Our poor baby is sick. No, this isn’t the first time this year or this season or even in the last 2 months. No, that’s because he’s been sick for all but two weeks of the last two months. Poor kid! He’s sounded like he has mucus in his lungs the entire 2 months. I have said over and over, he sounds mucus-y. Each time they listen to his lungs and he’s “clear.” But he doesn’t improve. He also struggled for a long time with a nasty cough that he just couldn’t shake. I’ve offered him lots of water, he sleeps in a room with a vaporizer (24/7), and when really congested he gets nose drops (and sometimes the suction). So, the pediatrician finally put Benjamin on Amoxicillin.
After 7 days of Amoxicillin his green nose goop was gone, but he wasn’t totally kicking whatever had taken hold of his body, so I went back to the pediatrician and begged for a stronger antibiotic. Before she was going to just dole out the drugs, she wanted x-rays. So, Benjamin wooed the ladies at the Radiology clinic and walked all the way from the waiting room into the exam room. It was funny to walk behind him and watch him follow the technician. He still kind of waddles while he walks, so it’s cute and comical.
Xrays were on a Friday, and the following Monday (last Monday) we got a call from the pediatrician that Benjamin has a major sinus infection and a viral lower respiratory infection. Great! Can’t do anything about the latter except just wait. But for the former he was put onto Omnicef for 2 weeks. Usually this messes with his GI, but for the last week he’s actually been fine … except on Wednesday he started being more cranky than normal and his body temperature started to rise. It didn’t reach fever levels, but it was trending in the wrong direction. By Thursday morning it was 100.2 deg. That seemed odd. The nurse I talked to on the phone verbalized what I had been thinking: “Omnicef should be taking care of that.” Uh huh. By the time he got up from his nap his temp was back in the normal range and he was a happy camper again. He continued to feel warm (as he has throughout this whole sickness melodrama), but nothing over 100deg, through the end of the week.
On Saturday morning he woke up with snot residue under his nose. I noticed, and I wondered. Then later that night, out of the blue, he woke up at 11pm and cried inconsolably for an hour. It did not matter what we did – who held him, if we walked outside (usually an instant calming trick), if he had a pacifier, whatever. At one point he passed big time gas and then had esophageal activity that made Drew and I both run for the kitchen sink thinking he was going to vomit. Thankfully he didn’t, but we took precautions in case he did. We covered the couch with a sheet and towels. We decided to wait a little while and observe him before we put him back in his crib.
Drew brought the rocking chair into the living room so I could rock him, and that was the first time either of us had been able to sit with him. He soon fell asleep and then woke a short while later and reached his arms out like he does when he wants to go down in his crib. So I quickly lay him on the couch and nestled in next to him. (Drew had let me take a nap earlier in the evening, so I was due to be on nighttime duty.) Benjamin and I spent the next three hours on the couch, but he wasn’t overly comfortable. There was no humidity to make it easier for him to breathe, and the couch – while super comfy – wasn’t the right firmness for him – and he kept rolling into the crease where the cushions meet. So, at 3am, after getting precious little sleep myself, I put Benjamin into his crib and climbed into my own bed. He spent the rest of the night in his crib without issue, and by God’s kindness Jasper did not wake up (and wake us up) until after 7:30am.
On Sunday his runny nose was back in full force. He was sleeping worse than before – waking to cough or moan throughout naps and overnight. He also sounds mucus-y again. We’re nearly 7 full days into Omnicef and cannot figure out why he’s regressed. While he’s quite happy and active right after his naps or once he wakes up in the morning, as soon as he’s tired, he really gets clingy and somewhat cranky. It’s sad. I don’t want him to be sick. I just want him to be healthy and happy. That being said, his clingy nature can be cute. He’s still a cuddler when he wants to, and these days we’re getting a lot of it. I couldn’t reach my camera fast enough to capture a photo of him cuddling with Drew yesterday, but it was precious. I hope I can remember it.
Today was an adventure. He had made little progress since yesterday, except that he made it through the night without issue (yea!). His nose was running like a faucet, but his temperature what still not breaking (albeit knocking on the door of) 100deg. He seemed fine enough that I just called and talked to the pediatrician about his condition and got instructions to watch and wait. I let Mallory, our dear babysitter, come watch the boys as planned and headed out to the salon for a long overdue hair appointment.
When I arrived home after naptime, I was greeted in the garage by a boisterous Jasper followed by Benjamin being held by Mallory. Jasper was full of energy and is quite healthy right now. Benjamin on the other hand was coughing – like he was trying to clear his throat and then all of a sudden vomited ALL OVER Mallory. I was stunned. Mallory was stunned. Benjamin looked sick – like round 2 was coming. So I said, “go to the sink. he might throw up again.” Mallory went running, but thankfully there was not a second round.
Mallory was a trooper. For those of you not exposed, vomit smells awful. Really awful. She had it everywhere, even in her hair, and she totally did not complain – but was trying to put me at ease about it.
Oye! All I could think of was “poor baby, what is wrong???? Why vomit now? What caused this.” He had not had anything to eat for about 4 hours. The coughing was the first episode of coughing he had done all afternoon since Mallory was there. There is no true explanation. He looked pale and gaunt for the next hour and took precious little pedialyte. But about three hours after this all went down, he ate some Cheerios, banana and a dry pancake. He also washed it down with more pedialyte before konking out at bedtime. We’ll see what this evening holds. I pray nothing out of the ordinary, we have to pack. Tomorrow we fly to Ohio.
No comments:
Post a Comment