Follow-uped

We took Henry to his follow-up appointment last week, thinking we would instantly hear, "It's all good!! What a great little healer."  But we did not.

His lungs are clear, so that is good.  No signs of pneumonia in either lung.  But his left ear still had an ear infection.

Well that explains why he has been sleeping like GAR.BAGE.  Serious garbage.

His doctor said she wanted to give the antibiotics a little more time before switching to see if they would work.  Which is fine.  Except this is the 3rd antibiotic we have had for the ears.  And the IV antibiotics he got in the hospital were supposed to knock the ear infection out.

So I am little concerned he's had an ear infection for 2 weeks, with 3 antibiotics.

{Mommy's wising up.  He HATES being given medicine so I have resorted to tricking him.  

The instructions said "take with food" so I think it works.}

I asked if the ear infection is what caused the pneumonia.  Answer: YES.

Makes me feel even worse about the never-ending ear infection.

I asked about ear tubes.  I had my first set at 8 months, with some more when I was 7 and a half.  She said the main criteria is 3 ear infections in 6 months or 4 ear infection in a year.

Well, he had his first ear infection in December and then a double ear infection 2 weeks ago that doesn't want to go away.

I guess I am just frustrated.

I was plagued with ear infections when I was little and I remember that THEY HURT!!  Really bad.  My dad, who also suffered from tons of ear infections (and subsequently hearing loss) describes them as the worst pain.  I don't want Henry to have to suffer for weeks with ear infections and have possible hearing loss (I definitely have some hearing damage).

Plus, the kid hasn't slept well since we got back from Virginia in the beginning of December.  That's a LONG TIME for not sleeping well.  And it has to be his ears.  He is sleeping with his hands on his ears.  He will fall asleep sitting up, but the second you lay him down he wakes up crying.

{Sleeping with his hand on his ear.}

With everything Phil and I have going on, the lack of sleep is a real challenge.  One of my biggest concerns is that the end of Phil's grad school combined with everything else is going to hurt our relationship.  I won't let that happen, but it is definitely something I try to keep a constant eye on.

Bottom line... I'm feeling a little on edge.  I can't let Henry have an ear infection for weeks at a time.  And if his doctor won't listen to me, I will either make her or find a new doctor.  I'm not a stranger to being an advocate.  If I hadn't spoken up for myself, I might still have cancer.  And I will certainly stand up for my baby.  What else am I supposed to do?  Let him get pneumonia again?  Let him stay in pain?  Let him be in enough pain he doesn't sleep?

So we are headed back to the doctor this afternoon for ANOTHER follow-up.  And I am ready to go all Mama Bear up in here.  Hopefully I won't need to.  Wish everyone good luck.  :)

I've earned a Cherry Limeade

Our little man is officially 8 months old.

I can't really get over that.

In a way, I believe it.  If I think about everything that has happened in the last 8 months, it seems unbelievable.  We keep hoping that life will calm down a little and we can take a breath and then we get thrown another curve ball.

Like a stint in the hospital right before Phil has a huge presentation that requires him to work around the clock.

But whatever.  We will get through it.

I will confess that I was feeling extremely overwhelmed this week.  It felt like Henry was never going to get better.  They put him on an antibiotic that he happened to be taking before and get some hives.  I was imagining having to go BACK to the doctor for mystery hives on the sickness that will never end.  Seriously, this started with swollen eyes two weeks ago.

Poor guy.  He flinches whenever I try to put anything near his head.  Between the eye drops, inhaler, antibiotics, Tylenol, and Motrin, the guy is probably DONE with me shoving things in his face.  I wish he were old enough to bribe effectively.  I totally would.

My mom did that to me.  Anytime I had to have blood drawn or get a shot or whatever, she would bribe me with a Happy Meal or breakfast out to eat or something.  To this day, when I am a "brave girl" I reward myself with something.  After one of Henry's newborn appointments when they had to hold him down for something, I made Phil stop at Sonic.  I had earned a Cherry Limeade.

But I digress.

After we got home from the hospital, I was exhausted.  Phil had to leave at night to go work on his presentation which left me to deal with Henry's night-time screaming fits.  I got maybe a total of 6 hours of sleep during the weekend combined.  While I would have liked to stay home, rest, and cuddle with Henry while he was still getting better, I HAD to go back to work.

Cue the GUILT.

Thankfully, my mom was able to watch him all week.  I felt so much better knowing my mom was giving him her undivided attention.  I would go visit him at lunch.  And she sent me picture texts and updates all through the day.

Henry has a follow-up appointment this morning.  I am sure we will get good news.  He is acting more and more like himself.  Yesterday he had ZERO pain medication, which I was happy he didn't need.

And I am going to use the weekend to rest up to start next week rejuvenated and ready to go.

Have a good weekend, all!!!  Rest up!  Stay healthy.  :)

HOME + My first giveaway!!

We are HOME!  And it is so nice to not have Henry on a leash (aka the IV).  It was really challenging moving him around with his foot all bandaged up.  Not to mention he could pretty much only be in the crib or the rocking chair.  I think he wanted a change of scenery.

You can tell he is still not feeling well.  He has taken several naps, coughed so much he threw up, and is very fussy still.  However, he has been playing a little and even cracked a few smiles.  We are keeping a close eye on him and will schedule a follow-up appointment with his doctor in a few days.  Hopefully the coughing dies down enough so that he won't throw up his medicine and he can start to feel better.

In other news, I am participating in my first group giveaway, hosted by the wonderful Farmer & The Bell!!  I am so excited.  There are several other lovely ladies participating as well.  Go catch them out and enter the giveaway.  Who wouldn't love $105?!?  I wouldn't turn it away, that's for sure.  Especially since I escaped for about an hour today to roam Target and shop the clearance rack at Old Navy in my sleep deprived state.  It was a nice change from the living room and the hospital.

clockwise from the top

jess // natalie // amy // erin // mackenzie // jessica // emily // karissa // karli // neja

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Our Tough Guy

I think any parent would agree that there is nothing worse than seeing your child in pain/sick.  During my limited time as a parent, I can totally agree.  But it reached a new level over the weekend.

Henry had been vomiting a little more frequently Friday evening and Saturday morning.  It seemed to be connected with his coughing, which was also getting worse.  Plus he had a small fever (about 101).  I called his doctor's office and they said to bring him in.

We took him to the doctor where she said his lungs sounded a little congested.  She wanted to try a breathing treatment to see if that helped.

Can I just say that holding Henry down and giving him a nebulizer is NOT on my Top 10 List.

After the breathing treatment, she said his lungs didn't sound that much better, but she was sending us home with an inhaler and instructions to use it as needed.

We decided to run a few errands and thought it would be good for Henry to get out of the house and ride around in his stroller, which he enjoys.

By the time we got home, he was much worse.  His temperature was rising.  All he did was sleep.  When he was awake, he would whimper and just wanted to be held (which is VERY unlike him).  And his breathing was weird.

At around 6 in the evening, I called the doctor's office again.  After answering a couple of questions and letting the nurse listen to him breath over the phone, she told us we needed to head to the emergency room.

The rest of Saturday evening was filled with a chest x-ray, a blood draw (that took two attempts), and an IV (which took THREE attempts and I'm not talking quick attempts.  I am talking attempts with digging around in his arms), we found out Henry has bi-lateral pneumonia.  The ER doctor and Henry's pediatrician decided that Henry was sick enough that he needed to be admitted.

By about 2 in the morning, we were in Henry's room.  And we started trying to get him to sleep.  After he was asleep and Phil went home to take care of the dogs and get some rest, they measured his blood oxygen which had dropped a little too low.  That meant it was time for some oxygen.

Long story short, he is doing much better.  Henry HATED the oxygen mask thing and thankfully his oxygen levels improved enough that he didn't need it anymore.  He got in some naps, nursed a little, and even played a little bit.  But he still isn't our Happy Hank yet.

{He hacked up a bunch of stuff right after this and then threw up}

We aren't exactly sure how long we will be here.  We might go home today.  It might be another day.  Personally, I am fine staying as long as necessary to get Henry's lungs back in order.

{A much needed nap}

Keep Henry in your thoughts and prayers.  We want a full recovering so we can get our happy baby back.

There really is NOTHING worse than seeing your child in pain.

{Watching football with Daddy}

Oh why HELLO blog...

Hello from my couch.  Henry and I are having a sick day.  Turns out he has a fever which means daycare won't let him come today.  Of course I am not too terribly upset because I wasn't super excited about dropping my sick baby off with someone else.  I think he needs some cuddles with his mommy.

For some stupid reason, I would have hoped my first blog post of the new year would be uplifting or profound, but it doesn't look like that will happen.  I was extremely inspired by everyone's New Years Resolution posts... almost enough to put together some of my own.  But not really.

The first 3 to 6 months of this year could be extremely stressful for our little household, with Phil doing his best to wrap up his dissertation.  That coupled with the fact that it may take a while for Phil to get a job that suits him and I am left with a slight panic attack that I will forget what Phil looks like before he finishes his dissertation and money.

January has started off a little rocky for us.

It has never really been a favorite month for me, but it especially isn't for Phil.  It's the month that his Grandma and brother died (in the same year by the way) and throw in the still fresh death of his father and it would be easy to say that Phil has not exactly been himself.

After multiple nights of Henry waking up and SCREAMING for a couple of hours straight (as in I got maybe 3 and a half hours of sleep Tuesday night), we discovered he had BLAZING ear infections in both ears.  You know it has to be pretty bad when the doctor hardly has to look in his ear before he declares he has an ear infection.  I feel like a horrible mother for not putting the puzzle together sooner.  After all, he is a decent night sleeper and a very happy baby so when he was waking up every hour and being a huge grumpy head, I should have known right away.  First time mother right here.

{You can just tell he doesn't feel good}

Oh and I got a cold.

And I'm super busy at work.  It makes having a sick baby even harder.  I'm feeling super guilty about not being at work, but my baby needs me.

And our car seat broke.  We spotted the break by chance and just under the warranty.  It's kind of a funny story actually.

Henry and I were at Walgreens (Phil was driving home from campus) so I could finally get my flu shot (procrastination central).  I had his carrier carseat in the stroller so I wouldn't have to carry him through the store.  When I went to take the carseat off the stroller, it wouldn't unhook.  At all.  I tried for several minutes.  Finally, I called my mom and she came and took Henry to her house (since she has a carseat for him).  But what was I to do with my carseat/stroller that wouldn't fold down or come apart?  Shove it in my car, of course.  As I was doing this, a man came up to me and we had the following exchange:

Man:  "Those come apart, you know."

Me:  "This one won't."

Man:  "Yeah.  We have one too.  They all fold down."

Me:  (as I struggle with getting it in my car) "No, it won't right now."

Man:  "No.  They all should."

Me:  (trying to stay calm) "It's broken.  It won't fold down."

Man:  "Oh."


I'm a big complainer.

Anyway... That's what has been going on around here.  I am hopeful that once we get past Henry's illness and January, we can see some improvement.  And I am hoping to get back to blogging (lucky you).

I'm going to get back to my couch-mate.  I need to take advantage of his nap to get some work done.  Oh the life of a working momma.