Yes, it has been a few days. A few exciting and terrifying days. On Monday night, William had a concerning diaper. I will spare you the details, but it required a call to the real doctor's office hotline. Usually, I call MY mother first with concerns, but I knew she was at a conference out of state and wouldn't answer the phone. (PS. I was right - I called her after the doctor called back and she didn't answer). While waiting for an answer from the doctor, I was made to listen to a list of instructions. The most important one repeated at least twice: "If this is an emergency that cannot wait 15-20 minutes for a return phone call from our staff, please hang up and call 911. Immediately." Before placing the call, I would not have deemed our situation "911" type emergency as I could hear William splashing and cooing in the tub at John from the bathroom. However, I truly didn't think I could wait for 15-20 minutes for a return phone call. I briefly contemplated calling 911 or scooping my precious boy up in his hooded bath towel and high tailing it to the emergency room. Luckily the doctor called us back after only 7 minutes. The doctor agreed it wasn't an emergency situation. She gave me a list of things to look for that could turn the whole evening into an emergency situation. She instructed me to call back to the office tomorrow after he had a poop to check in with the nurse for further instructions.
It would be an understatement to say that I was stressed. I put William to bed as normally as I could under the circumstances - all while wondering how I was going to watch for the other trouble signals if I was going to go to bed myself. I resisted the urge to google words like "perforated bowels", "blocked intestines" and "ulcers in babies". I went to bed and sort of slept that night. I am proud that I continued to resist searching the bowels (tee hee) of the internet for (mis)information. I preferred to bury my head up to my chin in a sandbox of my own making and wait for the baby to poop. And wait and wait. Luckily, William produced two beautiful, yellow specimens in quick succession for me to analyze and determine that everything looked okay at 1pm. I made the call to the doctors office. The polite message informed me they are closed daily from 12-1:30pm daily for lunch. Nice. I finally got through to them and they assured me that disaster had been averted. I called John to tell him to come home after work because I was exhausted. There was no way I was making it to the Y after all the time I had spent worrying.
William then became an angel and went down for a nap. I slept also, because I was entirely exhausted by the "what ifs" and "maybes" on top of constantly monitoring the baby.
That evening, while playing, William managed to knock himself on his noggin. As I was totally exhausted (still), panic set in. A little thing like this does not usually send me racing - but tonight it did. I call dr mom (no answer) and contemplated the on call dr again. William settled down quickly and dr mom called me back. It was a lifesaver. Together we determined it was not an emergency and didn't even require ice. I put William to bed with a little less worry than the previous night.
Then today. William woke up at about 7:30 with his usual tricks - he rolled over and was quite unhappy when he found himself on his stomach. I went in to roll him back over and couldn't believe how hot the house was (77 degrees) and how incredibly thirsty I was. I rolled him back over to scoop him up and he went back to sleep. I laid on his floor and dripped sweat. Still thirsty. William woke up for good about 10 minutes later by again, rolling over and then protesting - loudly. I got up to pick him up and saw the room close in. William was not amused by the stars I tried to show him or the blackness. He defiantly didn't care about the sweat dripping or my extreme thirst. Somehow, we got the diaper changed and a TALL glass of water from the fridge before feeding him. Somewhere after (it gets blurry), I ate breakfast quick and drank 2 more TALL glasses of water. I also got freezing cold. Cold enough to locate my fleece pajamas and wear them in our now 80 degree house. It felt great. I remember thinking "if I still feel this bad at 9:30, I'm calling John to come and help me". The idea of lifting William again to change him, roll him over again, or put him in the crib was terrifying. I was exhausted and nauseous. And hot and cold....repeat. At 9:15, I found myself on the bathroom floor revisiting my breakfast. I found this to be cause enough to call my beloved husband at work and request his presence. He came. Quickly. William was napping and I was moaning on William's bedroom floor. We had a quick conference on the floor and determined:
1. I was sick
2. I should seek medical advise about feeding the baby while vomiting
3. Consider getting medical advise in person about my condition
4. I should take a nap and hand the baby responsibilities to my husband.
I called the doctor and found that stomach viruses can be given from mother to baby through milk. I shouldn't nurse for at least 24 hours after the onset of the illness. They felt no real reason to see me in person ( I didn't want to see me either). I took a nap. Several times. John and William hung out together and played. I was reassured by the happy noises coming from the living room. Diapers were changed, baby was loved on. I was exhausted. My husband is amazing and wonderful. No complaining ( to me anyway) and he didn't even heat food up in the house to prevent smells. I love him!
It remains unknown whether this is a virus or just worry induced sickness. John plans on going to work tomorrow, but is prepared to leave again if need be. I know this update is long and not very interesting. Most important, it contains no pictures of the cutie pie. I apologize. I'll try harder tomorrow. Maybe.
goodnight,
the heidts
