Crazy Two Weeks

Well, Holden's homecoming was not what I had envisioned. The morning that we were going to be discharged from the hospital, my mom called from our house to inform me that Fletcher had a fever. When I asked her to check it, it was over 103F. She and Oma took him to the sick hour at the pediatrician's office. Diagnosis: Strep Throat.

So, when we were discharged, we came home while Fletcher was sleeping. After taking the welcome home pictures, Oma and Opa went back home. For the next two days Holden was kept in our bedroom and I spent the majority of our time in there as well. I would come out for small periods of time to see Fletcher and hang out with Mom and Jesse a bit.

The next day, I took Holden to the doctor for a follow-up. In the hospital they tested his bilirubin level twice because he appeared jaundice. (I guess his "movie baby good looks" and color that he had just after birth were gone.) His levels were much lower than the formulated numbers. At his appointment, she stated that he needed to go to the lab and have his heel pricked again to check the level again. At this point, we were having flashbacks of all the visits to the lab and doctor after Fletcher was born. We were really hoping to avoid those this time around.

On top of that, Holden lost weight in the hospital and then lost two more ounces by the time we had this appointment. He was down to 7 pounds 5 ounces. (Fletcher started at 8 pounds 6 ounces and only went up.) She wanted me to drive downtown to have him weighed on Saturday, but I convinced her to let me come back to their office the following day to see if he had gained weight. She allowed me to try, but told me that he may not gain the couple of ounces overnight. I told her that my milk had just come in that morning and to allow me to try.

From that appointment, we went downtown to have the blood drawn. Holden didn't even respond to the heel prick. Fletcher used to scream and cry! The results came back and again, the level was well below the formulated number. The next day, I took Holden back in to be weighed again and he had gained 5 ounces overnight. His color looked better as well, so we didn't have to worry about more trips to the lab. They did want to see him again in a week to make sure the weight was still going on him.

The next afternoon, Fletcher had been fever free for over 24 hours and on antibiotics for almost 48 hours, so we introduced him more closely to Holden. This was just a few hours before we noticed some spots on his feet. We thought they looked like ant bites, but my mom said he didn't seem to react to anything outside. A little later, we saw the same thing around his hands. The next day, his legs were broken out with a different rash. We thought he might be having an allergic reaction to the antibiotic.

By Sunday, we noticed spots on his tongue and in the back of his mouth and decided he might have hand-foot-mouth disease. In addition, his exzema had flared up. So many things at once! I decided to take him to the sick hour on Monday morning to figure out what was going on. Strep throat and a viral infection, rather than a reaction to the meds, and hand-foot-mouth disease. This explained why we were having to force him to take his medicine and even force fruit pouches down his throat to get him to eat. He has always been great about medicine and the fruit pouches are his favorite!

Jesse came home early from work on Monday (Holden's 1st week birthday) feeling sick and only got worse as the day went on. He stayed in bed all day Tuesday and was still recovering on Wednesday. He's still not himself as we are entering the weekend. We also had newborn pictures taken on Sunday and found out Wednesday evening that our photographer came down with strep throat too! I'm still in the middle of trying to sanitize this place and I just feel like the house is covered in germs.

At Holden's weigh-in today, he was 8 pounds 8 ounces, so it looks like the weight is going on! Nursing has gone pretty well, but he preferred one side over the other in the hospital and would latch on and then push me to the front of his mouth, which was very painful. But, I kept at it and although it still hurts at times, it's been going pretty well and for that, I'm thankful. They said he may prefer one side because he may have been laying on one side during the pregnancy and just like it. That would make sense because when I would sleep and try to lay on my left side, it would be very uncomfortable. During labor, I was also on my left side with the pain where the hot spot was. So maybe there is some truth to this hypothesis.

I asked the doctor if he was okay because he sleeps so much. Fletcher never slept that much and ate a whole lot more often. She assured me that he is perfectly healthy and I shouldn't worry. I guess Fletcher was just not the average baby in the sleep department. I'm glad we dealt with that the first time around because I don't think I could handle it right now with everything else that's gone on.

Unfortunately, Grandma had to deal with a sick toddler for the majority of her visit. I think there were just a couple days of him behaving like his typical self. However, it was nice having the third set of hands around here for a couple weeks and we'll take that no matter what condition our child (or my spouse) is in. Now she's safely back in her element at home and we are still getting used to our current family of four, five if you include Knuckles.

I will try to catch this blog up a bit as I have time to sift through pictures and gather my brain around the timeline of events that are occurring!