ER Visit

I knew having a boy would mean that we would probably end up in the ER on more than one occasion. What I didn't think is that it would happen so soon. My poor baby boy.

On Friday, one of our friends watched Dayton for us because his daycare was closed. She said that he was a super happy baby all day, but that he ended up spitting up almost all of his lunch and then only drank about 2 oz. from his 3 pm bottle. I knew something was up when she said he didn't drink his 3 pm bottle. He was happy all Friday night, but continued to not eat much. I put him to bed hoping he would get a good night's sleep. Well, he didn't. He was up at 12, 1, 2, and 4 am. I finally got up with him at 5 am. He felt warm so I took his temperature - 101 degrees. I gave him some Tylenol and was SO disappointed because this was the day we were having Dayton dedicated at church. Well, that wasn't happening now. We called all of our friends and family and let them know he was sick.

Now that is one sick baby.

 Throughout Saturday morning, he still wasn't eating much and his temperature kept rising, despite having given him Tylenol every 4 hours. I started to get worried. Brad and I talked about it and I just had this mama gut feeling that something wasn't right. By 11:30 am Dayton had a 102.8 temperature and he was not eating much. We decided to bring him to the ER. Once we got there, we were taken back to a room right away. They took his temperature, gave him some Advil, and we were told to wait. The doctor came in and said he would like to have some blood drawn and if needed have a chest x-ray done. We didn't think the chest x-ray was necessary at that point, so they drew blood. Two hours later, an x-ray technician came in and said they were ready for his chest x-ray. We just looked at her. What?? We told her that we didn't think we were getting one, so she went to find the doctor to double check.

Trying to stay positive  |  finally sleeping on mama  | daddy was worn out too

When the doctor came in our room, he said that there were 2 red flags in Dayton's blood work and one of them warranted a chest x-ray. So off we went. I was wondering how they were going to get him to hold still for an x-ray, but they have this little contraption for little ones. We put his legs through this wooden seat and then we had to raise his hands over his head. Then a plastic tube was strapped around his whole body holding his arms up over his head. Let me tell you, he did NOT like this and screamed his poor little head off. Broke my heart. As soon as they were done, they unstrapped him and handed him right to me so that I could soothe him. Poor guy. Now we just had to wait for the results.

After another couple of hours, the doctor came back in and told us that Dayton had the beginning stages of pneumonia and that we would be emitted into the pediatric unit upstairs. Whoa. It was 5:30 pm. We had been in the ER for almost 6 hours. Brad decided to run home and get some stuff for us to stay over night while Dayton and I got checked in upstairs. I have only wonderful things to say about the nurses in the pediatric unit. They were so nice and so kind. I was worried about my baby, but holding up pretty strong. As a mama, you never want to see your baby in pain. If I could have taken away his pain and put it myself, I would have. I hated seeing my poor sweet boy hurting. Luckily, his fever had started to go down. The concern now was his eating.

The pediatric doctor came in shortly after we arrived and explained what would happen. Dayton would get an antibiotic shot - a strong one - and they would monitor his weight and fever all night. The doctor also let me know that anyone who entered our room would be dressed in full protective gear (suit, face masks, gloves) because of the bad respiratory viruses that are going around right now. Yikes. Dayton and I got  settled in and then we heard a knock on the door. It was Grandma and Grandpa Bishop! They had been in Iowa City shopping and decided to drive the rest of the way up to check on little man. Daddy got back a bit after that and we all hung out in little man's room. After Grandma and Grandpa left, the hubs decided to go home too. Well, I told him to go home and rest. He had been sick and I knew a night in the hospital would not help. I figured both of us being tired wouldn't help anything. So it was just me and little man.

baby jail  |  hospital outfit  |  cuddling with mama  |  trying to figure out what that wire was...

When it was time for bed, the nurses hooked Dayton up to the monitor. They had to tape his monitor to him so that it wouldn't keep falling off and setting the alarm off - that was fun. Dayton had to sleep in "baby jail" or as the nurses called it, the crib. I knew he would have slept better with me in the bed, but the nurses said no and his monitor didn't reach that far anyways. Little man woke up a lot - sometimes every 30 minutes - and I tried feeding him about every 2 hours so that he could get more fluids in him. It was a really rough night and a few times I was so drowsy and tired, I was afraid I would drop him. Luckily, we made it through the night without any major problems.

Sunday morning, little man and I watched church from my computer and cuddles a lot. Dayton seemed to be more himself and even got down on the floor to play with the toys the nurses had brought him. Again, I cannot say enough good things about our nurses! They were amazing and so supportive. They did say, that Day was one of the youngest kiddos they'd had upstairs, so it was fun to have a little baby in their unit. Daddy came back that morning and we stayed until the pediatric doctor made it up to our room that afternoon. He gave Dayton the go ahead to go home with the promise that we would bring him to his doctor the next day. We went home and this mama took a nap. I stayed home with Dayton on Monday and we went to see Dr. C. Dayton was much more himself and our doctor said that he didn't think any more medication was necessary since Dayton was not having trouble breathing. We were given strict instructions to monitor his fluid intake, his fever, and his breathing though. I was so thankful to have the day at home with my little boy - who was feeling better!

watching church  |  nap time

I would have to say that overall, the whole weekend was a little scary. Pneumonia can be incredibly dangerous and this was the first time our little guy was sick. I only teared up once, when the nurses were trying to clear out Dayton's nose. He was screaming, crying so hard, and struggling as we held him down. It broke my heart. I turned around and I could see that Brad was starting to tear up to, so after the nurses left I cried a little. I kept telling myself that whatever happened, I know God gave me the strength as a mama to care for my son and that he was in God's hands. I had to just give the whole situation to God and just let go. I am so thankful for the intuition that God gave mamas. I am so thankful for the protection and comfort that God gives us each and every day.

hanging out with mama on Monday  |  playing with the tissue paper at the doctor's office