ER

Yesterday I had to take Squeaker to the ER.

He woke up from his nap, and was coughing a bit.  I picked him up and patted his back.  A few minutes later he started coughing again.  He gagged a bit, and then threw up some mucus.  I made a mental note to call the pediatrician for an appointment.  Then he started coughing again, and turned purple.  I got the bulb syringe and sucked a ton of mucus out of his throat.  He was ticked and screaming his head off.  I picked up the phone to make an appointment.  While I was on the phone, he started coughing/gagging, and turned purple again.  I cleared his throat out again, and dialed 911.

The ambulance took 10minutes to get to us.  My dad and husband were working on the baby while I was on the phone; using the bulb syringe to try and keep his throat clear.  He turned purple a couple more times, but in between he was crying his fool head off.  I was trying not to panic, and trying to remind myself that as long as he’s crying, he’s ok.

My dad mentioned that it looked a bit like an allergic reaction, and since he was wearing new clothes that I’d bought from the thrift store, we stripped him naked.  His skin was grayish, and looked sort of marbled where all his veins and capillaries were visible.  Though he was still crying, and therefore breathing, I started crying on the phone asking what was taking them so long.

The ambulance finally got there.  They put an oxygen mask up to his face, and used a suction thing to suck the mucus out of his throat.  He started doing much better after that, though he was still coughing a little bit.  By the time we got to the highway, he was pink and normal looking again.  By the time we got to the hospital, he had calmed down and fallen asleep.   It was about an hour from the time I called 911 to the time we arrived at the ER.

At the ER they took x-rays, did an EKG, and kept him on monitors for his heart rate and O2 stats.  Everything came back normal.  The Dr. said that since there was no swelling or hives she did not think it was an allergic reaction.  Since they were keeping him under observation anyway, I put the shirt he was wearing back on him.  Better that he have the reaction in the ER than at home.  No reaction though, so once again correlation does not equal causality.  They don’t know for sure what happened.  The Dr. said it sounded like he had something obstructing his airway.  But he’s not crawling yet.  I couldn’t think of or find anything near him that he could’ve gotten a hold of and choked on.  Mr. Bug was napping at the time, so he couldn’t have given Squeaker anything.

I told her that it seemed like he was choking on mucus.  She replied that then we have to figure out what caused the mucus since he hasn’t had a cold or anything recently, and that it was much more likely that a foreign body got stuck in his air way.

So we left the ER with a best guess as a diagnoses, and instructions to return if it happened again.  It’s very frustrating to not know exactly what happened.  We have a follow up with the pediatrician tomorrow, so hopefully he can shed some light on the issue.

I need to get my infant and child CPR certification renewed.  I haven’t taken the class in years, and while he was struggling to breath, I was struggling to remember what to do if he stopped breathing.  It’s hard to think when you’re also trying not to panic.  If I had needed to do it, I do not think I would have done it well.  It’s a gaping hole in my required mom knowledge that I intend to fix post haste.

Squeaker is fine now, in fact, he was fine the whole time we were at the hospital.  It’s like nothing ever happened.  I however, hardly slept from worrying that he would start choking in his sleep.  I just hope the pediatrician has some answers for us.  I hate not knowing.

Update 3/2/12:  Pediatrician thinks it was an allergic reaction, likely from some thing air born such as pollen or animal dander though not necessarily those things.  He says he’s big enough now that he likely would have cleared his airway on his own eventually.  Squeaker is too young for the allergy tests.  So we just need to keep a close eye on him.  Hopefully it won’t happen again.

Sleepy Time Issues

So at this point, I can no longer remember when I slept more than an hour or two without one of the kids waking me up.  Mr. Bug used to go to sleep from 2-4 for naps.  He now naps maybe once a week, and gets extremely cranky in the evenings because of this.  I still put him in his bed with the gate up at the usual time, but I can’t force him to fall asleep.  He plays or reads quietly, but his behavior in the evenings make it pretty clear that he still needs an afternoon nap.  He just won’t take it.

Because of this, instead of going to bed at around 8pm, he has been falling asleep in his highchair while eating dinner around 6:30 or 7.  He used to go to bed around 8pm, and then crawl into bed with us around 3am.  Since Squeaker was born, he’s been climbing into bed with us earlier and earlier.  Usually around midnight.  Now, since he keeps falling asleep at 7, he gets up around 11pm to get in bed with us.  Which normally wouldn’t bother me, except that he acts like he’s just gotten up from a nap, and wants to play.  The lights are out, everything is quiet, but he keeps trying to get me to sing a song, or recite one of his stories.  His chatter inevitably wakes Squeaker up, who wants to nurse.  Then Mr. Bug wants to nurse because Squeaker is nursing.  By this time all this is over, it’s 1am or so.  This is when Mr. Bug finally stops tossing and turning and goes back to sleep.  Squeaker will wake up at least once more to nurse.  Then Mr. Bug is up at 6:30 ready for the day.  I try to get him to go play in his room for a bit, but he wants to play with me.  Squeaker, who is really not a morning person and would sleep till 9 if he could, wakes up fussy because Mr. Bug is up and making noise.

So I go to bed at around 10, get woken up 1hr later by my toddler who tosses and turns and plays, usually waking up the baby around midnight.  I get them both back to sleep by around 1, Squeaker wakes up at 3 or so to nurse, and if I’m lucky sleeps until Mr. Bug gets up around 6:30.  Squeaker won’t go to sleep before 10, so I can’t really move my bedtime up.  Once Mr. Bug is up in the morning, everyone is.

Last night, when I put Mr. Bug to bed, I left his gate up.  When he woke up at 11, I made him go back to sleep in his bed.  He proceeded to get up and cry every 15minutes or so until about 1:30 when he finally went back to sleep.  He still got up at 6am.  I want to get him to stop climbing in our bed so early.  On the other hand, I get why he’s jealous since Squeaker sleeps in our room.

Really the only thing getting me through at this point is knowing it’s just a phase.  I try to remind myself of that whenever either of the kids is doing something on a regular basis that drives me bonkers.  They grow and change so fast, but it doesn’t seem that way when you’re suffering from sleep deprivation.  But he wasn’t like this 6, or even 3 months ago, and in 3-6 months, things will have changed again.  Hopefully for the better, sleepwise.

Signed,

One Tired Momma

 

Mess

How does anyone with a toddler ever keep their house clean?

Seriously, the house could look wonderful because I’ve just spent several hours organizing, and sweeping, and cleaning things up.  Less than 24hrs later, it will look like I’ve done nothing for days or even weeks.  Honestly, there is a point where I just let it be because the mess plateaus.  I know it’s not going to look much messier than it is, so I don’t bother cleaning up.  I saw a welcome mat online that said, “The house was clean last week.  Sorry you missed it.”  I need that mat.  No one ever drops by when the house looks good.

Sure, I could clean during nap time, but the moments I have to myself where there are no little people attached to me are so few and far between, that the last thing I want to do with them is clean the house.  I’d rather eat a sandwich without having to share, or read a news article in peace and quiet.  Or sit and do nothing.  Really.  I’d rather do nothing during those quite moments than spend them cleaning, only to watch all my hard work demolished as soon as my hurricane of a boy wakes up.

I could clean while they’re awake, but Mr. Bug delights in following me around as I clean and immediately undoing any organizing as I do it.  Books that I put on the shelf come right back off.  Toys put in the toy box are suddenly the most interesting thing in the world even though they’ve been lying under his highchair neglected for several days.  Clothes folded neatly in drawers, hah!  Now that he knows how to open the drawers, he has fun strewing his and his brothers clothes about the room.  I would reprimand him, but he’s not doing it to be malicious.  He’s really just playing.  He even sorts the clothes into piles of pants and shirts.  But they rarely stay in the drawers.

So the mess stays a mess for most of the week, and I am perpetually embarrassed if people drop by unannounced and see it.  People who’ve known me long enough, know that I have never been an organized soul, and may wonder if I’m just using my kid as an excuse.  The truth is, I clean 10 times more often, to no avail.  Hopefully though, this means that once the boy is out of this stage I will have gotten so good at cleaning that the house will actually look nice.  Then again, I’ve been told that boys never grow out of this stage. 

C ‘est la vie

Diaper free time

It does not matter how fussy Squeaker is, if I take off his diaper he suddenly becomes the happiest baby in the world.  At least for a little while.  Mr. Bug likes running around naked after bath time, and will delay putting on clothes as long as possible.  Are all children just naturally nudists?  I can leave the baby naked for longer than the toddler, because the baby is still stationary.  If he pees, it’ll get caught by the blanket thrown over him.  I wonder what it is about being naked that makes them so happy.  Is it just the novelty?  In any case, bath time and subsequent naked time is pretty much a cure for all ills for both kids.