Xander, Emilie and Baby #3 » May 2005 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Mon, May 23, 2005 11:48 PM
Xander just can't get enough of his doctor! We were back in the office on Thursday to find out why little man was feeling so bad...again. He's been extremely congested and snotty and has had a bad cough for the last couple weeks. Towards the middle of last week, he started running a low grade fever and started wheezing so we brought him back in. Dr. McIntire said to give him Sudafed for the congestion, runny nose and cough and Tylenol for the fever--probably just a cold. Treating that is the easy part. As for the wheezing, he's not sure if it's part of the cold or asthma (we think it's just the cold). He has to have breathing treatments with a nebulizer every 4hrs and a liquid steroid to ease the inflammation in his lungs. Let's just say he doesn't care for the breathing treatments. It must be doing its job though with the screams he's able to belt out!! (Thank goodness it is working because if the wheezing continued to get worse, he was going to have to be readmitted to the hospital for hourly treatments.) He goes back in 2wks to have FOUR shots (OUCH!) and to check on the progress of the wheezing. Keep your fingers crossed that he'll then be done with the treatments and the 250 doses he was prescribed were a bit of an overkill!!

Friday we were off to Xander's first trip to God's country--Bloomington, his first stay in a hotel, and his first wedding. He slept through the wedding rehearsal, puked on Grandma Cindy at the rehearsal dinner, and only cried out a couple of times during Aunt Jenny and Uncle Ryan's beautiful wedding. He had a ball on the dance floor watching all the lights until he was too exhausted to keep his eyes open any longer. The next morning, he was in a good mood again and talked all through church. Afterwards he puked twice on soon-to-be Aunt Michelle. I guess the breathing treatments really started loosening up the junk in his chest and ended up upsetting his tummy!

In spite of occasionally coughing so hard he vomits and letting out cries of pain, he seems to be in a relatively good mood. He's been talking (okay cooing) up a storm the last few weeks and must have started training for a marathon. Those little arms and legs have been in overdrive!! He's also sleeping at least 5hrs at a time during the night and often times 7hrs!! We couldn't have asked for a happier or sleepier baby!!

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Tue, May 10, 2005 4:44 PM
Wow! The last few weeks have been eventful! Poor baby Xander was in the hospital last weekend feeling horrible. As Chad already reported, we were allowed to bring him home on Sunday but were supposed to contact his doc if the fever returned or he wasn’t able to keep any food down. His fever never came back (thankfully) but late Sunday night and early Monday morning he was still projectile vomiting. So we made a call to his doc and brought him back to the office that morning. Dr. McIntire was concerned that he might have a condition called pyloric stenosis--a muscle between the stomach and small intestines that doesn’t allow food to pass out of the stomach. Baby doesn’t get any nourishment because NOTHING stays down (soaks whoever is holding them) and they start losing weight rapidly. Symptoms start in babies between 6wks to 4mo old. The diagnosis is made by doing an ultrasound of the stomach/small intestine and the cure is surgery!! Unfortunately, Xander was in the right age range and experiencing most of that at the time. His doctor didn’t feel comfortable making this diagnosis (not his specialty) so he made an appointment for him with a pediatric gastrointestinal specialist at Riley/IU later this month. Until then we were given these instructions: 1) if he couldn’t keep anything down the remainder of that day, we were supposed to bring him back in for an ultrasound at Methodist (get the GI doc involved sooner); 2) when we feed him, only give him 2-3oz every 2hrs (he normally has 5oz every 3-4hrs). So the poor little guy was not only not feeling well but now also starving! After about a day we upped his bottles to 4oz because he was so miserable and he’s been keeping it all down (he doesn’t really spit up at all anymore!!).

I stayed home with the little guy Monday thru Wednesday and Chad stayed home with him Thursday and Friday. By Tuesday the diarrhea and vomiting stopped (yea!!!). By Thursday whatever virus he had moved into his head and chest. He sounds soooo phlegmy and has a cough and snotty nose. And his cry sounds horse—it’s soooo sad! Hopefully he’ll get over this soon!

Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t enough to get him out of his rescheduled baptism Sunday! Little man looked so cute in his christening gown and did really well in church. He didn’t cry at all when the priest poured the water or put the oil on his forehead. It must have been tiring though because he slept on Aunt Melinda the rest of the mass! Afterwards, we had a little cookout at our house and Xander sported his first shorts outfit while catching some rays on the deck.

Then it was back to his horrible daycare center yesterday. I hate that place!! When we picked him up after his first day there, he had spit up running down his chin, he was sharing a crib with other kids—not at the same time (they’re all supposed to have their own crib assigned to them), his foot was bent up towards his shin in the leg of his clothes—ouch, and his diaper was only covering half of his little bum! Needless to say, Chad and I have been checking in regularly with the Lilly Daycare Centers to see when he can get in. Today we were notified that he can start May 31st—WOO HOO!!! Things are finally looking up for little man!!

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Sun, May 1, 2005 11:49 PM
Xander is home! The official diagnosis for the weekend was a viral infection and sepsis. The blood culture was positive with Bacillus sp. More than likely a contaminant, however, the doctor and I were not very comfortable with that!

Xander has to stay home for a few days and we have to pay close attention to his temperature for the next week. (Angie is very disappointed that Xander is not allowed at daycare!) Technically, he should be in the hospital for another week (standard procedure) but since his fever was down and we live so close he was allowed to go home. If his temp goes back up or he starts vomiting again, he's headed right back. In regard to the microbiology behind the diagnosis, a Bacillus species seems an unlikely contaminant for an infant and an even more unlikely cause of Xander's illness. In the words of the fish, "I do not like this. Not one little bit" (a little something for the Dr. Suess fans)

I told Ang that the Bacillus comes from living in unsanitary conditions. I told her she needs to clean the house from top to bottom!! I think I've duped her....don't spoil it for me!

Of course if we focus on what is really important, Xander is home; his temp is down; and he has kept his food down (although he isn't eating as much). Hopefully mom, dad, Xander and Sully can all get some much needed rest!

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers! We will keep you updated on what he trys on the next baptism weekend! =)

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