Thank you to everyone that entered my Time to "Leap" into a new design giveaway sponsored by Announcements Galore. The comments are now closed as it is officially after 10:00 EST. I will contact the winner tomorrow and post about it soon after.
I hope that you all continue to stop by to visit moi and please keep the comments coming. . . I enjoy hearing from people.
P.S. Stay tuned, I hope to have more giveaways in the not too distant future.
For just over three weeks JSL has been battling something. The poor kid is only 9 1/2 months old, so that is a long time in his short life. Yesterday I was really flipping out because of the way he was acting, the increased mucous and change in the appearance, and the fact that he was hitting his head and pulling on his ears. Although cute, it is not good when he does a Home Alone impression. His poor cheeks and head and ears are getting a beating from the kid.
Although not taken yesterday, JSL looked like this again. This photo was taken the day before he was rushed to the ER by ambulance. VERY serious monkey who was not amused by much.
After picking NHL up from school the doctor’s nurse called back to see what was going on. I explained that the symptoms were EXACTLY the same as they were the days before he had his febrile seizure and was hospitalized. Based on this and the hitting/tugging of his face/ears they double booked us into get seen. So we went back up to their office at 3:15 and my father watched NHL. We saw the doctor that was on call the weekend of the hospitalization. He knew most of what had happened then, had been briefed from the PA that had seen him before that, and also knew we had been in since then (just last Friday for the "well" baby visit).
The doctor spent a lot of time with us. He went over everything that had happened, what was going on again, how long it had been since he was on antibiotics and then did a very thorough exam. I think he was anxious about the temperature going back up again and wanted to find a cause so we could stop it. He did a quick strep test that came back negative, listened to his lungs (still clear thank goodness) and eventually went to the ears as the last stop. Right ear looked great. . . then it was the ear that has been trouble’s turn. Sure enough the left ear had what he said was a lot of fluid, but not red or infected.
*Sigh*
There is absolutely nothing we can do to help the poor kid at this point. The charming FDA has made it impossbile to help a child that is under two to dry them out with a decongestant (JSL desperately needs one). GRRRRRRRRR! I am so ticked off – insert many other nasty words here because I want to use them.
So cure the child I dare you. Basically it will likely only be a matter of time until the ear is infected again. We have to try to avoid places with lots of germs – LOL. The doctor did say no cousin B-day party or travel this weekend until we know what is going on. So we wait and see and hope it will go away. I have an antibiotic prescription at home to start if his temperature goes to 100.5 to start immediately and then make an appointment to have the ear checked. At that point IF it is an infection we will likely be off to see an ENT. It really stinks that thanks to not being able to try medical approach we may be forced into surgery for the baby.
*evil glare*
I am extremely nervous. The Friday that the photo above was taken JSL saw the PA at the doctor’s office and was told he had a virus and some fluid in his ear, but no infection. The rest as you know is history. So the next 24-48 hours will be filled with much anxiety.
So that is the update at this point. Now to try to get the little monkey to stay hydrated and figure out what to do about the meeting with the school district on Thursday about NHL for next year. Please tell me I can not go and write me a note.
Friday JSL finally was well enough to take him for his 9 month well baby visit. His original appointment was over two weeks ago, but the pinkeye episodes, followed by his four day hospitalization changed that twice. The tired little guy fell asleep in the waiting room, so he was far from happy to be woken up just to be stripped naked for a weigh in. I felt horrible, but had to do it.
Here’s a photo of JSL at 9 months:
Enjoying food again:
I was worried about his weight since I knew he’s lost some over the last few weeks, but it may have been mostly from dehydration. The last time he was weighed was at the hospital when he arrived in the emergency room on the evening of his febrile seizure two weeks ago. At that time he weighed in at approximately 22 pounds. Friday his weight was 21 lbs 15 oz (75th percentile), so I was very happy that he must have been back on track again. Then it was baby wrangling time for a measurement. I am not sure if this is accurate or not since he was moving around so much and someone who usually does not work with kids was measuring him. Still he was approximately 28 inches long (50th percentile). At 6 months old in November JSL was 18.1 pounds and 26 inches (percentiles were the same).
The doctor was very impressed with how he was sitting up alone so straight and was trying to pull up on anything that was nearby. She went over all of the developmental things and he was there or further. He even tried to demo crawling on the exam table much to my horror. I asked her about his tongue tie and whether we should do something about it now before he is old enough to be more upset with a procedure. She told me absolutely not until we know if it causes an issue with his speech. She said the fact that he is already talking so much and making great sounds for so many letters is a hopeful sign on that. She said that JSL is definitely "talking" more than a typical 9 month old. Of course I told her he has to to keep up with his almost 4 1/2 year old brother who does not stop talking. He says: Mama, Dada, Noah (No-Wah), big brother (big bro no wah wah), Bye-bye (while waving – especially to dismiss me from suctioning his nose), I love you, Nana, Papa, and other things are definitely parroted.
We talked about food intake and nursing and he is obviously doing well there. She is just concerned with keeping up to speed on fevers if/when they start with him. So I have a bag of medicine tricks with me at all times in case we need them. We already went over how we will do preventative Motrin administration for his 15-18 month MMR vaccine. That was a good idea to me since I had a bad reaction to that (I thought my mother once told me one of my febrile seizures was after it too).
We left the office feeling really good about things. I met one of the mommies from my local group in the parking lot to get some new to us toys for the boys. JSL and I went home, ate lunch and picked up NHL before stopping at the library for some movies. By the time JL was coming home from work JSL was not sounding good again. The poor kid was congested and I had to suction him a lot to make him comfortable.
Here are some of the new to us toys that we were lucky enough to get. The zebra was what we were going to get him for his first birthday, but now works. Thanks D for meeting up with me for the toys – the boys LOVE them!
JSL playing with the Fisher Price Learning Table:
NHL with the Pop-Onz table:
NHL with the zebra:
Although a little too small to use it on his own, JSL loves the zebra and did not want to get off.
By Saturday morning he was pretty miserable and his nasal secretions were not looking good. I called Aunt M to ask her some questions about how many days off an antibiotic something would resurface. We opted not to call our doctor and wait and see. Most of Saturday and Sunday he was OK. He was more clingy, stuffed up some, and very emotional, but nothing too alarming. Last night he was really congested and making the rattly noises from before our hospital stay. Add to that the thick nasty mucous that I was suctioning (sorry if TMI). His temperature was 2.5 degrees high for him, but never went up more than that (thank goodness). He did not want to stay in his crib (just lowered since he’s able to pull up from sitting) since he was so stuffed up. Thanks to this rough night and sounds horrible this morning, I decided to call the doctor today. So now I am waiting for that call to come back (it’s been two hours now). Our original doctor, not the one we see now will call back since our usual doctor is off all week. We just need to know what to do since he seems to be getting worse pretty quick.
P.S. Do not forget to enter my giveaway that continue to Thursday for the $30 certificate to Announcements Galore.
Plans here changed, but in a good way for the most part. Tonight we were going to take NHL to a hockey game. We had some free tickets and thought it would be fun. Unfortunately, the boys had other plans. Both of them were up a lot during the night, or up way too early this morning. Thanks to that and JSL possibly being sick again (*sigh*) we opted to change it up a little.
I was able to get some really great movies at the library Friday, so we opted to stay in the warmish house, watch Harry Potty and The Order of the Phoenix and test out my new Whirly Pop.
On that note the popcorn is ready and JL is putting the movie in. Now here’s to hoping that the boys behave!
P.S. Do not forget to enter to win the new blog design giveaway for the $30 gift certificate to Announcements Galore.
