Wednesday was an "off" day for Jackson. He was unusually fussy and seemed a bit warm, but did not have a fever so I wasn't sure if he was indeed just having a bad day or really getting sick (mother's intution was right - I just had a feeling something wasn't right with my baby). I got up with him around 2am Thursday morning when he continued to be fussier than usual (he's been sleeping through the nights about 10p-6a for a few weeks now - yes - lucky us!). He still did not have a fever at that point, but I figured keeping an eye on him would put my mind at ease so I cuddled up on the couch with him. At around 430am, his fussiness turned to screams and the whole house was awake. This time, he had about a 102 temp so after calling his pediatrician's office to speak with the on call nurse, I followed their recommendation and calmly took him to the ER of one of the children's hospitals (Medical City Childrens is closest to us). They ran tons of tests in the ER, including bloodwork, x-rays, and even a spinal tap, to rule out things like meningitis before following the standard procedure for a patient of his age and admitting us for preventative treatment while waiting for the test results. Thankfully, when all the cultures came back this morning, it was just as the doctors suspected from his positive reaction to Tylenol and antibiotics, he just had a little "summer virus" - something that isn't a big deal in an adult or even a child a few months older wouldn't need an overnight hospital stay for. With a 7 week old though, since his immune system isn't 100% developed, they err on the side of caution and run all the tests on the off chance he's that 1 in 100 that does have something serious. It was the first time I've cried scared mommy tears and it isn't something I would wish for anyone. I'm just so grateful that everything is OK and that the staff there took such great care of us. We didn't end up seeing our pediatrician as he wasn't the one from his practice doing rounds the days we were there, but Dr Dreiling from Dr Foster's practice was extremely comforting and just really made me feel at ease about why they did what they did. We will still go back for Jack's 2 month appointment with Dr Foster on Monday 7/27. He'll get shots at that time and I'm hopeful that I won't cry for those. I haven't so far and after all the poking and prodding I witnessed Thursday, a few routine shots should be a walk in the park!
In the meantime, I do now know his updated weight! I've felt like he's been eating well (he never hesitated with the nursing even when sick so we're very lucky - our boy is a good eater!) and from what our home scale says when I weigh with and without him, it seemed he was right out target for the 1 oz per day weight gain...and that's almost exactly where he is. On 6/26, he was weighing 7 lbs, 7 oz and on Thursday am 7/16, he weighed 8 lbs 10 oz (I actually didn't find that out until Thursday afternoon since they weighed him in kilograms instead of lbs/oz and that's when I finally managed to ask the conversion...I'm still not sure why they weighed him in kg and measured him in cm...I never did get the head measurement and length converted from cm so we'll have to wait until 7/27 for those updated stats). On Friday evening when they weighed him, he was up to 8 lbs 13 oz! I'm sure some of that was "water weight" since he had been on an IV, but still - he's gaining healthily. I'm sure he'll still be in the low %'s for weight/age, but as long as he's not losing ground, all is good!
I didn't take a lot of pictures of the whole experience, but did snag a few on my phone to document the actual hospital experience.
I actually took this one Wednesday at home with my camera of him being unusually fussy because it just doesn't happen that often. Usually if we make crying noises, he'll stop and look at us funny as he doesn't cry a lot of "real tears". He's a good fake crier when he needs something! :)
The first picture of "Robo-baby" (which I dubbed him when seeing the shield over his IV which reminded me of RoboCop)
All cozied up in the ER after all the blood was drawn, x-rays were taken, etc
Up in our room after being admitted - he was only hooked up the monitors for a while since the fever was really the main symptom. He didn't like having his blood pressure taken, but it was pretty stable the whole time
Having a snooze with Mom on Friday
On Saturday morning - pretty much back to normal, just waiting for the official go-ahead to go home!
Having some tummy time on Mom right before heading home. I have a feeling "Bobblehead Baby" will soon be gone - he continues to grow stronger and hold his head up longer and longer each time.
"Seriously, Mom?! Enough with the pictures!"
Precious baby feet, barcode and all!
Going home!
I have to say that given the mild circumstances of the visit, I just don't know how those of you who've had longer stays with sicker babies did it. I know you do what you have to do, and I had admiration before, but it's deeper now! One of Joey's friends commented on facebook that he and his wife "hired impersonators" when their son was kept in the hospital for quite a while when he was born quite early last year and that they weren't as strong as they appeared. I know that's not true, but the humor wasn't lost on me. As I sit here typing with a peacefully sleeping normal Jackson (although maybe a bit more clingy today, but maybe he knows I'm headed back to work on Wednesday) I'm thankful for his health and pray that it only makes him stronger.
...Til next time, Keep Shuffling!
1 comment:
Never, EVER doubt your mother's intuition. Some may laugh at you initially, or "poo-poo" you, but in my experience, it has been right 99.9% of the time. (well, maybe not that much, but defintely the majority of the time, even if I didn't tell anyone what I was thinking)
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