Ethan Update #2

He had 102 last night and has had 100-101 this morning. I called the Dr and he has an appointment at 1:20 today for blood work. I'm dreading that after the whole IV incident. I'm sure he'll freak out. Maybe he can get some antibiotics today. He seems to be feeling better. He said he didn't need to go see Dr. "Liams" today because he is feeling better. Right now he is standing on the back porch yelling "be quiet thunder!" It is raining outside. I sure hope our power doesn't go out today. I'm stressed enough! I'll update after his appointment.

Ethan Update

Yesterday I took Ethan to see Dr. Williams (or Dr. Liams as he calls her). He woke up with temp of 101 so I decided that it was time to be seen by someone other than the quacks from Children's ER. She said his throat was very red so she did a strep culture which came back negative. She also said he had very active bowel sounds for someone who hadn't had a bowel movement since Thursday (ya, that's another issue). So she ordered another xray of his intestines. She was checking to make sure he didn't have a blockage and to check for intussiception (where the intestine can get going so fast it telescopes inside itself - which would require surgery). The xray showed tons of built up gas which is probably what is giving him all the stomach pain. She said there is a virus going around that causes fever, vomiting, and diarrhea. In his case, he got bad stomach cramps and his intestines slowed down so much it filled him with gas. So what to do? I got the fun job of giving him a suppository. It worked about 2 hours later. He still had a fever of 102 at that point. She said if his fever persisted for longer than 5 days to call back. He woke up today with 100.9 I get that bad feeling that I'm going to have to call back tomorrow. I don't know what she'll do. Maybe more labs...joy. He ate a little this morning and kept it down but has complained a little about stomach pain. He was on the couch for 3 hours after he woke up this morning. I gave him some Motrin and his fever is gone for now. Right now he's running around and acting normal. But, if his fever comes back he'll hit the couch again. I'm so done with all of this and I know that he is too. Send up some prayers that Caleb doesn't get it!!!

Hospital Pics

That last post was so long that I decided to put the pics in a separate post. He's going to the Dr. today at 2:20 so I'll post an update after that. He is feeling better but still has fever and not really eating.

Here he is in the hospital bed. Notice there is NO PILLOW. I have evidence! He was watching Curious George on TV.
Here he is after an episode of stomach pain...so sad.
Obviously he's feeling better in this pic. This was when he was looking for his nurse to bring him some apple juice.
Mondo was trying to keep him entertained by taking funny pics on his phone. What a good daddy. This is Ethan's monkey face.

Ethan's First Trip to the ER

Thursday night was one of the worst nights of my life. It all began when we put Ethan to bed. He went to bed at 9pm with no complaints. I noticed on the monitor that he was moving a lot and seemed like he couldn't get comfortable. At 10pm he came to the kitchen and said he couldn't sleep. His voice was shaky and he seemed a little weird. We ended up laying down with him after reading a book. He fell asleep for a few minutes then woke up screaming in pain. He was crying and holding his stomach saying "My tummy hurts" and writhing around on the bed. I could tell from his cry that he was in severe pain. I thought maybe he just had an upset stomach and kept asking him if he needed to go to the bathroom and he said no. He finally calmed down and went back to sleep. 20 minutes later he woke up and did the same thing with the screaming and holding his tummy. This went on for two hours. Finally, I called his pediatrician. She told me to go to the ER at Childrens. I hung up with her and called my mom. I completely lost it when I was trying to tell her what was going on and told her to come over and watch Caleb. I think she and Dad were there within 5 minutes (I love living down the street from my parents!).

We got to Childrens at 1:30am and waited until 4:30am to be seen. We met the nurse, explained what was going on, she took his vital signs, then we didn't see her for 1.5 hours! She never came in to check on him or let us know what was going on. As a nurse myself, that did not go over well with me. He fell asleep during that time and the room was freezing and he had no pillow or blanket. I had to ask the lady from registration if he could have a blanket. I'm thinking, we are at a pediatric hospital right? Shouldn't they be thinking of these things??? Anyway, we saw two different doctors (one was a resident) and they said they were going to do an xray of his abdomen and a sonogram to rule out appendicitis and also draw blood. The nurse came in to draw blood and had IV stuff with her. I immediately said that the doctor didn't say anything about an IV. She said it is their protocol to start and IV when they draw labs to have access to a line if needed. That was fine. Of course right before she started, Ethan had his stomach pain again. He rolled over on his stomach and started crying and saying his tummy hurt. I asked her is she could wait a few minutes until the pain passed to start the IV. She kind of blew me off like she didn't have the time to wait or thought I was just being over protective. She just grabbed his arm out from under him and said she could start it while he was laying on his stomach. The whole process was horrible. I tried to be strong and not cry but I lost it. Ethan was screaming for me and Mondo and thrashing on the bed. Two people had to hold him down. She was able to get blood out of the IV but couldn't thread it all the way in so she had to take it out. She then started looking for another vein. I stopped her and asked he if it was really necessary to start an IV because I didn't think he needed it. She went and looked at the orders and came back and said they could wait on the IV until it was needed. I was still crying after the nurse left. Mondo gave Ethan a big hug after it was all over and lost it too. I'm sure we were quite a sight, losing it over a little IV stick! But it was so sad!!!

He slept off and on for the next few hours while we were waiting for more things to be done. He had his xray pretty soon after the IV so that didn't go well. We promised it wouldn't hurt and that it was just a picture but I don't think he believed us. He cried through the whole thing. He took one standing up and one laying down on his stomach. Then it was back to the room for more waiting. At this point it is shift change (7am) and I never saw my nurse after the IV stick. Basically we were there for hours and saw her twice. He had his sonogram at 8am and did fine with that. We had to wake him up to go for that. Poor thing hardly got any sleep. When we got back from that he was feeling better. He was standing at the door with his hands on his hips saying "Where's my nurse? I need some apple juice!" We saw our new nurse at around 7:30am then never saw her again. At 9am I went to the desk and asked for my nurse and some apple juice and the nurse at the desk said "Oh, I'm your new nurse. We had to switch." What kind of hospital is this??? So Ethan was happy to get his juice and I was mad about the nurse situation. Now it's 10am and we still don't have the results from the sono which is what we are waiting for to get the heck out of there. They initally said it would take an hour. At this point, we were the only people left on the entire hall. I was getting ready to find a supervisor when the doctor appeared and said that the results were negative for appendicitis and he just had some gas. I'm thinking, "seriously, gas is causing him this much pain?!" At that point I was just ready to get out of there. Throughout the whole stay he did have the episodes of stomach pain off an on but not as frequent as he did at home.

We all fell asleep when we got home and slept for a few hours. He ate some grapes when he got up around 3pm. He hadn't eaten since 6pm the night before. My parents kept Caleb until we went over there about 4:30. Ethan never got off my lap while we were there. That told me he really was sick! We went to pick up dinner from Pei Wei's because he requested noodles. We barely made it out of the parking lot and he threw up all the grapes he had eaten earlier. We had to pull over and strip him down. His car seat was pretty disgusting so I belted him in the back with me and covered him with a blanket. Luckily we live pretty close to Pei Wei's. We got him home and cleaned up and he felt hot. He had a fever of 101. I gave him some Tylenol and he passed out for a few more hours.

I slept with him Friday night and Mondo dealt with Caleb. He slept pretty well. I gave him Tylenol a couple of times for fever. He never threw up but was listless and complained about his tummy a lot. He made a grunting/moaning type of noise throughout the night. Of course, I didn't sleep very well. We went to bed at 10pm and woke up at 830am with broken up sleep.

He didn't eat much today (Saturday) and drank a little. His fever has been 101-102 and he is still complaining of stomach pain and whimpering off and on. He threw up again after eating some fruit literally right after I left for work. I timed that well. :-) He's like a little rollercoaster. He'll be fine for a while and wanting to play and then he'll start crying about his stomach and his temp will be back. He'll say "I need medicine and water." Luckily the Tylenol is grape flavor so he loves it.

So, I'll see how he does tomorrow (Sunday) and possibly take him to the Dr. on Monday if he's not better. I just feel bad like there's something really wrong with him and I'm missing it. I guess it's the nurse in me...and the worried mother. Oh, and needless to say, we won't be going back to Children's again...ever!

What is Caleb Up To?

Caleb is 7 months old now. He is very busy! He is getting better at crawling. He can crawl a few steps then gives up. I'm sure it will be a matter of days until he is all over the place. He can get to a sitting position after falling backwards which is nice. He has just started pulling up. He does good until he tries to let go and falls. Here are lots of pics and a video. The longer I wait to finish this blog, the more he is doing and the more pics I have!

This is the day I decided the bed needed to be lowered! I walked in to find him halfway pulled up and I didn't even know he could do it! Ethan enjoyed me lowering the bed...it meant that he could jump on Caleb's mattress while it was on the floor. Notice all of the untied strings on the bumper pad...Ethan strikes again.

Here's a side view. I thought he was playing with those toys when I left him. Little did I know he was trying to escape!

He has just now started to play with the dinosaur. It was Ethan's...of course if you ask him, it still is. Caleb likes to pull up on it. It plays music when you put the balls in the holes (which he can't do yet) but his favorite thing to do it play with the little animals on the top.

I just thought this face was funny.

This was his first time in his swing. I guess I put him in it a little too close to bedtime because after about 10 minutes he was fast asleep!

Here's another cute pic of his big toothless smile.

Ok, so he doesn't look happy here but he really does like his little jumper! This was the first time I put him in it. He wasn't so sure what he was supposed to do with it. He doesn't really jump in it which suprises me since he jumps like crazy when he stands on my lap. He likes to twirl and push the buttons. The other day Mondo and I looked up just as Ethan let him go after winding up the jumper as tight as he could. Caleb was spinning so fast and I freaked! I thought for sure he was going to have brain damage...maybe I over-reacted a bit.

I got all excited that he was holding his bottle for the first time. Actually, he had it propped on the high chair. This was the only day he would do it. Isn't it about time he held his own bottle?!

This is what I refer to as "Caleb's Corner". Ethan is always freaking out when Caleb gets his stuff in the playroom so I decided it was time to make Caleb a spot. Ethan and I gathered some baby toys and made him his own little place to play. He loves it! I am amazed at how he plays with the Little People farm. I thought he would be too young for it.

This is what I walked in and found the other night. I didn't know he could pull up on that! Look how crazy his hair is. That was right after his bath. About 20 seconds after I took this pic he let go and landed mouth first on the dinosaur tail which resulted in his first busted lip. It actually wasn't too bad but there was a little blood involved. He sucked on a piece of ice for about 5 minutes then was all better. I couldn't even see it the next day. Maybe he will be my accident prone child!

This is his new favorite place to pull up. He stands here forever and looks outside until his little legs start to shake. Then he looks around for me to help him sit down...then he gets right back up again. So big.

I just found out that Caleb loves to play peek-a-boo. I was trying to entertain him while Ethan finished his nap. I threw the cloth diaper over his head and he started laughing...the video show the rest.

Random Stuff

Cousin Blaine brought over his Rock Band video game last week. Ethan loved it. He played the drums and the guitar. He says he likes the drums the best. There's no doubt there. Here are some random pics, mainly from his jamming session.

I thought this pic was interesting. You can see Mondo and Blaine's reflection in the mirror of the entertainment center.
I thought this was a cute pic of the boys. Ethan was being the singer while Mondo and Blaine played.

Playing the drums. He even did the foot petal.
If I want to be in a picture with the kids I have to do it myself!

Cute Video

Ethan and Caleb are starting to play together now. They're so cute together. Ethan can always make him laugh. Here's a video of their playtime. He wasn't being as rough as it looks!