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!

Elliot: 7 months

 Oh man how did a month go by? I feel like it went so quickly, yet so much happened!
Your personality is changing so much everyday, and I have to admit that you are getting a bit of an attitude...sorry buddy, but that one comes form momma's Irish/French Canadian side ;)

 You are all about the sitting now (though you may wobble a bit still and tend to launch yourself forward into full face-plant...then you get mad. You would also rather stand and jump than lay down.

I feel we have also moved up to big guy status with the stroller, you now love to sit in the seat instead of the baby car seat part! It's so stinkin cute I can hardly stand it!

If we prop you up on your knees you get all happy and rock back and forth...not sure if I'm ready for the crawling yet (in other words SLOW DOWN!).

 7 month stats

Weight:  no clue...if I had a working scale maybe we would know ;)

Length:  yep don't know either...maybe I'll get out a tape measure

Head: please see above...gee I'm lazy!

Diapers:  Disposable: size 2 { the tabs still overlap ya skinny little dude}

                Cloth: middle rise and two snaps between tabs.

Clothes: same as last month: 6-9 months, 6 months, and you still fit into some 3 months shirts

Although I think you may have gotten a bit taller, because some of your jammies are too snug {shoulder to foot} and I think it may soon be time to move up to the 9month size for jammies...but the onesies are still long enough to make it for hopefully months.

 

 

 You are still a snuggle monkey, and are turning into one little momma's boy. I officially think that you have hit the cling-to-momma-and-all-other-people-are-not-cool stage. Momma's not a fan of this stage...her arms get tired {she really would like a ring sling for Easter}

Tons happened this month!

Mommy and Daddy had their first night out without you {for Valentines Day}, you stayed home with Gramma and Grampa. We payed them in wine...true story ;)

We went on our first vacation!
Just a car trip up to The Dells to stay at Kalahari.
But first we had to leave a day early...to avoid the snow {by going north...?!?!} so we decided to stop and stay in Madison. Dinner and an evening with friends who live there {and their new baby!}
Then in the morning it was off for 3days with Daddy's family! It was so nice and fun to get away!
Plus you love water, so you were in high heaven!

You were baptized last weekend, and we had a big party to celebrate!
You were so good during church, you didn't fuss once and just watched pastor when he poured water over your head! It also helped to flirt with the little girl {also 7months} that was being baptized at the same time...you have turned into one heck of a flirt these days!
The house was full after to celebrate, mostly family but a few friends too! 

 But the biggest of all firsts this month is your new TOOTH!!!
Momma found it a week or so ago, popped right up on us! {bottom left} We believe it's neighbor is not far off.
You constantly have your tongue out now, and I think it's because you like the feel of your tooth when it rubs against the bottom of your tongue.

You also have picked up the baby babble! I love it!
You have the sweetest little jibber jabber, and it makes me smile...which then makes you smile.

Oh little man, I'm so happy you are mine! I can't imagine my life without you!
I can't wait for spring to finally get here so we can explore the world outside together!

love
Momma

on the occurrence of freckles

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Now when Andy and I started dating we would joke that if we ever had kids they would most likely pop out short little freckly hobbit children.
Andy is 5'3" and I'm 5'2.5" on a good day.
On a summer day you could play connect the dots for hours on either our noses and our backs would take weeks...needless to say we have freckles.

I tried to find you photo proof...but sadly freckles are hard to photograph and I could only find one of me...with baaaaad 90's hair....so no, I don't have photo proof. You'll just have to take my word for it!

Last week when Elliot was at the doctor for his 6 month check up I noticed a little brown spot on his sleeve.
Me, thinking it's chocolate....because ya I eat candy bars in the car...don't judge, tries the mom lick your finger and wipe technique.
It doesn't budge...
OMG it's a freckle!

Que me getting super excited about his first freckle and the nurse looking at me like "who let this crazy woman have a kid".
Clearly she's not Irish!
I on the other hand am Irish...

I took a photo of his little first freckle, told my family and you better believe they were as excited as me. I can't wait till he is covered in them! Call me crazy, I don't care. It's the little things in life! Don't even get me started on the fact that his hair is getting lighter and in the sun it looks reddish...

so here I leave you with photo proof. I may be the only mother to get this excited about a first freckle, but who cares! Freckles for everyone!!!!

Oh Avocado

 I swear one of these days I'll take a photo of my kitchen clean so you guys believe me that I clean it!

We started Elliot on solids just after he turned 6months, he had been getting a nightly snack of rice cereal in prep for real food for about a month and had been going strong! He'd lean way in, mouth all open and just nom away...So we figured it was time. We got the green light from the Doc and thought what the hay...let's jump in feet first.
I did tons of research and decided that avocado would be the smartest and best way for us to go. The mild taste and creamy texture is easy for them to transition to solids from cereal, not to mention how good for you those yummy little green things are for you! Win win!
So I picked up one at the grocery store and mashed, measured, and froze when I got home. I figured we would start off little, so I measured them out in one tablespoon cubes.

Now I did prepair myself for the chance he wouldn't like it, that he would spit it back at me, and even the chance that he would in fact up chuck!....I didn't however prepare myself for the range of emotions that the child went through!

I bust up every time I look at this one!

Side note: when we gave El rice cereal for the first time I gave Andy my phone to video...I won't even share that one...it makes me sea sick. The man can't hold still! So this time I held my phone with one hand and fed with the other...this resulted in a less than good video, a bit blurry but great non the less!
Enjoy!




We have since tried mixing with rice cereal and it's a hit! I just think the flavors are a bit too strong for him.
We have added butternut squash (again mixed with cereal) to his diet. He gets avocado for brunch and squash for dinner.
We tried peas...peas=puke. (just like his momma) I didn't video that one...your welcome!

I'm are not sure where to go from squash, I'm thinking sweet potatoes or green beans.

Elliot: 6 months

Oh Elliot, my little man. How is it that half a year has passed already? I feel as if time is just going too fast, that I want to slow it down and sometimes rewind it and have my little newborn back. And then, as if all at once, you do something new and awesome and I can't imagine you at any other age!
If I'm being totally honest, I'm in love with the 6 month old you.

You are getting more wiggly and pictures in your rocker are getting much harder....but thanks to gramma we can keep you from falling out and getting all fussy (and the sock monkey behind the camera helps too).

 6 month stats

Weight:  15 pounds {5th-10th percentile}

Length:  26 inches {25th percentile}

Head: 17 inches {25th percentile}

Diapers:  Disposable: size 2 {although the tabs overlap and you could probably still fit into a size 1} Cloth: middle rise and two snaps between tabs.

Clothes: 6-9 months, 6 months, and you still fit into some 3 months shirts

You're a snuggler, and sleeping is no different! You must have one hand on your momma at all times! You love to sleep on your side with your arm up over your head. You still wake up once to eat, but usually after a 4-6hr stretch and then you fall right back to sleep for another 2-4hrs.

You also love to eat, nursing every 2ish hours {still} and momma is hoping that solids will hep us stretch out our nursings.
So far you like avocado, but only if it's mixed with rice cereal. It's currently your brunch and we are trying veggies for dinner. Peas, to our dismay, result in some spewage! oh what fun!  So far that is all we have tried, but plan to add green beans, butternut squash and carrots in the near future.

 {oh this smirk!}

Tummy time is a toughie! You refuse to stay there, flippin yourself over and momma flips you back...it's an endless battle.  You also show NO desire to roll from back to front, even though you totally can...you little booger!

Sitting is slow going...I figured you would have had it by now, but you still wobble over after only a second or two...and if momma tries to outsmart your wobble by propping you up you get lazy and wiggle your way down into an incline.

You absolutely love to be sung to and you almost always "sing back", which is the sweetest little hum. To date your favorite tunes are "You are My Sunshine", "Twinkle Twinkle", "Edelweiss", "Too Ra Loo Ra Loo Ra", and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" which I think is your absolute favorite...it can calm you down before I get out the first line.

Your teeth can't be too far off, the drool and chewing is non stop. Your amber necklace and Sophie the Giraffe are the two biggest helpers next to teething tabs. Your top lip is always chapped thanks to your little fingers taking up permanent residence in your mouth, but momma found out that Lansino nipple cream {of all things} is the best to treat that little problem! It stays on so much longer than any chapstick, because it's nice and thick!

Your favorite toys are Sophie and your blue sock monkey. Either one will make you instantly happy in different ways. Sophie will help you chew out the teeth pain and the monkey is your new cuddle buddy...his tail makes for good munching sometimes too ;)

So half a year has passed and you have changed so much. I can't wait to see how much you will change in the coming month and the rest of the year!

love
Momma

time for the sippy

 

So this happened over the weekend.

Andy and I were at church building Elliot his Blessing Box (more n that in another post) and El was at my grandparents with my brother and dad.

He refused to nurse before I left so I knew he would take his bottle before I got back from our hour class...I didn't however expect to get a pic during class of him holding his bottle.

You see, he's not a bottle baby. 

He was in the beginning because of the fact he was tongue tied...and that was two months of Hell!

I grew to hate the pump and all instances of washing baby bottles.

It was a rough 2 months! But we made it.

The only time since then that El has had a bottle was when he was on antibiotics and I gave him an oz twice a day with his meds in it, and then two weeks ago when I was at another class.

So since he was 2 months he's had about 10ish bottles total...and up until the last two it was a fight to get him to take them.

It was really no big deal, only twice have I not been there to feed him and he has taken those two like a champ.

But a sippy cup?

 I had been worried that he wouldn't want to take a sippy cup...and if I'm being honest I totally didn't know that it was even anywhere near sippy cup time. (prepared parent right here!)

I just happened to see a post with a 6mo old that had a sippy cup a week or so ago and decided to pick one up.

I ended up with a Playtex Starter pack at the store last weekend.

via

(Link is for Toy's R Us, but I got mine at Meijer...and in blue and green)

So far I like them.

The handles are interchangeable so if you still want a two handle with the straw cup it's easy to pop one off of one lid and on another lid.

The only downfall is that they leak if you don't get them super tightly twisted on.

 

Elliot has been going strong with rice cereal the last few weeks, so cute because he leans way in with an open mouth like a little baby bird....then just attacks the spoon. I can barely wipe his face with the spoon because he's trying to get more in his mouth!

 (please excuse my messy kitchen...)

 

It took me a bit to get the consistency to what he would prefer, but now that we have it I feel that the transition to solids this weekend won't be an issue! (we plan to start with avocado!)

 

So back to the cup, I decided to give it to him Sunday night just to see what he would do.

He did way better than I expected, we just have to get the tip up to drink down and we are golden!

My hope is to move him on to the straw quickly. And I may even try that out when he starts solids this weekend...it may surpass the tip to sip!

*This post is not sponsored by Playtex, all thoughts and reviews are my own. Although if they wanted to pay me I wouldn't mind.

This boy of mine so far

Oh this little man of mine, I couldn't be in more love with him. I know every single mother feels this way, but oh man I just can't help it!

I wake up each morning to him smiling at me, and it melts all my grief...you know the ones from the bedtime struggle. But more on that another time.

The last I showed you of him he looked like this

 

and oh do I miss him that little!

Warning: Picture Overload Ahead!

 his first time in Church...sweater vest and all!

 uncle Jake naps are the best naps!

 pretending to be a joey and letting mommy get things done.

 and then there's just times when you need to be Batman.

 we started to smile

 and cop some tude!

 we had fancy dinners for mommy and daddy's anniversary.

 we snuggled papa a lot

 and we cheered on our favorite team!

 we met our cousins!

 they are just five weeks apart

 we finally put our bum in some cloth diapers! 

and we love it!

 we took a trip to a pumpkin patch

 and we dressed like a robot for Halloween!

 mommy made me a monster hat and everyone fell in love with me at a tailgate party.

 I got better at the smiling thing

 we had a lot of firsts!

First snow!

 and first Doctor Who!

 If you can't eat the mashed taters ya might as well play with them!

 First Turkey Day!

 First time meeting mommy's cousins

 we discovered I look like uncle Jake's baby pictures!

 First Baby Mohawk!

 FaceTime with GG (great grandma) "not so close GG"

 

 opening our first Christmas present on Christmas eve...Jammies from mommy and daddy! a Christmas tradition.

We had Christmas breakfast with mommy's family

 and opened some presents

Then off to Daddy's family

 

 With the cousins!

 

 mmmm bow!

 Daddy's old Superman Sweatshirt!

 Elliot and his ET "Ell-E-Ut"

 jump jump jump...I love to jump!

 Dressing up as Mike Ditka...and being annoyed with the Bears.

 Baby Selfies!

 more Mohawks

 more giggles

 Beard hair!

 watching the Muppets

chillin in church.

So as you can see he has grown quite a bit!

 and to think we are just days away from the half birthday...I can't believe I've had him for half a year now. It seems impossible. I miss the little baby so much it hurts sometimes, but then he "talks" at me and laughs at me and reaches out grabs my face and kisses me and I'm totally ok with how big he's gotten.