All Recovered

Like the new layout of the blog? I liked the old one just fine but was rudely informed that I had to change it or my blog would be naked by tomorrow. This one's nice too though!

Well, it's been a rough week. Peyton caught his second cold ever (and coincidentally also the second cold in he's had in the past month) but this one was much worse than the first. He woke up suddenly last Thursday night at 10:30pm, crying and stuffy. Scott and I looked at each other horrified, as this was the exact way it began the last time, right down to the time he awoke. Scott's friend from college was coming into town later that night for a weekend visit and we had a lot of fun things planned, so we crossed our fingers that it was just some crazy allergy.

The next morning, Peyton had a runny nose, but nothing too serious so we decided to risk it and head to Newport, RI for the day (pictures to follow). This was a bad parenting decision.

Note to self: Avoid bringing sick children to the beach in 90 degree weather with 100% humidity.

Our poor little guy was pretty miserable all day. It was a very stressful situation for all involved, as we were hours away from home and had no good way of comforting the fussy baby who was beginning to refuse to eat or drink anything. I could also tell he had a fever just by feeling him and when we got home, that suspicion was immediately confirmed. That night he was up for hours crying- our poor house guest will never want to come visit us again! Saturday I was getting more and more worried as Peyton continued to refuse to nurse, take a bottle, or eat any solid food and his wet diapers became more infrequent. I called the doctor at 5pm after he hadn't had anything by mouth since 10:30am. We were told to start oral rehydration by squirting milk into his mouth with a 6ml syringe every 10 minutes. This was extremely labor intensive, as 5 syringes = 1 ounce and it took both of us to accomplish the goal- one to hold and one him still and the other to inject the fluid. It was a long night. Sunday morning our pediatrician opened up the clinic for us so she could check out Peyton and diagnosed an EAR INFECTION. I've heard of ear infections, but I had no idea what misery they could cause! Apparently, ear infections make sucking and swallowing incredibly painful (thus the fasting). I was so relieved to finally get an answer and get the okay to give pain meds and a prescription for glorious, wonderful, strawberry-flavored antibiotics which we began immediately.
It took until Tuesday for Peyton to start acting like himself again. I fed him with that 6mL syringe for 3 straight days, keeping careful mental note of all intake and output (my nursing skills came in handy there) and worrying and praying incessantly about his hydration status. When he finally began nursing again, I was so relieved. He hadn't eaten or slept well in days. On Tuesday his appetite and sleep needs revived with a vengeance! He took a 3 hour nap in the morning, nursed twice withing the next two hours and ate two big bowls of rice cereal, then took another 2 hour nap, nursed twice again and ate an adult-sized bowl of oatmeal, then went to sleep for the night at 6:30 and didn't wake up for the day until 9:30 the next morning. That was one tired boy! I am so so so glad to finally have my baby back- I feel like we've been through a lot together and now every time he smiles or eats well it makes me so happy.

We are done with sickness! I am going to sanitize everything from now on and keep germs far from our house!