jesse's girl: Sick Boy

On Sunday, Nathaniel had a rash from the waist down. He was also super cranky and warm, so I checked his temp and it was 100.8. Nothing too crazy, but I kept him home Monday for a little relaxation and rest. Monday, his fever went up to 102.5 and he started throwing up. Normally I would've just assumed the throwing-up was related to the fever, but he had fallen off a chair at church the day before (I'm the worst mother ever) and bonked his head pretty good. Just to be safe, we called the pediatrician's office and they said to take him to the ER to get him checked out. We headed to the ER (the fancy new one) around 3:30. His fever wouldn't go down for a while, even after some Tylenol, so they wanted to keep us for a while and keep checking. The doctor didn't think he had a concussion, just a virus, but since he has had multiple rashes before, he wanted to draw some blood. He also prescribe an antibiotic for Nathaniel's ear infection. Nathaniel did so well and stayed on the bed the whole time. The first couple hours he was super sad and tired and just wanted to rest on me. I didn't mind. After a dose of Ibuprofen and some Zofran, he started to perk up and play with his toys.

In order to draw blood and give him the first does of antibiotics, they wanted to place an IV. They had a hard time finding his veins since they are so small and he didn't have much liquid in him at the time. They wrapped him up in a sheet like a burrito and kept his right arm out. They put the needle in his hand and he didn't even flinch! A little blood came out, but then it stopped. So then they switched and tried his left arm. This time, he started to get upset. And it didn't work! So then they moved on to his left hand. By this time he was just yelling in pain. It was so sad! They decided they had enough blood for the samples and decided to give him a break. He started to perk up again for a bit.

Then they decided to just do the antibiotic in two shots in his legs. He did not appreciate that, but at least it wasn't as bad as the IV attempts. After a while, we were discharged and out of there around 8:30. I had Jesse pick up his antibiotic and some Wendy's. When we got home Nathaniel was so hungry, he went to town on his cheeseburger and fries. He still refused to drink so I gave him some water in a syringe. He had a bath and went to bed.

Tuesday, he started to feel better around the afternoon. I took him to his check-up and he was feeling pretty good. They decided not to do his shots since he started the day out with a fever and since he had shots in both legs the night before. That night, his fever spiked again! Poor kid. He was sad and cranky.

So we stayed home Wednesday too. His fever finally went away, but he was still just super sad and tired and cranky. All he wanted was for me to hold him and to sleep. He did eat some cereal and chugged a bottle of water. He even fell asleep on the floor watching Elmo and stayed asleep for 2 hours! He dozed off on my a couple times later in the day. He finally started feeling better that evening and ate some pizza.

Thursday he was back to his silly self and I'm so glad! I hate when my little buddy is sad, but I love the days off with him. I love when he is cuddly. He is never cuddly unless he's sick. Being home with him is kind of a bummer, though, because it just gives me an idea of what it would be like to be home with him all the time, but then I have to turn around and take him back to daycare and go back to work. It's just hard, and I get really frustrated every time I see SAHMs complaining about being a SAHM mom on Facebook. Right now I just don't have that luxury, but I would give anything for those complaints to be part of my daily life.