So I think this has possibly been the worst month this year. Yeah, not probably. It is. Aside from other personal issues I won't go into here, just having to watch your child suffer is ... just ... wow. Not cool.
I came home from my business trip on Thursday night. Ryan and Owen picked me up from the airport (of which my flight was an hour and a half late - thank God for Internet updates so Ryan didn't have to wait). I began to climb into the front seat, then changed my mind and jumped into the back, even though I knew Owen was sleeping. I got in the car and he awoke and he sort of looked at me, smiled a really weak smile, then just turned his head a little. My poor sweet baby. Ryan wasn't thinking clearly and ended up taking the wrong exit out of the airport, so our normally 15-20 minute ride home ended up taking 35 minutes. Which isn't that bad until you take into account that all I really wanted to do at that point was snatch my baby out of the carseat and hug the crap out of him (although, from what I hear, he was getting the crap out of him all on his own. Damn diarrhea.).
Owen looked so tiny in his car seat, yet at the same time, he looked like he had aged so much. His tiny frame, sitting in that car seat, limply, to me it seemed, was heartbreaking. His face, usually full of smiles and baby chubs, looked a bit empty, stoic, and ... well, as if he had seen the world in his travels and trevails and didn't like what he saw. I would ask him questions here and there - "Owen, are you tired?" and he'd nod his head in response. I'd ask him if he was doing better, and he'd give me a weak look. I know he understood what I was saying, because he nodded yes at the right times, no at the right times, and generally responded to everything I was saying.
Ryan told me that Owen had learned to communicate really well with him - he was able to tell Ryan what he needed, when he was about to puke, if he just went poop and needed a change - it was pretty astounding to Ryan. I imagine they had to be able to communicate well to survive 72 straight hours of being sick like that.
This is going to be kind of long, so I'll put it in the extended entry.
Ryan had made me an egg sandwich to eat for dinner since 1) my flight was way late, and 2) he thought i'd be hungry, and 3) there wasn't much to eat in the house since 1) owen had been sick, and 2) Ryan wasn't in the mood to eat since he thought he was coming down with the bug.
Why do I mention the egg sandwich? I dunno. Oh wait, I do. Cause I was eating it and Owen started to show an interest in having some. Ryan said to just give him the bread since the egg could upset his stomach. *sigh* My poor baby. So i gave him some bread and he was eating it all cute and such. Then he saw that I had some hostess 100 calorie packs that Ryan had packed in my car-dinner. And he wanted. But I didn't give in! (Much) It was nice to see Owen responsive to wanting some food.
Ryan had taken Owen to the doctor's office that morning and the nurse that squeezed him in for the appt said that Owen was doing just fine and to keep giving him the liquids (gatorade or pedialyte) and he'd be better in no time. If we wanted to start introducing him back to dairy, then do it slowly.
We got on to our street and I got antsy and I pulled Owen out of the carseat. (don't call the cops on me, it was for like .1 of a mile, geez) The first thing I noticed was that he was super light. So not heavy. I asked Ryan how much he weighed in when he went to the doctor's office and he told me - Owen was nearly the same exact weight he was 5 months ago at his 12-month visit. Holy crap. Granted, it was only a loss of 3 lbs, but 3lbs on a baby is A LOT. Especially when you have a little runt like Owen. Babies' body composition is about 90% water, and Owen had lost a hell of a lot of it.
We got into the house and as I carried Owen in, I looked at his face. All of a sudden, a larger smile appeared on his face and he sort of hugged me. I think it finally set in that momma was home and it wasn't an illusion. That night, he mustered up enough energy to play with some of his easter eggs with me, sit on my lap, and give me several hugs.
I was looking forward to Friday morning. Friday morning he got up and I got him ready and we hung out at home while I tried to work a little bit. Work was light in the morning; it was the afternoon of telecon after telecon I was dreading - especially since I had to be an active participant on these calls. Things were going GREAT. Owen would be playing at one end of the couch, then run to me randomly, give me these great hugs, laugh a little bit and then run back to playing. Owen did pretty good the rest of the day, and even took a longer nap than I expected so I could attend some of my telecons in peace.
Oh, something I should mention - at around 2, I changed a pee diaper, and there was a significant amount of brown in the pee section. People I talked to suggested it could have been some diarrhea leakage. I didn't think so, but they said that it could have leaked to the front when he was laying on his belly. At around 4, I changed another diaper that had poopage in it, and again, some brown in the pee area. I thought, hmm, maybe it is poo. Who knows.
Ryan suggested we try giving him some milk at some point on Friday since it had been a while since his last puke. I was a little weary of that. At around 4:30 p.m., Owen was at the fridge, BEGGING for his milk. I didn't want to cave. Then he started asking for "Chee." So I figured, OK, I can give him some of the Borden Cheese slices (you know, like kraft singles). I gave him one slice - and he was in complete and total heaven. He was sooooo happy to eat that cheese.
I don't know if that was the wrong thing to do - if it was too early to give him dairy - but it made him so happy, so it was OK. I thought.
At around 5ish, he was getting tired, so I thought, ok, let's take a nap. He was tired, he nodded yes to going "night night" and then as we were getting closer to the room, he coughed, looked up, and started crying. I just knew he was going to throw up. I ran him to the bathroom and poor baby, you could tell he wanted to puke. He was getting that excess saliva in the mouth. We sat in the bathroom for a few minutes, but he never ended up puking. i was able to lay him down for a nap, but the dang phone rang twice, and my cell rang once, so there was no way he was going to sleep with all the distractions. Darn.
Ryan got home and Owen was just in a punchy mood. Not a happy camper. Finally, at 6:45 or so, Ryan just picked him up, asked him if he was tired, and wanted to go to bed. Owen said yes, Ryan put him down, and that was the last we heard of him (mostly) that night. He did wake up crying around 3 am, so I dragged him into bed with us.
Here's where the story gets fun (if you've read this far - I can't believe it if you have - this entry is waaaaay longer than I thought it would be). He woke up around 9 a.m. in kind of a crabby mood. I immediately checked his diaper (the outside of it) and noticed it was still bone dry. I opened it and it was DRY. No pee for 15 hours. Not a good sign. I called the doctor's office and they had me bring in Owen right away. As I was calling the doc's office, Ryan was trying to get Owen to eat some breakfast and drink some fluids. Right before we were going to the doc's, Owen peed. And peed a lot. So that was great. What wasn't so great is that there was still brown in the pee area. We decided to still go to see what the brown could be.
So we drag my poor son to the doctor and they shove a thermometer up his arse. Poor kid. 99.9 or something like that. Low-grade fever. They took his weight. He went up a half pound from Thursday, so that's a plus. Then the doc comes in to see us. Ears look good. Eyes look fine. Back of throat - red. But that's probably from all the damn puking he's done recently, right. So then we talk about the pee. Doc wants to run tests from a urine sample. How do they get urine samples from babies? With a catheter. Doc says - probably not likely - but there could be blood in his urine. Maybe protein. I said, like Ketones? He says yes. WORST case scenario, he could have a fistule and his urethra and poop line got mixed up and he really is peeing out poop. Best to test and see.
So we had to sit there and watch the nurse put a catheter in our child. My poor, poor baby - especially since she didn't quite get it right the first time and had to re-do it. OUCH. There was pee EVERYWHERE when she finished with the catheter because of the having to re-do it and everything. As soon as she left the room so we could get Owen dressed and diaperized again, he peed all over the place again. My poor, poor baby! We cleaned him up the best we could, got him dressed, and awaited the results. Good news (no, great news) - there was NO blood in his pee. There were proteins, but no sugar, so that's also good - no diabetes. Proteins were in his blood probably because his kidneys were working overtime this week. Bad news - kid was mildly dehydrated and that's why his urine was just so damn concentrated it stained his diapers BROWN. So on to trying to get him to drink more fluids.
That episode at the doctor's office really just drained us on Saturday, and then the temp outside was like 95 degrees, which was a horrible, horrible day to have to be outside (we had already rsvp'd to the company picnic - which was under a pavillion, so that was ok, but getting around was a pain in the ass). Going there was actually good, because Owen actually ate something there and got some starchy pasta into his system. But we were just so. damn. drained. the rest of the day, and Ryan did end up getting a really high fever Saturday night and was pretty much out of commission.
Sunday - Owen woke up severely grumpalicious - and also with a completely dry diaper. I am starting to think that he's just not peeing thru the night anymore, and could be telling us he's ready to start potty training ... his hints are very subtle, but they are coming thru loud and clear to me. I think. :) So anyway, when he did pee, it was still brown, but I'm not going to freak out until tomorrow if the urine is still brown, because aside from him being grumpy this morning (i just think he's not a morning person (me neither - i am such a night owl (see timestamp of this post))), he actually did great. He ate half a bowl of oatmeal in the morning. Then half a chicken burrito at tijuana flats (not spicy - kid's meal) for lunch, a lot of good fruits (that didn't act as a laxative) for snack, and some bread and cheese for dinner. Yes - cheese. AND we introduced milk today after talking to the doc yesterday. And he's done really really really well with all of that. Knock on wood.
He went to bed around 8:30. And now it's nearly 1:30 a.m. and I'm still up. I suppose I should try to get to bed. I have a crapload of work to do tomorrow, plus try to get Owen pepped up to go back to baby jail. Yeah, he's gonna love that.
Anyway, thank you, loyal reader, for reading all of this, and if you didn't, I understand. It was damn long.
Oh! And happy birthday to Rick! (and Ryan's mom) (and I think there was another bday on this date that I'm missing! drat)
AWWWWW....I'm so sad Owen is not feeling well. I'm with you on the It sux to watch them go through all of that. It's just no fun. Lots of big hugs for you guys!!! I hope he's peeing better today. Love ya!!!
Ammani, I'm SO worried about him. Keep us posted, ok? I know it's easy to let your blog slide, but this is too sad.
Samantha did that to me around this age. She was 19 months old and started waking up dry. We were flying to Maine for a fam reunion, and at 10am, we were waiting to momentarily board the plane. She hadn't peed since EIGHT PM THE NIGHT BEFORE!! I'd intended to change the what-will-definately-be-a-leaking diaper just prior to boarding, but they were going to board us w/in 5 min. I frantically called the Ped and asked them if we should board, or if she had a UTI and should skip the flight or what. The girl said she couldn't get a doc that quick. I said, "Come on, there's 4 docs & 4 nurses, and you can't find one to tap on the shoulder right NOW??" She politely said no, and if I wanted to skip the flight to wait for the callback, they'd try to bump me up. As we were hanging up, Scott flagged me urgently. She peed. A leaker. We thru the disposable changing pad on the floor of TIA, so only her pants got wet. LOL, it's funny now.
And she took 18 more months to potty train.
Don't let 'em get your hopes up, or he'll take FOREVER to train!!