What's happening in the Woods: Sick Baby

In the hospital crib bed, a lot happier than when we first brought him in.
(Pics were taken with my phone so they are little blurry)

Thursday morning Kevin was a little fussy, I played it off as him not getting enough sleep and off to work we went. He seemed to be getting a little bit better but was spitting up more and more with each feeding. We came home and things progressively got worse from there. The fussiness came back and he was throwing up. Not only was he throwing up but he was having really bad diarrhea. He usually has one dirty diaper a day sometimes he will have two but never more than that. Well in about 4 hours he had 6. Since he was throwing up everything he was eating and was having frequent poopy diapers, we called the on call Dr. Kevin didn't have a fever but the Dr. was still worried about him getting dehydrated so we took him in to the ER. It didn't take very long for us to get a room and for him to be looked at. They brought us some pedialyte and took his temp and it was 101.4 rectally. Rectal runs 1 degree higher so it was actually 100.4 still a mild fever. We fed him and he didn't keep it down. They told us to try small amounts spaced apart, it didn't work. Even giving it to him by the teaspoon full would come back up. They wanted to run some lab work on him so they had to catheterize him to get a urine sample, they also needed to get some blood. I remember being a little girl and every time I would be sick or in pain, getting shots or being poked with a needle my mom would tell me that if she could do it for me she would. I never quite believed her until my baby was getting poked and prodded. I wanted nothing more than to be the one on that hospital gurney getting blood drawn, getting poked, and being in pain. The nurse told us that some parents leave the room and I just couldn't do it. He needed to know I was there for him and that it was going to be o.k. The nurse did have to tell me to buck up and try not to cry so much because Kevin was probably feeling my sadness and anxiety. I immediately turned into Iron man, and tried to stay strong for him. After they got the necessary blood and urine they started an IV and I was able to pick him up and cuddle him. He fell asleep after a few minutes. I held him for about 2 hours and then we woke him and tried to feed him just a little bit. He kept it down YAY!! We tried again 30 min later and that too was successful. Things were looking good. The Dr. came in and told us since he was doing better we could probably go home. Then he came back and told us the labs came back, his kidney results looked concerning and his ammonia levels were double what they were supposed to be. The kidney results probably were due to him being dehydrated it was the ammonia levels they were concerned about. He told us he was having some Dr's from Pediatrics come down to talk to us. They came down and went over the same thing the previous Dr. did and told us they wanted to observe him. He was getting admitted. We got up to Pediatrics and in a room at about 5:30 a.m. They tried to get a more accurate reading of his ammonia levels by getting an arterial sample out of his wrist. It didn't work, they couldn't get enough because the veins are very small and he wouldn't stop moving. They had us go back to the room to try to sleep and they would try again later. At about 10 a.m they came and got him and took more blood. He had been doing well this whole time, and had not thrown up again. After they sent the sample in we just waited. And waited. At about 3 p.m they came back. Everything looked fine. He was diagnosed with having a viral infection along with flu like symptoms. At 4:30 p.m we were told we could go home. It certainly was not a fun experience and was actually really scary. I'm so thankful and happy to report he is doing much better. He has been such a happy boy today and all 3 of us were able to catch up on some sleep. He hasn't thrown up any more and he has been such a happy boy!!