Dec 29 2008
Not So Happy Holidays
Well I hope that our blog readers had a happier Hanukkah and a Merrier Christmas than we did. Things started off OK, but spending our morning in the Children’s Memorial ER the Sunday after Christmas wasn’t quite our idea of fun for the holidays.
Things started OK. Jonah seemed to have a good time at Grandma’s house on Christmas Eve. He wasn’t too interested in eating that day and got cranky towards bedtime but we chalked that up to having missed his nap and being too excited and overstimulated to eat. Maybe that wasn’t the case though. He went down at bed time OK and actually slept for a few hours but sure enough, just as WE were getting ready to go to bed he woke up and was not happy. After that, I don’t think any of us slept for more than an hour or two in total. In fact, I think Jonah kept the whole house up at Grandma’s except for Uncle Jeff who must be a deep sleeper.
We were supposed to stay at Grandma’s house for Christmas day too, but after that night and now an apparently feverish kid who would NOT go down for a nap unless he was rocking in someone’s arms, we gave up and came home. The fever only lasted a day and a 1/2 or so though so we thought we’d be OK to head to Nana’s house for Hanukkah on Saturday night. We were especially relieved when he took a 2.5 hour nap that morning.
This time we decided to be cautious and NOT plan to stay overnight. Things there went well, except that Jonah still wasn’t too interested in eating and we noticed a few red dots on his belly. We kept trying to force him to drink. We left around bedtime from Nana’s house, he drank his milk in the car then promptly fell asleep and stayed asleep when I got him into his bed, so we thought we were doing well. Until, of course, we tried to go to bed ourselves. I think Jonah was up that night from about 11pm to 2am.
I checked on him and did all I could around midnight and we decided to let him cry it out. Chris started snoring but I was uneasy since he had not been acting like himself for the last few days, so I got up and looked for reassurance about “crying it out” and “sleep phases” on Mamasource. An hour later, when he was STILL crying, I went back in there. He had leaked through his pj’s and needed new ones and a clean diaper, so I took care of that. Tried to get him to drink more then finally brought him into the office and laid down on the futon with him and turned on Sesame Street. I finally shut that off and he fell asleep with me. I crawled back into bed at 2:45 after putting Jonah in his crib and kicked a snoring Chris to the couch for some sleep of my own.
When he woke up at 6 the next day with a belly now FULL of red dots, we decided to call the doctor again and see if she thought we should head to the ER. I’m glad I called because she reminded me to take him to the Children’s Memorial ER, otherwise I think we would have just gone to Illinois Masonic and had to wait with all the other sick adults. We got to Children’s before 9 and were about the 2nd kid to be seen. And I’m glad we decided to go because just as I was raising Jonah’s shirt sleeve for the nurse to put the band on, there was a big red welt that I hadn’t seen. Now, in addition to the rash on his belly and back he had hives. She identified it for me; I’m not sure I’ve ever seen them before. No wonder he was so unhappy!
Long story huh?
The conclusion is that they chalked it up to a virus. Apparently the rash and hives part is common for kids. He has to take Benadryl every few hours for 48 hours solid then more if the hives aren’t gone. The good thing about that is that it makes him sleepy so we all were able to get some rest last night. He seems MUCH happier today and his appetite is back so we are very relieved. We’re glad we didn’t wait to bring him to the pediatrician on Monday. My experiences with ERs aren’t so great but we had a good experience at Children’s even if the only place to eat there was McDonald’s.
We’re all looking forward to a happy, healthy family to enjoy for the long New Year’s weekend coming up. Cheers!
