joys and sorrows of motherhood

So i have had th longest week of my life. It all started on sunday at 5 am. Ethan woke up with gas. he also had some diahrrea. i didnt worry too much because i had chili the night before. after church he felt warm to me. I changed his clothes and checked his temperature. it was 100.2 degrees so i gave him some tylenol. we went to choir and then to my parents house. his fever wouldnt budge. we stripped him down and papa put a cool rag on his head which kept him cool but he heated back up as soon as we took it off. little did i know that when i put his lil toughie bib on how true that statement really is.
we drove home from my parents house and i started to get really worried so we stopped at matts parents house on the way home so matts dad could help matt give him a blessing. brenda and melanie recomended a cool bath. he was so lethargic and his eyes were glassy and bloodshot. we got home and i put him in a lukewarm bath and he screamed his head off. i took him out and took his rectal temp and it was 102. i decided to feed him and calm him down to see if that helped. i took his rectal temp again and it was 103. i told matt to feed the dog and left for the ER. i know not to mess with high fevers! at the ER they took us right back and weighed him and took his temperature ( he is 17 pounds now by the way) they got us right into the doctor. the doctor told me that there were standard tests for high fevers in infants. because they cant tell us what hurts they just test for everything. i was cincerned and called matt but he didnt know what to do either so i called and woke my parents up. my dad said to do the tests and that he would come meet me at the hospital. they started with a chest x ray. then they put in an IV so they could draw blood and administer antibiotics. it was so hard to hold my baby down while the ER nurse who is not used to putting IVs in children let alone 3 month olds try to get his IV in. he finally got it in and i calmed him down. then they had me and my dad wait in th waiting room while they did a spinal tap. ( i know... awful) then they loaded me and ethan into an ambulance and transported us to st rose sienna. de lime has no peds unit ( i wish i had known that) he had more tylenol but he still had a fever when we got there

i guess the positive thing for ethan is that i never let him watch the tv because he is too little. i dont want him getting addicted. i felt so bad for all the pain he was goin through that i let him watch tv. he was glued to it but if i let go of his hand he would cry. it was nice to know that even though i held him down while they hurt him he still wanted me.

he finally started to get some sleep but the monitors helpt beeping and waking him up. he was so tired. our nurses were great though. we were put in isolation and informed that he probably had viral meningitis. everyone who came into our room had to put on gowns masks and gloves and matt and i were not allowed to walk around the hospital. 4 am tuesday he spiked another high fever. i was so tired that i slept through it but the nurse comforted him. she said there wasnt anything i could really do but i still felt bad. ethan seemed to like the nurses though, scary masks and all.

tuesday morning he started eating really well and they said that either his IV needed to be moved to the other arm or they could inject him with his antibiotics every 12 hours. i didnt know what would be worse. putting him through getting anothe iv ( and having to deal with the discomfort of keeping it in) or get 2 shots a day. the nurse asked the doctor if they could use a more concentrated versiona nd give it every 24 hours. the doctor oked it and we decided that was a good option. he was much easier to cuddle with without his IV. even when he cuddled with daddy his eyes were on the TV.

after the fever spike he didnt really get anymore fevers. the doctor told us tuesday afternoon that his cultures were looking good and that if he didnt get anymore fevers we could go home in the morning. well he did very good. the only traumatic experience from then on was getting his antibiotics at midnight. but we got through it. wednesday morning he was all smiles. he was flirting with the nurses and he was playing with his favorite red monkey. in other words, he was back to being my sweet little boy. a different doctor came to see us and said we were good to go.

we got released just in time for daddy to come pick us up after work. it was so nice to bring my sweet baby back home. I have never been so afraid in my whole life as i was driving my baby to the ER. I have never been so greatful than when i got to bring him home safe. he was happy to be home too!

this is a video i got of him playing with the monkey

thank you for all the prayers and support. thank you to papa for spending his night with us. i couldnt have done it alone!