yes, I still cry. Don't judge.) I did what any other Mama in my situation would do -- I took a pregnancy test.

Negative. Whew!

And this is how it went for most of the morning. Thankfully, (because he was sick) Owen slept in until 10:30 which allowed for me to crawl back in bed for an hour. When I heard him, I went to change his diaper. I had the diaper fastened but as I was putting one leg back in the jammies, I gagged. I ran to to find Jeremy with Owen flailing around in my arms half-naked. I don't even remember handing him over before I collapsed on the ground and crawled into the kitchen to find the trash can. Alien exorcisms sound better than I did, I was actually embarrassed that my husband had to hear me (let alone come and switch out the trash bags for me).

I sat on the kitchen floor while Jeremy ran across the street to the convenient store to get some crackers and gatorade. Owen sat in his high chair and waved at me, turning his head to the side to match my pathetic positioning on the floor.  It was adorable.

Luckily, we still had some of the anti nausea meds left over from the last time I was sick, which helped enough for me to get some fluids down because O wanted to nurse. Jeremy had to go in to work for a few hours (on his day off, I know...) so I had to hold down the fort. The second the door shut Owen started screaming. I tried to feed him lunch but he hasn't wanted to eat solids in almost a week now. A few bites here and there and then refuses. He ate a little yogurt and some fruit for me and as I walked into the nursery to put him down for a nap - he threw up all over both of us.

I know I have been so incredibly lucky that this was our first actual illness and Owen is almost a year old but it was a new parenting low for me. I thought July was bad when it was just me that was sick. Nope. both of us sick is even worse. How do people DO THIS? And how on earth would you prevent yourself from getting something like this from your kid? I was thinking to myself that Owen isn't going to actually throw up in a toilet for like five more years (if I'm lucky).

Jeremy finally came home and took care of Owen so that I could rest. Our sweet neighbors saw my "mama-baby barfing" post on Facebook and called to make sure Jeremy was home and see if they could bring us anything. Sooo sweet, but HELL NO. I wouldn't let anyone in during this horror show. As we were going to sleep that night I said, "I can't believe I got this gross bug from Owen."  and Jeremy says, "I know, I was really hoping you were pregnant."

4am Sunday morning Jeremy left for his first day on a new service and while he was talking with a patient - HE PUKED IN HIS MOUTH and suffered through the 30+hr overnight call (see what happens to you when you wish pregnancy on your puking wife?)

We're on the mend now, but none of us have much of an appetite which is beginning to show on Owen. He's definitely lost a little weight so if he doesn't start eating soon I'm going to have to call the doctor. Thankfully, he's still nursing.

Yesterday we just played inside and Owen went all bone, thugs and harmony on me. Oh, and he claps now. And says some version of doggie/ducky (gac-gnnnn). I think we'll keep him.

If you're going to spew, spew into THIS

Owen has been a little off his game this week. He slept in until 10am the past two days and instead of enjoying it, I freaked out and ran into his room to make sure he was still alive. Ah, motherhood. He was still smiling through our days together but just... off.

Today we went to the JCC for storytime and as we were walking out he barfed EVERYWHERE. Me, him, the parking garage. All of us. Yum.

I was a little thrown off, I mean it was actual throw up - a first for us. So we went home. I cleaned us both up and put my clothes and his coat in the wash and we sat down for lunch. I tried to find bland things for him to eat, so he had some pears and a little chicken soup with oatmeal mixed in. He opened his mouth a few times for each and then he was done - which was totally fine with me. I turned around to get a cloth to wipe him and... BLECK. Again, all over himself.

Once - perhaps a fluke? Twice. Maybe he's sick?

After I cleaned him up I cuddled him on the couch and it snuck up on us. AGAIN. And in a valiant attempt to save the couch - I caught most of it... IN MY HANDS ((gag))

I realized that I had never had another person puke in my hands before - mine? Sure. Plenty of times. Growing up I used to cup it while I ran from my bed to the toilet because the rule in our house was, if you make a mess - you clean it up. My mom gagged at the sight of throw up so we were pretty much on our own when it came to that.

Some things about babies puking -

--- there is no warning

---- it makes a mess on everything in its path

---it still smells like adult vomit (without the beer and left over Chinese food)

the funniest thing about it was that Owen was completely unphased. Most of the puke today was a sneak attack. Like an unsuspecting puke-burp or barf-cough come to think of it - last night he hiccup-vomed all over Jeremy but we thought it was because Daddy jiggled him too much right after eating. But the best part about it was right after he did it --- HE SMILED. Owen laughs when he sneezes so I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but smiling when you barf is definitely something he'll outgrow.

He is still nursing and napped like a champ today so we'll see where this sickness goes.

And in the meantime, we'll keep him hydrated

and smiling ;)

Lazy

I asked one of my Mama friends, "How do you know if runny nose is from sick or from teething?"

My friend, "Its hard to tell, I usually gauge it on whether or not I get sick."

Owen is definitely sick... and now so are we. Jeremy and I both contracted whatever nasty cold bug Owen brought home. Oddly enough - O is on the mend and we are sniffling and snorting around complaining of sore throats. Maybe we should chug some breastmilk too - god knows I have enough of it downstairs!

I don't think you can truly appreciate this video until you are a mother.The entire thing cracks me up. I was happy to find that I am a combination of both of these Mamas - even though at first I thought for sure I was the crazy chick ;)