I’ll preface this by saying everyone is totally okay! This space has become my pseudo-baby book for Duke so I want to make sure I’m capturing all the happenings for the day when I actually {maybe?} transfer it all to paper.
Anyway, backing up a bit. I went to Lincoln, NE to visit one of my very best and oldest friends who just had her first sweet baby girl 2 weeks ago on Friday night. {Baby girl is amazing and I’m so happy to have one of my very best friends in the mama-club!} Dennis and my parents took on Duke duty since Dennis works on Saturdays and everyone had a great time. I met up with my boys in Sioux City on my way back for a little Christmas shopping {I may have just gotten myself an early present that I am OBSESSED with. Check these out– so comfy and so cute!} We headed home, everyone slept great and we woke up feeling extra snuggly on Sunday. We managed to bring Duke into bed for his bottle and also managed to get him to fall back asleep with us for an hour and a half. This surely should have tipped me off that something was wrong with our little guy, but he used to do this occasionally and it was amazing, so we went with it. And then the rest of the day, my usually smiling and laughing boy, looked sad, tired, and kept playing with his mouth and ears.
A million snuggles were in order. I had planned for all things Christmas décor and even though everything is up from the basement and covering every surface of my dining room, it’s been a slow process getting things setup in our new digs. Anyway, obviously a sick babe trumps all plans so we hunkered down on the couch and cuddled our little man while giving him the occasional dose of Tylenol. He continued to burn up, hotter than I’ve ever felt him and temps at different times read anywhere from 99 degrees to 103. I called the nurse’s line and was given a list of things to look for but the nurse didn’t seem to worried, so we continued on for a couple hours.
At one point, Duke was laying on my chest, awake and calm, and breathing pretty hard. I remembered the nurse had said something about 50 breaths per minute so I started timing his and googling to try to come up with the number. We counted a few different times and always ranged between 60 and 70 breaths so I called the nurses’ back. She said at his age, he shouldn’t be above 45 so we should take him in to the ER to be checked out for pneumonia.
We drove the quick 4 blocks over and got our boy checked out. Double ear infection: check. Bumps on throat and mouth: check. Red spots around hands, cheeks and mouth: check. The PA basically told us he definitely had a double ear infection, possible strep, and possible hand foot and mouth {although the spots could have just been a heat rash because he had been fighting fever all day}. All of which would be treated with the same antibiotic. So we opted to skip really pissing Duke off with a throat swab. She said his lungs sounded great and he was likely breathing so hard because he was trying to cool himself down.
He slept off and on in the ER but was mostly whining and crying and downright miserable. The worst part is how freaked out he was and even when something didn’t hurt at all, like a sticker on his toe to monitor pulse, he would get so worked up we could hardly calm him down. They give him the first round of medicine and some Iburprofen while we were waiting on some other tests and he started to perk up and turn into his normal self. By the time we left, he was waving at the nurses and even managed to let a smile out. We got some meds and instructions and headed back home.
Today was spent snuggled up with my sweet boy. He barely ate or drank unless he was given a bottle shortly after his Ibuprofen dose so I know his mouth is bothering him. Praying these antibiotics work their magic quickly! Hoping for a solid night of rest and a brand new boy in the morning 😉 Wish us luck!
-T-
