Its been a rough while in our house. . . . before we moved to the new place, the boys each took turns getting sick, so it had already been a while since we got any good sleep. Yikes! Then we moved of course, and they actually did pretty well with the transition, but then they each got sick again. Most recently, N got pink eye and an ear infection - ya, at the same time. I spent several nights sanitizing the surfaces and toys that possibly were infected and days changing N's sheets so he wouldnt reinfect himself, and did prevent the pink eye from spreading to anyone else. . thank goodness! A few days later of course, E had a bad cough in the middle of the night, which prompted me to get him to the ER at about 1am. (he is fine)
I need to premise this part of the story with the fact that hours before we rushed off to the hospital, B and I had our first night time date in quite some time. We have been out on our own a few times, but only during day time hours. I was just too scared of the dark to leave my poor babies alone with anyone else. Why? I have no freaking clue, but I was, and it is what it is. Being that the boys are 18 months, and prior to their birth, I was on bed rest for 15 weeks, I'd say its fair to say we had not been out alone, at night in nearly 2 years. INSANE!!!! I think I even forgot the world kept functioning outside of facebook after 8pm. Pre-babies, we used to sleep until 1 or 2 on weekends and our nights didnt start until 8 or 9, or 7 on an early evening. Now? Thats shut down time!
We had a night time date, in preparation for B's holiday party the following weekend. I needed a practice run closer to home. The party was in downtown LA. . . . why in downtown when the office is so close, I dont know?!?! Its like the party planners needed my blood pressure higher when I arrived or something. . .
We headed out to an old favorite sushi place, about 5 minutes from the house:) I cleaned myself up, wore cute jeans and boots, and even a bit of makeup in honor of the occasion. We had a really nice time. It felt good to be a couple, out to dinner, just us. I had a lot of nervous energy though, without any little people to fuss over and feed. It was a good night though:) We got home, got to bed, and within minutes, E is up crying. He really has a knack for waking up just as we are falling asleep. Nice. . . I got him out of bed, sat on the couch with some milk, and he starts coughing. I hadn;t heard a cough like this one before. It was almost hollow. It seemed to hurt him too:( Of course, I was exhausted, and tried to talk myself out of overreacting and rushing to the ER. I was almost convinced, and he coughed again. With all the junk going around these days, I knew better than to shut out my own intuition - mama really knows best - and we left. B stayed home with N. . . I knew Id need to sleep the next day so one of us needed to get some rest. E cried as I strapped him into the car. Probably because he was so tired and wanted to know why F I was taking him out on the town. All I knew was the last time he cried like that when I strapped him in the carseat was when he was 7 weeks old and couldnt breath because of his acid reflux.
(We didnt know he had any digestive issues. We had taken him to the pedicatrician at least 5 times because he was making a weird noise when he breathed in his sleep in the 2 weeks he had been home - after a 4 week hospital stay, including open heart surgery - HELLO?!?!? and no one diagnosed the acid reflux. ) By the time we were getting him in the car to see the dr. his voice was practically gone and he was starting to change colors. NOT good and VERY SCARY. I sat in the back with E, B drove and we left 7 week old N home with my sister in law who was visiting in town - we were still in Texas. We were heading to the after hours pediatrician, maybe 15 minutes away, but we never made it there. Sitting in the back seat with E, I was horrified. He kept screaming, and the car had always calmed him. . . . all two weeks of his home life anyway. There was a fear in his eyes I didnt recognize and his skin felt balmy. I had B turn into the emergency room, which was literally around the corner from our apartment) I ran him in and told the receptionist he was having a hard time breathing. 2 nurses appeared from nowhere and rushed him off. By now, Id never let ANYONE take my son from me like that, but back then, I trusted nurses far more than myself. His oxygen was down in the 80's, and he had to be transferred back to the hospital where he had his heart surgery. We shared an ambulance ride, and began a 3 day stay at the hospital. The last time my son cried like that in the car seat, my family was torn apart. . . for the third time. Now, at 18 months, that was all I could think about.
As I drove, I debated. . nearby urgent care, or UCLA?? I opted for the urgent care only because it was closer. Our pediatrician told us before that if anything happened, ALWAYS go to UCLA because of their pediatric unit. Urgent care was closed, I began to panic. I called my mother in law, who was (as always) awake, lol. She came with us to UCLA - always UCLA!!! After a few hours of ER time, a happy, cooperative patient, chest xray, flu and rsv tests. . . . the dr. told us E was suffering from reactive airway disease. I can turn into asthma, he can grow out of it. . . here is an inhaler. . . . Thankful and exhausted, we headed home.
We followed up with the pediatrician the following Monday, less than 48 hours since we arrived at the ER. We continued the inhaler for a few more days. NO sleep, NO sleep, NO SLEEP:( We saw the pediatrician for a scheduled appointment a few days ago, and she assured me that his breathing was fine, and that despite matching runny noses, both boys are developing well and are happy, healthy toddlers. She said to expect a runny nose all season. . . really? EWW! That makes it hard to sleep too:(
They each have a wedge pillow, baby vicks and warm humidifier to keep things soft and as comfortable as possible.
Oh, and we went to B's holiday party and had a nice time. We got all dressed up, and hadnt done that in a looooong time!!
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