Gyan was having a minor surgery, so we picked Emily up from school when we got Landon on Thursday and took her to Thursday night dinner, which was great. We celebrated another friend’s birthday.
Friday night Bobby and I had Em again, she’s such a joy. Our furniture arrived, and Bobby and I set about putting it together while the kids watched Monsters Inc. (see couch construction photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jadesymb/sets/72157623722991472/)
We got the couch put together before heading to bed that night. In the morning, I got up with the kids. Bobby got up around 9, and felt like crap. He was puking and hurt all over, so he went back to bed. I took Em home and went to Costco.
At Costco I got the run around on Columbia’s valley fever meds AGAIN. I came home and called the vet who blamed the pharmacy. The vet called the pharmacy and got it straightened out.
I took Landon to Holly’s third Birthday. We had a blast at the party. We planted a really pretty flower to take home. Landon was doing really well with not eating anything, and I was pretty trusting of him. Apparently I was too trusting. Landon came running up to me with something in his mouth. My heart totally stopped. I managed to fish it out of his mouth, and it smelled fruity and sweet, so I was pretty sure it didn’t have milk in it. Still, we went on a wild chase to find the little girl with the box of candy. It was a mentos of some kind, but it was THANKFULLY Dairy free. I loaded Landon up and gave him a long talking to on the way home. Hopefully that won’t happen again.
Then we went back to Costco to get Colo’s meds before heading home. The pharmacy blamed the vet’s office, of course.
Saturday Morning Oliver finally figured out how to Roll! SO PROUD!
Bobby was pretty sick all weekend, but was feeling better on Monday! Despite this on Sunday we went to Uncle Jack’s birthday lunch at Black Angus. The kids were really well behaved! I was very impressed.
Ollie is still congested, but seems to be doing just fine. He’s back up to eating a ton of food, and he’s had rice cereal 3 times now. I am thinking that he might need more, as he wakes up in the night (still) to feed around 1AM. Also, this rolling is neat and new and cool, but it’s causing him to wake up in the night. He tends to roll and then wake up upset as he can’t get back yet. Soon he’ll figure out how to flip.
Mostly, he’s a happy baby. Here’s a short video of him cooing at me and smiling at me as I make silly faces at him.
Long story short, Ollie was sick and dehydrated, went to the ER Saturday night, where he finally started eating again. He’s better today and at school.
The last 7 days started out okay, but it’s been absolutely crazy and sucky and pretty hellish, although not as hellish as Ollie’s Nov hospital stay. It’s been pretty bad though.
I’ve got to recap at this point, for my own sanity, so sorry that it’s tl;dr.
Monday March 15:
-Seemed like a normal Monday, my first Monday back at work. Kids went to school, both had coughs and stuffy noses, nothing too severe.
-Picked Kids up early for Ollie’s “Well visit”
-Discovered Landon still had an ear infection in his right ear, got stronger RX for that.
-Got Ollie vaxed
-Came home and found out Bobby was sick.
-Took both kids to Landon’s swim class myself, which was a PITA, but Landon enjoyed his class.
-Ollie was fussy and slightly fevered from vaxing, did not sleep well
-Landon had a coughing fit in the middle of the night and threw up
-Realized I had to keep the kids home Tuesday.
Tuesday March 16
-Worked from home although I really needed to be in the office
-Landon did not feel well and needed extra attention
-Ollie did not feel well and needed extra attention
-Struggled to get work done while caring for the kids
-Ollie did not sleep well, so I did not sleep well.
Wednesday March 17
-Normal work from home day for me, and the kids stayed home with me
-Ollie was a little fussy but his fever broke and he seemed to be recovering
-Gave Ollie a little bit of Rice
-Landon felt better and wanted to play, was upset that Ollie needed extra attention
-Came down sick myself. This so sucked. I started feeling queasy and icky. I was getting Ollie ready for his bath, so I was sitting on the floor, and I suddenly realized that as soon as I stood up I would have to throw up. I asked Bobby to take the baby. I then spent about 5 minutes sitting on the floor trying to keep from vomiting, while trying to decide when I stood up where the best place to run to in order to vomit was. Ended up throwing up in the kitchen sink. Briefly felt better. Got the kids ready for bed. Felt worse. Went to sleep.
-Got up with Ollie at 1AM, was in the middle of preparing his bottle when I realized that I was going to throw up again. Woke up Bobby and had him take over Oliver care for the night. Laid in bed and tried not to be too sick.
Thursday March 18
-Bobby takes the kids to school. I drag myself off the floor and decide that I can make it to work, the nausea has finally eased a little, although I basically don’t eat anything but bread all day.
-So wiped out from the start of the week, decide to do the unthinkable and skip Thursday night dinner.
-Bobby is tired and stressed and decides to take a personal day on Friday from work to attempt to relax and recharge.
-Manage to make it through work, feeling almost normal by the end of the day, Looking forward to relaxing with the family.
-Bobby picks up Ollie only to discover that Ollie A) did not eat very well at school and B) was wheezing and coughing pretty bad.
-Cancel Friday’s game due to sick kids. Console myself with the thought that I can watch New Moon on Saturday with friends.
– I decide that Ollie’s breathing looks bad, and we give him a breathing treatment. He improves greatly. I tell Bobby Ollie has Bronchiolitis and needs to be seen by the doctor, because last time he got it we were already on antibiotics for an ear infection and I don’t know if they prescribe antibiotics for this.
-Ollie’s food/liquid intake slows
Friday March 19th
-I take Landon to school and then go to work, Bobby gives up his personal day as a “Daddy and Sick Oliver day”
-Ollie basically stops eating anything other a few sucks
-Ollie goes to the doctor, who agrees it’s Bronchiolitis, and basically tells us to do what we were doing, and that we need to take Ollie to the emergency room if he doesn’t pick up the pace on food.
-Bobby manages to get some fluids in Ollie, starts a log to track Ollie’s food intake and wet diapers.
-We decide to cancel the New Moon Party I’ve had planned for months.
-I leave work early to help with Ollie.
-Ollie still not eating well, and now is not sleeping for a solid hour anymore. He wakes up after about 45 minutes to cry. This is around the clock at this point. At night I co sleep with him in my arms, because I’m not really sleeping, I’m watching him breathe.
Saturday March 20th
-Around 2AM, I am holding Ollie while he sleeps. I feel him get warmer, and warmer. I know he’s running a fever. It was pretty weird to “see” it happen of the course of about 20 minutes. I get up when he starts crying and give him Tylenol and some leftover amoxicillin. His fever is gone in 20 minutes
-4AM, I tag Bobby and fall asleep. I sleep until 9AM. I now have enough sleep to function.
-Ollie doesn’t want to eat. We stress. Landon is bored. I give Ollie a second dose of Amoxicillin 12 hours after the first dose.
-5PM rolls around, and Ollie is nowhere near enough fluid intake for the day. We begin discussing a visit to the emergency room.
-6PM. Bobby admits he is too tired to drive to the emergency room. I admit that I am doing okay, but am worried that if Ollie’s condition worsens in the night, I might not be “safe” to drive either. We decide to go to the ER now rather than in the middle of the night. I pack a bag in case we get admitted.
-6:50pm. I arrive at the ER. I put Oliver in his sling, grab our bags, and enter the hospital. We go through intake. Ollie is in good spirits. He is smiling and cooing at the nurses. He looks like the healthiest kid in the whole ER. I haven’t really talked about this visit, so I’m going to veer away from bullets for a bit.
We go sit in one of the smaller waiting rooms. The room is mostly empty when we sit down, but it starts filling pretty quickly. Finally I decide to find a different room to wait in when a couple enters with a baby in his car seat. The poor little baby sounds awful, like he’s hacking up a lung. Ollie’s stuffy wheezing is disturbing, but this baby is way way worse. The people sit down and within 60 seconds, the entire room is filled with the cloying scent of cigarette smoke. The room isn’t that big, but I’m at least 10 chairs from them, and the smell is making me sick. I admit, I’m overtly sensitive to that smell, I really dislike it. All I could think, however, is how hard it must be on that poor, hacking baby to be breathing in that much smoke all the time. I decide to take Oliver out of that room and wait in the main entry way instead.
I take him out and sit down in the nice, open lobby. Sitting a few feet away from me in the nearest chair is young girl, and she’s got a baby in a car seat who is asleep next to her. She asks what’s up with Ollie, I tell her and we begin to talk. The girl is 17. Her baby is 8 months old. She brought her to the ER because her baby is has been throwing up for three days straight. The baby been very congested and has suddenly struck a high fever that home OTC meds have not been able to help.
I offer Ollie food, he declines vehemently.
Ollie gets called back and checked out by a triage nurse. It’s about 8:30. The nurse sends us back out to the waiting room.
I offer Ollie the bottle again, but he wants nothing to do with it. He is still not acting hungry.
Ten minutes later we get called back and put in a room. I pay the hospital $50. A doctor shows up, and I give him the whole sordid history that I just told the triage nurse.
The doctor replies with, “Oh, he’s not eating? We have a cure for that.” Then he checks Oliver’s ears. He tells me Ollie’s ears are too full of wax to see anything, and a nurse enters to wrap Oliver up and hold him down. The doctor cleans out one ear and confirms we have an ear infection in this ear. He doesn’t bother to clean or check the other ear.
The doctor does tell me that the Bronchiolitis is mostly cleared up, and that Ollie’s lungs are sounding good. He says what we are hearing now is mostly in Ollie’s sinus cavity. This was indeed good news.
Then the doctor examined Oliver’s mouth and made sure there was no reason he was skipping his meals. Finding no sores or anything, he then had the nurse show me the “cure” for his not eating. I am so not kidding here. The cure was to hold Oliver down and drip pedalite into his mouth one CC at a time until he ate 3 oz. We did 10CCs, and then they basically had me sit and wait for his RX for his ear, and told me to get 3oz down him. I decided that it was madness, and to try to just get him to drink the pedalite himself. The pedalite was the hospital issue 2 oz bottles that you can attach a nipple directly to. I put the nipple on and stuck it in his mouth. Suddenly, low and behold, that stubborn, mule headed, takes after his father little boy started eating. He ate three ounces all on his own.
We left the hospital around 10:30pm, and went to Walgreens and got his RX filled. I decided to just walk around the Walgreens (and buy more pedalite). That late, they were very fast and we got out of there in about 15 minutes. Once we got home, a little after 11pm, I woke up Bobby and had him help me get Oliver meds and ready for bed. Then I stayed up with an awake Ollie until almost 1AM. He finally started winding down and acting tired (after eating more food).
Ollie slept till 4AM, then woke, ate again, and then slept for another hour before waking for the day.
He was still congested and fussy on Sunday. However, Bobby’s awesome Mom came by and sat with the boys for an hour or two so that Bobby and I could escape and get lunch. She is just such an amazing woman, always willing to help. My family is so lucky to have her! I have the best Mother in Law on the planet!
Last night, around 4pm, Ollie, other than his still stuffy nose, finally started acting like himself. He was mostly happy, took a good bath, ate well, and went to bed at his usual time.
He woke at 2AM to eat once, then back to bed till 4AM, where I moved him to his swing, and he slept until 6AM when we got him up for breakfast and school.
When we got home from the hospital we switched his bottles to 2oz formula, 2 oz pedalite, then upped it to 4oz of each. Last night I went to 6oz formula to 2 oz pedalite, and that is what he has at school today.
Oliver, while ill, was mostly a good baby. He would often wake and cry for a few minutes, but once we got him comfortable and distracted, he would smile and talk and coo for long stretches before fusing again for 10 minutes, and then finally falling asleep.
I am really happy it is spring, and I’m hoping that with Spring and 80 degree weather that started last week, this will be our last major illness for a while. Cross your fingers for us. I did call Oliver’s school today and he is doing great and eating well for them.
I didn’t get to watch New Moon yet, but I’m hoping to be able to have some people over and watch it this weekend. Bobby got a blue ray player and bought me New Moon on Blue Ray. The Blue Ray player also lets us watch Youtube and Netflix videos on it. This feature really got us through the week, because we watched a ton of TOP GEAR on Youtube. If you haven’t ever watched it, you should it’s very funny!
Well, we’ve managed to stay out of the hospital so far. We’ll see if our luck holds out. The doctor wants him to have 26oz a day, and he’s managed 29oz in the last 24 hours. That’s down from his normal of over 40oz. His breathing still sounds bad to me, but he seems to be in good spirits so far today.
I was up with him pretty much all night, he never slept for more than 60 solid minutes before waking again and wanting some attention. Bobby took over at 4AM, so I slept from 4AM to about 9:30AM. Bobby (and Landon, and Ollie for that matter) is taking a nap right now. I’m hoping for a better night tonight. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Well, we’ve managed to stay out of the hospital so far. We’ll see if our luck holds out. The doctor wants him to have 26oz a day, and he’s managed 29oz in the last 24 hours. That’s down from his normal of over 40oz. His breathing still sounds bad to me, but he seems to be in good spirits so far today.
I was up with him pretty much all night, he never slept for more than 60 solid minutes before waking again and wanting some attention. Bobby took over at 4AM, so I slept from 4AM to about 9:30AM. Bobby (and Landon, and Ollie for that matter) is taking a nap right now. I’m hoping for a better night tonight. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
So this week I worked from home Monday afternoon, Tuesday, Weds, and Friday afternoon. In 8 days of work, I’ve managed to make a full day of it 4 times. 50% is not good odds. I really need to be in the office Monday and Tuesday next week for sure. This is just crazy stressful, to be a working mom. I know all the SAHM get all the props all over the internets, but man, I could use a little love for the working mom. It feels impossible. I really don’t want to be a SAHM. I like my job, I like my lifestyle. And most importantly, I LOVE my health insurance. Bobby’s job offers it and Bobby is on it, but it sucks compared to mine. And we need the really excellent health insurance right now, so I can’t afford to lose my job, even if I wanted to be a SAHM.
We got him to eat 6 oz, and he’s now on a steroid that might help.
And we have to nebulize him every 4 hours around the clock.
As long as he keeps eating we can keep him home.
Part of me wonders if we would be safer at the hospital.
I’m really not sure what to do anymore. Oliver is very sick, again.
It feels like Ollie is just sick all the time. I’ve worried about it. I’ve taken him to the doctor. I’ve treated him carefully. The boy has had at the minimum, a stuffy nose since January 26th. I am totally not kidding. That’s 53 days. Now a day or two in there he might have not had a stuffy, snuffly nose. I think there were a few. But pretty much, for 53 days straight, the BEST case has been a stuffy nose. He’s also had an ear infection and Bronchiolitis (twice now), along with having bad days and good days, not to mention a fever for two days due to Vaxing. Overall, he’s just been sickly. I’m not sure what to do anymore. I paid for one week of childcare this week, but he’s missed two days to illness.
First, he was born, and he was perfect. But a week after his birth we were in the hospital for almost a month, and he almost died. Then in January he started this runny nose, and it’s been nothing but a sickly boy since.
He went to school on Thursday, seeming to be mostly recovered from his vaxing on Monday. When Bobby picked him up from school they said that his cough had gotten worse, and they thought in the last hour it might have started wheezing. I couldn’t tell if the “wheezing” was just in his upper sinus cavity (and therefore not a big deal) or in his upper respiratory system (therefore possible Bronchiolitis again). Bobby decided to take a vacation day today (he decided yesterday to take a personal day) In order to take a break from the kids and the stress and the work. Instead he took Oliver into the doctor’s office.
He just called to tell me it’s Bronchiolitis again, and since Ollie hasn’t eaten or had a wet diaper in 6 hours, that if he doesn’t eat when Bobby gets home, Bobby needs to take him in for IV fluids at the ER. In the meantime we are supposed to give him breathing treatments every 4 hours. Apparently this case is worse than his last case. He’s also got a prescription for steroids that “might” help.
At least when I wasn’t working I could be there. I didn’t have to stress about staying home and caring for him. Today I’m at work and Bobby’s home with him. I missed one day of work to “WFH” on Tues when I should have been in the office and then I should have stayed home today with him (in hindsight) and I’ll probably leave early to go help Bobby, especially if Ollie ends up in the ER. I can’t afford to be half working, I’ll get fired. I can’t afford to pay for that much daycare if he’s not actually going. I don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel. He doesn’t seem to get better, just worse. I’m worried he has something major wrong with him, like an autoimmune disorder or something. I’m stressed out all the time.
I’ll know more in an hour or two, depending on if Ollie eats.
We got him to eat 6 oz, and he’s now on a steroid that might help.
And we have to nebulize him every 4 hours around the clock.
As long as he keeps eating we can keep him home.
Part of me wonders if we would be safer at the hospital.
People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect... but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it's more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly.... timey-wimey.... stuff.
-The Doctor
The Chronicles of a Henchwoman 