The Story of My Poor Sick Bubba

It all started on a Tuesday afternoon with just a little cough and a look in his eyes that told me he wasn't feeling himself.  He was a cuddly {which I don't mind one bit} and wanted nothing more than to sit on my lap and watch cartoons or simply stare off into nowhere. That's how I knew it was more than just "I don't feel good".
At that point he didn't have a fever, just a sad cough.
Within a few hours {say 3-7pm} it went from a little tickle cough to one with some...the only way I can describe it is non-croupy wetness.
 That night when he went to bed it had gotten worse so we took his temp and it was 102...about 10 minuets after I had given him some Tylenol.

 He coughed through the night, but nothing that was too bad. We managed to get a pretty good night's sleep.
Wednesday morning I called his doctor first thing and got him in before noon. At this point his fever was only a 99, so I let it be...mainly because I've had experience with doctors who believe if there is no fever, than there's nothing wrong {I remember being told as a child "There's no way your headaches are real, you have no idea what a migraine is" when I was seen for constant headaches}.

Elliot threw up not five seconds after I put him in his car seat to go see the doctor...I had to change him and strip the car seat, wipe it down and put everything back together while trying to rush. We ended up being about 5 minuets late to his appointment. Thankfully they understood, and thankfully the office is just a few minuets from our house.
She checked him over and he was still at a 99 temp and seemed to just have a virus.
I was sent home with the "orders' to push fluids. "get him to drink as much as you can" she said, and added "I don't care what it is, juice, water, popcicles...whatever he'll drink" and to bring him back Friday if he wasn't any better. I was also told to call if he had 3 wet diapers or less, to keep him from getting dehydrated. 

I left the office and texted Andy before we left the parking lot to let him in on what was going on, then headed to the store.
I stocked up on pedialyte and juice {100% no sugar added...} and then went back home.

He seemed to be at a stand still. Still coughing, still nursing as normal, not getting any better, but not getting any worse either.

That night was a hard one. I think I only slept 4hours...off and on. He coughed so bad that he would whine after and gag, I began to think he had to have a sore throat. He only wanted to sit up to sleep, so at 4am I gave up and just moved to the couch to attempt to sleep while holding him upright.
It didn't work...he slept but I couldn't.

So Thursday started out bad...and just got worse as the day progressed.
His cough got worse, his fever got higher, and he flat out refused to drink ANYTHING besides to nurse {and I tried everything, even going as far as to have my mom pick up and drop off a Nuk sippy cup with the bottle nipples like his binky...didn't work} He had reduced his nursing time down to 3-5min {normal is 10-15} and to top that off threw up anytime he nursed. I was not only carrying a baby around I was now equipped with a hand towel to catch any and everything!
He only wanted his binky and to be held, and I was alternating Tylenol and Mortin every three hours...his temp never went below a 100.
By 2pm he had only barely wet 3 diapers {that includes his overnight diaper} and if I was being honest and all that pee had been in one diaper I don't even think it would have been enough for a "change him now" situation.
 So I called the peds office...it took them till about 3:30 to get back to me, and then just told me to take him to urgent care; that they would send orders over for him to be seen.

I quickly called Andy, and packed some bags on the chance that they would admit him.
My parents and brother came over about the same time, thankfully, and I had two free hands to pack stuff up...my mom instinct just told me we were going to be in the hospital for at leas a night.
Andy came home with quick drive-through dinner and we were out the door. We took separate cars, If we were admitted I would stay and he would have a car to go home to get things or take care of the dog. {urgent care is connected to the hospital}

He was seen in urgent care at 6:15 and by 7:30 we were admitted with RSV and dehydration.

 His temp was back up to a 102.4 and he was just a lump...barely opening his eyes as they put his bracelets on his little ankles.
The ped doc on call came over about 8:30 and ordered an IV.
The nurse numbed him up and we were told she'd see us in 40 min {when the goop had done it's work and they could put in his IV...

 I kept thinking he looked like the kid from A Christmas Story...that and don't you just love those babylegs? my friend got them for him and they were perfect in this situation. They held cords in place and were easy to get off him for nurse check ups.

They numbed both hands and elbows, so that if one stick didn't work they wouldn't have to wait for more numby stuff to work.

 

 we waited...and waited...and waited

and finally around 10:15 he got his IV

 He was so out of it by then, they tried his right elbow and it didn't work...finally getting his left hand to work. He cried for the poke, then passed out...they drew blood and taped him up and he stayed asleep...and even at that it took them a good 10 min to get us back to our room and another 10 to get the bag hooked up to his IV. {I was more than annoyed}

Andy headed home for the night {after much persuading from me} to be with the dog. I knew it was going to be a sleepless night for me, and I didn't want him to have to sleep in the horrid chair...plus we would have had to figure out how to get the dog taken care of. Needless worry in my book, so I just sent him home.

 I was right, I got NO sleep, when he slept it was like ^ that or chest to chest. He had a pulse/ox {tracked his heart rate and oxygen rate} that would go off non stop and I'd have to sit him up in order to help him breath better and get the proper amount of oxygen and even when it wasn't going off I was watching it in fear he wasn't getting enough air.

The nurses kept checking on him, and eventually he peed enough to warrant another bum change. I put him in a disposable {horrible Huggies...they are square...what baby is square?!?} since I was down to only one cloth left and I wanted that for the morning. He also puked on my pants!

Andy came back around 8am Friday morning and we ordered breakfast. The hospital offered one parent tray for free and endless guest trays for cheap {$5 for breakfast, $7 for lunch and dinner} and it was good food too, which helped.

I went home and showered, and man it felt good. I quickly packed up more things...snacks for me, more baby legs for him, and my pump. He still wasn't eating normally and I was worried my milk would dwindle down to nothing...that there would be not enough when he finally got his appetite back.

 Both of our parents came to visit, and my good friend came too. He seemed so much better...and now that I look back I can't believe how sick he still looked... His fever bounced around that day, and we kept him on Motrin.

 The day went on as well as it could, we snuggled and watched cartoons...but mainly we took naps. He slept 95% of the day and I had to force him to nurse every three hours {still only getting 3-5min of nursing out of him} He was only wetting diapers because of the IV, so I pumped.

 That night was a bit better, I got something like 7hrs sleep {broken up only by nurse checks and little coughing fits} I felt like a new person in the morning.

The next morning {Saturday} he was more "active", he sat awake for longer, and I had hope that we may just get to go home.
My mom gave Andy a break, she came in the morning so that he could sleep in and run his normal weekend todo's {he was in need of a haircut} and Elliot loved it.

He only wanted her, and that was just fine with me. I ate and cleaned up the room...it was clean but I wanted it more organized {yes I organized the hospital room...If you look in the pic above you can see the stupid baby bed. It was way too big for the room and you had to squish yourself between the rails and a Sharps container just to get to the bathroom...no good}

Andy came mid morning and I took off for a walk. {The wall opposite the bed had a huge fish mural painted on it...I really needed to look at something else!} So off I went in search of coffee that wasn't mud flavor, oh God it was bad nurses station coffee. I was pleasntly happy to find that Starbucks coffee was made by the atrium cafe! mmmmmmm vanilla latte!

 I came back to find them napping^ well Andy waited for me to come back to fall asleep. When he woke up I mentioned my venture through the small gift shop...they had stuffed Sesame Street dolls and It was the hardest thing to not get him the Grover! I LOVE Grover!

Well you can guess what happened next...

 El now has a Grover...and he's in love.

I decided that since he seemed to be ok at a temp 100 and below, that I would leave it be, and if it was above that we would Tylenol him...it worked a bit less, but it was letting his body fight it off. The nurses agreed with me, they said I had good instincts. It made me feel better about my mothering, like I was somewhat in control even though I wasn't.
We watched a little Turbo {cute movie!} and the ped Dr came in...he still wanted one more night because he still wasn't eating how he would have liked to send him home. He ordered to have his IV fluids cut in half in hopes that he may eat more. I was sad, but also glad that he was making sure El was totally ready to go home.

That night our friends brought us dinner and the boys {my Andy and her Andy} decided to go play some shuffle board and let us girls hang out.
We watched Catching Fire, and in the middle of the movie I was eating a cookie...El about ripped it out of my hands! So I dug his Puffs out of the bag and he shoveled in a few. I ran down to the nurses station to see if they had any baby food, to my luck they had some sweet potatoes!
He ate half the container! I had never been so happy in my life to feed my kid processed store bought food!

That night, around midnight he nursed for a whole 12 min. I about skipped down the hall singing!

That next morning his IV started coming out on it's own and eventually the nurse just took it out. I knew we were on our way to going home, so I buzzed around the room picking up and packing things away.

 The Dr came in just after lunch and told us we could go home. Surprisingly he had discharge orders done super quick and we were on our way within a half hour.

 So Elliot had a wheelchair ride to the car...loving on Grover the whole time.

When we got home I washed EVERYTHING. There was no way I was gonna keep those germs around! 

It took about a week for him to be back to himself, but he's all good now...just a little horse .

I tell ya, no parent wants to use the words "thankful" and "hospital" in the sentence, but if he had to be in the hospital, I'm thankful if was as simple and easy as it was...it could have been sooooo much worse!