It has been almost 3 weeks since my last update...if that gives you a clue to all that we have been doing. This may be a 2 or 3 part update.
Here is a video of Caleb learning his new trick with Auntie Krista at the end of January:
And here's one of my favorite times of day:
Caleb had his first illness at the very end of January. Caleb was diagnosed with RSV on Tuesday, January 31st. He woke up with a bit of a cough on Sunday, but I thought it was the start of a little cold to go with some teeth (still no teeth). He was happy Monday morning.
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| Lumberjack Caleb |
But by Monday evening it was clear he wasn't himself and it was a wet cough. A few kids were sick from daycare, one with pneumonia so I figured that's what it was. I took him to see our doctor on Tuesday late morning. The receptionists were again thrilled to see Caleb again, although sad to hear he wasn't himself. Caleb is such a flirt with them. He showed off and crawled around for them too. They got to hold him too. After an initial exam, Dr B guessed it was RSV but would need a nasal swab and X-ray to confirm. I was a little worried for him but he was a champ, despite the tools of torture that would have bothered me.
The nasal swab: I was expecting a q tip looking thing, but instead they pulled out a spiral wire that curved up into his nasal passage/sinus. I can't even find a picture of it online. I thought he would cry but he just rubbed his nose afterward and smiled at the nurse.
X-Ray: I got Caleb down to his diaper and walked into the room with Caleb. There was a contraption that looked 100 years old. A whole in a piece of wood with a leather padded bicycle seat set in it for Caleb to be propped on. Then they close a plastic cylinder around him with his arms over his head. He's a google image I found:
Most kids scream, but Caleb had his Nuk, let a out a few whimpers, and settled as I began to sing his favorite song, "Itsy, Bitsy Spider." They took forever to get set up it seemed and then they asked me to leave him alone so he would cry to get a good x-ray of him taking a deep breath between his cries. I took away his Nuk and turned away from him. He did a small whimper again but I guess it was good enough because they took the x-ray. Then they turned him in the contraption to do a side picture. Again a lot of fiddling and time went by, but we got it done. There was someone waiting right outside the x-ray room who apparently had experience with infants getting x-rays. She was impressed that he didn't cry and congratulated him on his bravery. :)
With those results, it was official that Caleb had RSV and was likely on Day 3 of it. That meant he could go back to Daycare on Friday, not before. I took Tuesday and Wednesday off to snuggle and play with him. Josh took off Thursday. It was quite heartbreaking to hear him cough so hard and nights were horrible. It was a week of waking up at least every 40 minutes, at times every 20. He would cough, wake himself up, upset himself, and need his Nuk and a comforting word to go back to sleep. I don't know how I did it without Caffeine, but a Mom will do what a Mom has to do!
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| On the mend...playing with his bib. |
The only treatment was nebulizing which took some getting used to, but again, he was a trooper. We are down to twice a day to keep the coughing down, especially at night. Right now we do it before we go to bed and he snuggles in and sleeps while we neb him. It's a wonderful feeling that you get out of an unfortunate circumstance. But he's back to sleeping 6+ hours and we are grateful.
We tried having him sleep more upright in his carseat. We took out his infant carrier. He's huge in it and doing pullups in it!! haha
Well that takes us through the beginning of Feb. Look for Part 2 of the catch up soon!
I'll leave you with some Oma love:
