Sicky Little Guy

Well, welcome to what seems to be the longest post ever. I hate being back here talking about a sick little guy, but so seems to be our life. It was all good for what felt like so long.

If you remember (you will if you've been reading along for a while), our little guy went through loads of sickness from about five months old (March 2012) until we pulled him from our first daycare almost  9 months later (December 2012).

First time really sick - RSV in March 2012

From RSV six times, seven ear infections (resulting in tubes), sinus infection twice,  hand foot & mouth and croup. We went to specialists to try and figure out why he was getting so sick and none of them had a clue. He was put on many different preventative meds but none of them seemed to prevent the inevitable future of him getting sick once again. We ultimately purchased a nebulizer since he was constantly needing to use it for breathing treatments. He wasn't sleeping, we weren't sleeping, we were stressed and missing work all the time because he couldn't be at daycare while sick or if he had even a slight fever.

If you spot this junk running out of your kiddo's ear, it isn't good.

It was the beginning of December 2012 on the tail-end of a bad bout of RSV (like I'm talking three week-long bout) that we decided we were just going to pull him from daycare. It seemed every time we would get him better and back to healthy, he would spend a day or so back in daycare and was immediately sick again. 

We didn't have a plan, but fortunately had amazing family and friends to help us figure out care for our guy until we did. I started interviewing nannies and we found an amazing one who started with us in January 2013. From the time we pulled him from daycare until the day our nanny left us (more about that here), little man was not sick once. Not one time, I tell you. And it was amazing. I never knew how life could be with a healthy baby and it was everything I imagined it would be.

Flash forward to now and our little dude is back at a different daycare. Lo and behold, what happens? Not less than three weeks after being back in daycare (middle of September 2013) and our boy was sick once again. This time with Croup and a pretty bad case of it.  Mind you, with neither daycare have we "skimped" and opted for a cheap solution - we have really tried to only leave our boy in some of the best daycare centers in Omaha. Obviously nothing helps the fact that some kids are just more susceptible to getting sick than others. But nothing changes the fact that ALL kids are going to get sick - the different levels of how sick they get is the variable.

This sickness started with him getting a slight fever and having runny nose and watery eyes for a couple days. We chalked it up to sinus/allergies since our pedi thinks our guy may have allergies like his daddy and at this same time the hubs was sneezing pretty bad as well. Then his fever got worse and he was coughing that barking/seal-like cough (a dead giveaway since we had heard this exact painful cough before) - this was Thursday night, so Nick brought him into the clinic on Friday. Diagnosis: Croup.

He was given a steroid and we were told to continue giving him breathing treatments to try and clear him up. He was pretty bad Friday and Saturday but seemed to be getting better Saturday night (slept through the night!) and seemed completely normal on Sunday morning. Then Sunday he took a turn for the worse. Woke up from his nap shaking and had broke another fever - like 103 degree fever.  He was whiny and crying and if we know anything about our guy it's that even when he is sick he's in a pretty good mood and still so sweet, so this was off for him. He continued to get worse and I was on the phone with the after hours nurse trying to determine what we needed to do. She gave us the option of going to the Children's ER or waiting it out. We decided to wait it out but that only lasted an hour when we determined he wasn't going to be able to sleep, was very uncomfortable and the fever wasn't going down despite our different attempts. With all that you hear about not ignoring high fevers and the fact that he had a fever over four days into the sickness (which generally isn't good), we knew we needed to head in.

No one wants to be at an ER with their child at 10pm, but I can tell you I found comfort in it once again, because at least you get answers, and generally help (in the form of stronger meds) to help your baby. They gave us a stronger breathing treatment and treated his fever and we were off to fend for ourselves. Fortunately, little man fell asleep on the way home and I opted to sleep on his floor that night just to be sure his fever didn't get worse.

Two days later, he was back to himself. Thankfully.

Until this past weekend, when he got Croup yet again. Even more fortunately, it was such a light bout and we seemed to catch it early, so he did have to miss daycare on Friday and Monday, but it wasn't near the capacity that it was last time.

From the moment we heard that first barking, seal-like cough early Friday morning and through the weekend, we have been talking about what we are going to do. Do we go back to the search for a nanny? With Nick starting a new job here at the end of the month, neither of us can continue to miss more work. When will his immune system start building up, so he can fight off illness better? There are just so many questions.

Some of my tips when dealing with a sick baby:

• Trust your instincts. There are times you will feel like a fool because it may feel like you are calling for what the nurse makes out to be the smallest thing, but remember that is their job and they hear these different diagnoses every day. As a first-time mom, you need that reassurance. 
• Keep up with the doc's instructions, even if it feels like they are better. There were times that C would seem to be getting better, so we wouldn't continue his breathing treatments or other instructions as long as the doctor had told us to thinking he was better. Then he would take a turn for the worse. SO, just listen to what they say and continue doing what they recommend to make sure your baby is fully recovered.
• Get a second opinion. After going through so many doctor's visits and seeing little man sick all of the time, we sought help from someone else. Not that we didn't believe in our doc, but you never know. And we wanted to make sure we were fully in the know on what was going on or better yet to see if they had any other ideas as to why our little guy was always getting so sick.
• Overdoing the cuddles during this time are ok.  When your baby is sick, all you want to do is snuggle and chill with them until they feel better. My opinion...do it!  You really should put the baby down and go do the laundry, wash the dishes or clean the house, you say? Screw it, enjoy the time with your baby. Sometimes all they need is a warm snuggle from their mama.
• You will feel guilty for working outside the home and having to send your child to daycare. Like all the time. I hate that I have to send my son to a daycare center and that it has resulted in him being so sick, but I also can't change our situation and the fact that I have to work. Do I wish I could be there to cuddle him when he's sick instead of sitting in my office worrying about him. Absolutely. It's just not realistic. And I can't beat myself up for it.

Well, we are going to be over here, just preventing future sickness. If you have any ideas for us, we will take them! Have any of you experienced this kind of craziness?

The preventative Flo-ven inhaler C takes every morning
He also gets Singulaire mixed in with yogurt or his milk at least once a day

You can read more about our experience with baby illness here, here, here, here and here.   

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Cruz As Of Late

I've been fortunate to spend a lot of time with little man as of late, but unfortunately most of the time has been time off work to help get him back to being healthy. Yes, the little monster has been sick again - I'm sure you all are as tired of reading about this as I am at talking about typing it. 

This most recent bout has included quite a bit. It started with Hand, Foot & Mouth in early November (which he got over just in time for his big birthday party), then the day after his bday he had coughing, wheezing and vomiting (found out it was RSV - the 6th time he's had it & by far the worst bout of it) and went through Thanksgiving. Just as we thought he was on the mend, he was at my sister's for the day and had ear wax draining from his ear, we brought him to the doctor this past Tuesday and, yep, another ear infection (his 7th). He still didn't seem better and his cough was getting worse, so Thursday morning I brought him back into the doctor and they said he had a sinus infection. 

Are.You.Kidding.Me?

Finally after many meds, cuddles, steam showers, breathing treatments, sleepless nights, crying,...he seems to be getting better. Thank you dear Lord. The past two nights he has slept through the night (fingers crossed) even if it was in our bed the entire night (whatever helps him sleep). His cough has subsided for the most part. There haven't been many sneezes where thick, gooey gobs of greenish-yellow snot comes oozing out of his nose and down into his mouth and onto his chin. His overall mood seems better. His appetite is back. And he just looks healthier.

The hubs and I are about at our wits end trying to figure out how to end this madness. Why is he always sick? I know kiddos get sick and especially if they are in daycare, but this is pure craziness. 

So...our next goal is to find a nanny or a really small in-home daycare ran by someone we know. While I will miss Primrose, because I do think it's a really great school and I love the interaction he has with the other kids, we just cannot risk him being around so many other kiddos as we are entering the time of year where major illness occurs. He just gets sick easier than most and it impacts him worse than just a common cold.

Enough of this sickness talk...and onto the cute star of this blog, Cruzer. My lack of posts means a major photo bomb (reminder!) for you all now.

Trying milk in the sippy cup...not much made it in his mouth, but the toys were covered in it!

Showing off his Shevy's t-shirt (rep'in our friend's business!) and restless nights (I believe this was about 3am or 4am one night last week - the boy would not give in to sleep)

My favorite time...cuddling with my sleeping baby boy

Ran to the mall...and this was his "I'm pooping" look.

He was pushing and grunting like crazy!

Ears dripping with ear wax (look closely) and spots all over his shoulder...gross

(Guess the tubes are doing their job)

 Showing off - "how old are you, Cruz?"

Waking up in mama & dada's bed w/ his puppy

Finally eating again! Nanu's special sauce...

...and a little treat, an oreo, with mama!

Feel Like Myself

It's been quite some time since I've really felt like myself. These past few weeks have been a whirlwind from little man being sick, the Thanksgiving holiday and work on crazy mode. I'm operating on very minimal sleep and work out/eat right kick I had been on in September and October has totally fizzled away for basically ALL of November.

So it wasn't until this morning that I actually have felt like myself for the first time in a long time. Cruz slept through the night last night! Well...minus a few coughing fits where I pretended to sleep and the hubs helped him through them (please don't think I'm a terrible mama, but I needed my sleep)...that and the fact that he slept with us, in our bed, all night. (We definitely aren't cool with this happening all the time, but if he's sick and it helps him and us sleep better while he's sick, then I'm doing it. It just cannot become a habit...or the norm. Because this girl needs her time with her man.)

Refreshed from a great night's sleep, I actually woke up when my alarm went off at 5am - whereas these past couple of weeks I set it at 5am and snooze until much, much later or just simply change it to a later time so I don't have to mess with that snooze thing. I was very, very , VERY quiet as not to wake up our sleeping boy and made my way downstairs for an at-home workout. I have been waiting for this workout for such a long time. I needed treadmill time (did I just say that? I hate the treadmill.) - not only for the purpose of a workout, BUT a while back I had promised myself that I would only catch up on my favorite blogs if I was doing some physical activity at the same time. No more laying on the couch late at night with a glass of wine, my iPad, my blogger friends and some snacks. No siree. I long for my blog time and knew that if I made this promise to myself, I would force myself to get off my booty and get some exercise in! So ladies, if you've noticed I've been a bit MIA not only from posting on my own blog (this cannot be done while on the treadmill) but reading and commenting on all of yours...this is the reason. And now you will know my little secret...if you haven't heard from me in a while, I've gotten back to my lazy ways!

So, anyway, this morning I caught up on my friend Heather's blog (sorry, girl, for comment overload!) and can't wait until tomorrow (maybe even later tonight...if I get bored enough!) to catch up with everyone else. And I have felt great all day at work knowing I got some sleep and finally caught up with my e-friends.

Sick Little Guy

I think I jinxed little man. I have been raving about how healthy he has been since getting his tubes back in August. It's been so refreshing to go a couple of months with no real illnesses. A breath of fresh air to not have to constantly give him breathing treatments, antibiotics, preventative allergy medicines, all that nonsense.

I think I jinxed little man, because, well, he's sick again.

Every kid gets sick, right? Why do I feel that our little guy has been sick so much during his first year of life? Why do I always feel guilty every time people ask if I stay home with him or send him to daycare? As if that's the only reason he gets sick. I do get that he is exposed more to illnesses when he's around so many other kiddos and sharing toys, but does it always have to make me feel so bad that I need to to work and cannot stay home with him?

This past weekend, Cruz was out on the farm with my parents until the hubs and I could get there Saturday morning for the wedding shower/bachelor/bachelorette parties for my brother and his fiance. He had a little cough and runny nose, but nothing serious. I also noticed a little red bump on his forehead (probably a blemish) but then noticed a couple more on his wrist/knuckles (spider bite?). When we got home Sunday night things got worse. He was congested, coughing (a lot) and wheezing. He didn't sleep well that night so I made an early morning appointment with one of our pediatrician's partners to see what's up. It hadn't even crossed my mind as to what the red bumps could be, until I was listing off the symptoms to our nurse and got to the bumps and she said, "uh-oh."

"Uh-oh?" Do nurses really say "uh-oh" and then leave you with "the doctor will be in shortly"?

Then it dawned on me...it's Chicken Pox. How did I not think of that when I noticed the red spots?

The doctor came in and I gave her the same rundown that I had just given the nurse. I asked her if it was Chicken Pox and after checking him over, she said it could either be that but she really thought it was Hand, Foot & Mouth, only she couldn't tell because the symptoms weren't clear and were resembling both viruses.

Ugh...I didn't like the sound of either of them. Even worse when she told me that there isn't much we can do to treat either, except breathing treatments for the wheezing, Motrin for the fever and if he started itching Benadryl.  Plus, no daycare until we knew exactly what he had. H, F & M would be until his fever totally broke and he wasn't drooling excessively since the virus is pretty contagious (well, he's also teething, so not looking good that the drool will stop anytime soon) and with Pox he would be out until all of the spots dried up completely (generally 10 days).

Nick and I stayed home with him all day Monday - the night was a treat, he woke up at 11:30pm and I couldn't get him to stop crying, fussing and coughing until 3am. (Bright side - I did get to watch an entire movie I had wanted to see, if there is a bright spot I suppose this is it.)

Fortunately my mom was able to come down and stay with him for a couple days while we went to work (HUGE help) but we continued to experience similar situations at night. Our normally great sleeper was definitely bothered by his symptoms. At least he seemed to be feeling better during the day, besides some majorly fussy moments.

On Wednesday night, we took him back to the doctor because we needed to know if they could now diagnose his illness. We were able to get in to see our normal pedi - and she checked him over completely. It wasn't until she looked into his mouth and noticed his throat was covered in red spots that she realized it was definitely Hand, Foot & Mouth, but looked to be a mild case as far as the blistering, red bumps went. The worse of it for him was the junk that went along with it.

We kept him home Thursday (the hubby and I splitting the day) and then Nanu and auntie Morgan were able to watch him Friday. He actually slept through the night Thursday and didn't wake up until 5am...I felt like a new woman having actually gotten five hours of sleep in a row! Fortunately, he seems to be on the mend and we should be able to bring him back to daycare Monday.

Let's just hope he kicks it this weekend....we need him to be fully healed by his big FIRST birthday on Tuesday!

Tomorrow's The Day...

Tomorrow our little guy is going into surgery to get tubes put into his ears...while I know it is a very common procedure, I'm scared to death of him being put under. He is just so little...only 9 months and shouldn't have to be in the hospital. It breaks my heart.

But I know many little ones have this done and everything turns out perfectly. And it will with our guy too. The best thing that can happen is he will be DONE with those dang ear infections. Last week he racked up number six and I'm so ready for him not to have to go through another one...or at least not as often.

So...tomorrow's the day.  Wish us luck!

Sick, Sick & More Sick

Little man is sick yet again. So rewind to three weeks ago when we got back from our Vegas/Denver debacle (by debacle I mean crazy, drinking vacay) and the day we came back we found out he had RSV/bronchialitis again. He.Got.Better.  Flash forward a week, RSV is gone but has turned into sinus and ear infection. He.Got.Better.

Flash forward even further, this past Sunday he was poopy (awesome), drooly, runny nose, but still a happy, normal boy. But I thought he may actually be starting to teeth...I mean every time he drools someone points out that he must be teething and nope. No teeth.


We put him to bed and he woke up for two hours bawling like mad. And since we didn't see an end in sight from him being up every 30 minutes and coughing like crazy, we finally put him in his pompesan chair on our bed, in between us. The entire night he went between coughing like crazy and fussing so nobody slept.


Early Monday morning I called the doctor and when we brought him in, she told us he had a double ear infection (his 5th), RSV (4th time) and Croup (2nd time). At this point they are concerned. One - we are going to get tubes put in once he kicks the ear infection. Two - why does he continue to get sick whether it be RSV or Croup or just that dang cough? She scheduled us to go get a chest x-ray that day, just to make sure there were no congenital issues (3 hours later...and one long hour wait after the x-ray there wasn't...thank goodness). We also talked about potential allergies. Do allergies run in his family? Mama: "no."  Daddy: "yes. big time." Do you have pets? "Yep."


Our options at this point are to have an Allergist check little man out or do a blood test to see if we can confirm he may have some common allergies which could be causing the recurring cough, congestion, you name it. And potentially will let us know if it could be pet allergies.


In 10 days, when hopefully his RSV and Croup should have subsided, we will go in for a check up with our Pedi and then find out more. Please hope for the best and say some prayers for Little Mango and our resident pooch, Maya.

Yet Another Trip to the Doctor

It seems as if we should have a permanent parking space reserved outside Boy's Town Pediatrics because we are there so often. Not only that, but I should plan on just set up an automatic withdrawal from our checking account, because we never seem to be free of doctor's bills from that place.  Little man had been getting sick the past couple of days with congestion and then a cough, but it wasn't too bad and only really set in later at night and in the mornings. Yesterday when we picked him up from day care and the teachers had commented on his increase in coughing & wheezing and just from the time we had him in the car on the way home, we determined we need to get an appointment to get him check out. Fortunately, one of the pediatricians was working late and we were able to sneak in for a 6:45pm appointment.

As soon as the nurse and doctor heard his wheeze, they knew it wasn't going to be a good visit. They let me know that Cruz had contracted RSV {bronchiolitis} yet again and upon further checking that he also had another ear infection, this time in the left ear. By their calculations, they figured he was on his 2nd or 3rd day of the virus yesterday which puts us smack dab in the middle of the worst days of the virus which are days 3-5 {this was true of it the first time he had RSV as well}.

Last night wasn't terrible. He was spitting up mucus {thank God not projectile yet...} and was up later than normal due to the congestion and coughing, but he only woke up once in the middle of the night around 2:30am and I got him back asleep by 3:45am. He slept until just before 8am and I took a couple hours off work this morning until Grandma Carol could come take over {she was a real lifesaver - we already had her on the books to watch him tomorrow and she came up a day early for us}.

Hoping for a quick recovery on this one - it's never fun to have a sick baby. And definitely not fun to have a sick baby at home when you are at work and have family helping to watch him.

Fun Day

I had a sick day from work yesterday....I tell you being preggo really messed up my body and made me become someone who takes off days at work due to illness - that NEVER happened before. In the afternoon I started feeling better but I didn't get back to myself until later last night, however, little man and I still managed to make it a good day.

We made a quick run to get me some drugs, so I bundled him up in his car seat and in his new baseball beanie {thanks Uncle Marc & Aunt Britt!} - and off we went. He obviously loved his new look, just look at the smile on his face!

Rockin' his baseball beanie

After we got home I managed to get some housework done in between my numerous trips to the bathroom and since I didn't want to leave him laying on his back all day or have to carry him in my arms {I needed those free for laundry!} I figured out how to get him set up in his Moby. I tell you this was quite the challenge. I brought up the instructions on how to wrap the Moby online and watched the "how-to" video. Then I practiced putting his stuffed owl in so I could make sure I knew how to do it {now that's what I should've taken pictures of!} and then did the real thing. He must've liked it because after about 10 minutes of flitting around the house -  he fell fast asleep.

Hanging out in his Moby

I woke up this morning feeling 100% better than I did yesterday...boy, am I happy. I fed Cruzer at 7am and then headed to the gym. When I came home, little man and daddy were napping so this is what I came home too...hilarious!

Napping w/ daddy - looks like a real little man
{All we needed was his hand down his pants!}

I let dad get some more rest and got Cruzer ready for the day. Of course he had to sport his Creighton Bluejays shirt {"Put me in coach!"} since his daddy, Nanu and uncles were going to the game and then he helped me get ready for work.

Go Bluejays!

I can't wait until work is done and I'm back home lounging with my two favorite guys.

From Snow Storms to Super Bowl

Little man had a very busy weekend. On Friday night we met Tessa, Chris and the kiddos at Pizza King in CB for dinner and then hit up Blaker's basketball game at TJ {Blake is one of two sophomores on Sioux City East's varsity team and a pretty damn good player}. Cruz loved having his auntie Tessa cuddle and play with him for the entire game.

Nick hadn't been feeling great on Friday and it hit him even worse through the night and Saturday morning, so I stayed home from work and took care of our little guy...as much as I had stuff I needed to get done, I can't lie and say I didn't love being snowed in and hanging with Cruzer all day. Speaking of snow, we got dumped on all day Saturday - to the tune of at least 10 inches. While I'm personally not a fan of snow, it was so pretty how it stuck to the trees. We finally were dug out by 7pm so I ran and picked up some groceries for the Super Bowl party the following day. Cruz hadn't really slept but a total of 1 hour throughout the day {we had A LOT of playing to do}, so he zonked out abotu 9pm...and much to our surprise slept in until 6am....nine hours of sleep {click here}!

Getting pumped for the big game

On Sunday we hit up a Super Bowl party at Ross & Morgan's. Everyone was there and Cruz was passed around the entire night getting cuddles from his favorites. He even had time to play with his cousin, Dominic, who loved little man's tummy time mat. We had a great time even though all three of us were big losers on squares, the props bet sheet {how did I not pick that they would show Gisele before Peyton Manning or that Madonna would sing Vogue first?!?} and most of all my guy Tom Terrific lost.

Cruz & Dom

Our happy little Batboy

It was a great weekend where the main item on the agenda was hanging out with our favorite little 12 week old...