The last 24 hours or so have been pretty eventful for us Smiths.
Last night I headed off to see "The Hunger Games" with my friend. I did like the books and I was anxious to see the movie. Before leaving around 6:30, I was having kind of a lot of contractions. Painless contractions, but fairly frequently. We got to the theater, sat down, the movie started at 7, and I started having contractions really close together. I had 9 before I decided to get out my cell phone and use my app to actually time them. It was 7:40. I continued to start and stop my contraction counter every 2-4 minutes for the rest of the movie. I ended up having over 30, which progressively got more and more uncomfortable over the course of the next 2 hours. I was a little worried.
The sort-of "general" rule is if you have more that 4 contractions in an hour, even if they are painless, call your doctor. I don't live by this rule. If I did, I would have been on the phone with my doctor every day starting at about 25 weeks. The other general rule is drink lots of water and lie down and see if anything changes. If it does (like slows down), it's false labor.
So I quickly left after the movie - which I did not get to enjoy very much - with an offer from my friend to drive me home. I really was fine and knew that if I were just able to lie down it would slow down. I made it fine and they eventually did slow down, although they were still happening about every 10 minutes by the time I was able to fall asleep. Since they are painless, they are pretty easy to sleep through (definitely not like real labor). Today has been full of them as well, especially since I've been snuggling with and holding Abram pretty much all afternoon/evening.
If you've been around Abram at all you are probably well aware that he is not a snuggler. He never has been, but now that he can walk he wants down all the time. Every once in awhile we will get an "Up!" from him, usually when we are in the kitchen trying to get stuff done that requires toddler-free arms. But he never wants to just hang out in our laps or lay his head down, except right before bed when we are singing in the dark and about to lay him down.
Anyway, this morning was pretty normal. Then I put him down for a morning nap, which he fell asleep for pretty easily, but only stayed asleep for around an hour. Yesterday he took a three hour nap during that time. I noticed he was a little hot when I was changing him before lunch. His temp was 100.5. So I gave him not quite a full dose of Tylenol. After lunch he started acting more tired and felt more hot. Took his temp around 2:30 and it was 102.5. Called the nurse line, they said to give him a full dose of ibuprofen and expect it to go down. Put him down for a nap at 3, because he was acting very fussy and tired. He did not fall asleep for an hour and half, so I got him up. Took his temp, still at 102.5. I called the after hours line and the nurse wanted me to bring him in. We drove over there as he got progressively more sad looking and more lethargic.
So they basically checked his oxygen levels, his ears, his throat, his breathing, did a strep test, a flu test, took a chest x-ray, and gave him some more Tylenol. Around "his ears" in that list, he started just bawling. Uncontrollably, inconsolably crying. Oh, and snuggling. I had a hot, hot baby trying to find a comfortable position around my 8 month pregnant stomach and snot and tears all over my shoulders (I was there in yoga pants and a t-shirt, so I didn't really care) and all I could think is "Yea! A snuggler!!" It was sweet. And sad. Sweet and sad.
I actually cried during the chest x-ray. He was bawling and looked miserable and they put him in this baby contraption where his arms are pinned over his head and he was basically encased in a plastic tube with his little face sticking out. It was horrible. And all I could do was stand in the next room where he could see me watching him cry, but not doing anything for him. And I had a hard time not completely losing it. I blame hormones. And motherhood.
So... to sum up the rest: negative for strep (even though he has a "very red throat"), negative for flu, no ear infection, a very "gunky" chest x-ray and a 103 degree fever at the doctor's office. So he's being treated for pneumonia. He's had a perpetually lightly running nose for a few weeks now, so it's possible. If he's not doing better in the next few days, we'll go back in. We put him down to bed at 8 and he went right to sleep, but he woke up a little while ago (around 10:30) and didn't seem like he was going to go back to sleep on his own. So I went in there to feel his head and maybe give him some Tylenol, but his fever had broken, praise the Lord. He was only a tiny bit warm. So I picked him up and snuggled with him for a bit. It was really more like he was snuggling with Selah, because I have to lay back on the couch with his legs on my legs and his body over my belly and his head on my chest. We did that until she and my uterus couldn't handle it any more. I laid him down in his crib and sang a few songs sitting on the ground next to him with my arm through the crib rails rubbing his back. He fell asleep and has been a bit wiggly and whiny the last hour, but I think tomorrow is looking like it will be a lot better than tonight.
So this post was more so family will know what's going on and for posterity. I want to remember what it was like to have a snuggly baby for even a half a day. Here is the one picture I got from the afternoon - we weren't focusing much on photography:
Poor, sweet, exhausted, hot baby boy :(
And a video of my smart kid just an hour so before his fever started to spike:
Last night I headed off to see "The Hunger Games" with my friend. I did like the books and I was anxious to see the movie. Before leaving around 6:30, I was having kind of a lot of contractions. Painless contractions, but fairly frequently. We got to the theater, sat down, the movie started at 7, and I started having contractions really close together. I had 9 before I decided to get out my cell phone and use my app to actually time them. It was 7:40. I continued to start and stop my contraction counter every 2-4 minutes for the rest of the movie. I ended up having over 30, which progressively got more and more uncomfortable over the course of the next 2 hours. I was a little worried.
The sort-of "general" rule is if you have more that 4 contractions in an hour, even if they are painless, call your doctor. I don't live by this rule. If I did, I would have been on the phone with my doctor every day starting at about 25 weeks. The other general rule is drink lots of water and lie down and see if anything changes. If it does (like slows down), it's false labor.
So I quickly left after the movie - which I did not get to enjoy very much - with an offer from my friend to drive me home. I really was fine and knew that if I were just able to lie down it would slow down. I made it fine and they eventually did slow down, although they were still happening about every 10 minutes by the time I was able to fall asleep. Since they are painless, they are pretty easy to sleep through (definitely not like real labor). Today has been full of them as well, especially since I've been snuggling with and holding Abram pretty much all afternoon/evening.
If you've been around Abram at all you are probably well aware that he is not a snuggler. He never has been, but now that he can walk he wants down all the time. Every once in awhile we will get an "Up!" from him, usually when we are in the kitchen trying to get stuff done that requires toddler-free arms. But he never wants to just hang out in our laps or lay his head down, except right before bed when we are singing in the dark and about to lay him down.
Anyway, this morning was pretty normal. Then I put him down for a morning nap, which he fell asleep for pretty easily, but only stayed asleep for around an hour. Yesterday he took a three hour nap during that time. I noticed he was a little hot when I was changing him before lunch. His temp was 100.5. So I gave him not quite a full dose of Tylenol. After lunch he started acting more tired and felt more hot. Took his temp around 2:30 and it was 102.5. Called the nurse line, they said to give him a full dose of ibuprofen and expect it to go down. Put him down for a nap at 3, because he was acting very fussy and tired. He did not fall asleep for an hour and half, so I got him up. Took his temp, still at 102.5. I called the after hours line and the nurse wanted me to bring him in. We drove over there as he got progressively more sad looking and more lethargic.
So they basically checked his oxygen levels, his ears, his throat, his breathing, did a strep test, a flu test, took a chest x-ray, and gave him some more Tylenol. Around "his ears" in that list, he started just bawling. Uncontrollably, inconsolably crying. Oh, and snuggling. I had a hot, hot baby trying to find a comfortable position around my 8 month pregnant stomach and snot and tears all over my shoulders (I was there in yoga pants and a t-shirt, so I didn't really care) and all I could think is "Yea! A snuggler!!" It was sweet. And sad. Sweet and sad.
I actually cried during the chest x-ray. He was bawling and looked miserable and they put him in this baby contraption where his arms are pinned over his head and he was basically encased in a plastic tube with his little face sticking out. It was horrible. And all I could do was stand in the next room where he could see me watching him cry, but not doing anything for him. And I had a hard time not completely losing it. I blame hormones. And motherhood.
So... to sum up the rest: negative for strep (even though he has a "very red throat"), negative for flu, no ear infection, a very "gunky" chest x-ray and a 103 degree fever at the doctor's office. So he's being treated for pneumonia. He's had a perpetually lightly running nose for a few weeks now, so it's possible. If he's not doing better in the next few days, we'll go back in. We put him down to bed at 8 and he went right to sleep, but he woke up a little while ago (around 10:30) and didn't seem like he was going to go back to sleep on his own. So I went in there to feel his head and maybe give him some Tylenol, but his fever had broken, praise the Lord. He was only a tiny bit warm. So I picked him up and snuggled with him for a bit. It was really more like he was snuggling with Selah, because I have to lay back on the couch with his legs on my legs and his body over my belly and his head on my chest. We did that until she and my uterus couldn't handle it any more. I laid him down in his crib and sang a few songs sitting on the ground next to him with my arm through the crib rails rubbing his back. He fell asleep and has been a bit wiggly and whiny the last hour, but I think tomorrow is looking like it will be a lot better than tonight.
So this post was more so family will know what's going on and for posterity. I want to remember what it was like to have a snuggly baby for even a half a day. Here is the one picture I got from the afternoon - we weren't focusing much on photography:
Poor, sweet, exhausted, hot baby boy :(
And a video of my smart kid just an hour so before his fever started to spike:
Here's praying that tomorrow is more like that.
Comments
Post a Comment