Monday, May 18, 2009

Life Lessons

I've dealt with it as a nurse, but never as a mom. Where to begin? So we have been transitioning Chase from his one month encounter with formula. We had no problems with good old, less expensive, Costco (Kirkland) Brand Infant Formula. We loved it with Bayli and it did well for Chase. We decided to transition Chase to Soy Milk, since that is what the rest of our clan favors. Chase did good for the first week or so. We were gradually increasing the amount of soy to formula ratio. Things seemed to be going well. So the second week into the transition, we shot for straight soy-bad mistake. Horrible diarrhea!!! Poor little guy-sore bum and all. We backed off on the soy and did more formula and again tried increasing the soy amount-worse diarrhea!!! Now his tummy was being sensitive even with any soy. Let me tell you, it totally sucks having to give everyone in our family a different kind of milk beverage.
Last Friday, we purchased some whole cows milk and started the transition again. The first day he did so great. We figured that since he had been having the milk based formula, this transition would be a breeze. Saturday we started giving him straight whole milk and he was doing wonderful-no bowel issues. He had been being irritable for the last week or so, so it was hard to tell if he had tummy aches at all.
Saturday night, Chase slept horribly. He woke up screaming bloody murder-and our boy can scream (those who have not had such encounters, feel blessed). He screams over everything. But these screams were so much worse. He wanted mamma to rock him-something that we have never let him get into the habit of and something that he has never really liked. But this night mom had to give in a bit-I was so tired, I have been getting over a chest cold. Finally Chase drifted back to sleep on his own.
The next morning, during breakfast, we noticed a single hive on his upper chest. We thought that it was because he had been so worked up that night and had carried on his grumpiness into the morning.
At nap time, around noon, Chase was again having a hard time going down. His face was a little bit flushed, so we gave him some tylenol, thinking that maybe he was getting a cold or something. We gave him a bottle of milk and layed him down. He started crying about 15 minutes later. He had diarrhea and a very sore bum-poor guy. After fixing him up, we set to getting him that nap in, again. After about 30 min, still no sleep, and the screaming was beginning-not the bad screaming yet. He was rubbing his ears a little, so we decided to give him some motrin as well. Another hour passed with Chase crying off and on in his bed trying to settle down for his nap. Then, the SCREAMING began!!! I went into his room and found my poor baby rubbing and scratching at his face and ears, like he was being swarmed by bees. His little hands and arms were literally moving 90 miles an hour. And then I saw what the problem was. Chase's eyes were swollen like a Sharpay dogs, his little ears were poking out like Dumbo, and his lips looked like he just had botox. He was beet red and had bumps forming all over his face. On closer examination, he was beginning to form hives on all of his trunk and limbs.




Moment of mom panic...followed by a series of thoughts:
Alright, we need benadryl. Oh crap, we have never needed benadryl-we don't have any. How much can a baby have? Check the internet. Check with the doctor. It is Sunday, the doctor has to be paged, and urgent hours aren't until 5pm. What time is it, 2:30, mom has to work tonight. Call the pharmacist. Moron pharmacist-not very confident in his dosage formulations. Pharmacist takes nearly 10 minutes to tell me (in his unconfident manner) "it looks like a 1 yr old can maybe have 1/4 tsp to start, but if you need more you should check with the Doctor because you can kill a baby if you give them too much. " Not a very helpful pharmacist-all confidence lost, new opinion needed. Re-page the doctor. Baby is screaming more, swelling is getting worse, is he just panicking or is his breathing getting worse? Off to the instacare. Jed take a message from the doctor when he calls back.
At least Chase started to settle down on the ride, or was he in fear for his life, because mom was speeding just a little, how is his breathing? He seems to be okay. Arrival!!!
Everyone knows what a fun time it is to wait at the instacare. Try waiting with a screaming, exhausted 1 yr old-good times!!!
Chase's oxygen saturations are good-panic is decreasing. Benadryl given-yeah!!!
All of the questions. What caused this? Was it the milk? Does he have a virus? Did he get into something? Was it a new food? Was it the tylenol? Was it the motrin? AHHHH!!!! I want answers now-not later or worse, never.
Chase gets benadryl 1/2 tsp every 4-6hrs around the clock for at least 48 hrs. Then Zyrtec for 1 week. We are hopeful that we will not have any problems with Rice milk-we shall see.
Chase is finally dosing off on the way home. Drop him off to sleep. Off to the store for supplies. Which store? Target? Do they have Rice Milk? Macey's is closed on Sundays. Wal-Mart it is (BIG arghhh, I hate Wal-Mart)!!!! Move fast through the store-man it is busy. Do I get the rice milk in the fridge area or the packaged drinks area? Fridge is fresh, less preservatives. Check out, don't count the money drawer now!!! Race home.
Dad gets to take care of the boy while mom goes to work-mom is hesitant (not because she doesn't have confidence in dad-he will do great). What mom ever wants to leave their baby under those circumstances? And a nurse for a mom makes things even worse. Working overnight does not help at all.
After checking in with Jed multiple times the first few hours at work, I felt that things were going to be okay. Chase was playing and happy again. He loved the rice milk. Best of all, his swelling was starting to go down a bit. He had gone to bed easily.
We had planned to have Jed go in to work a little bit late this morning so that mom could take care of Chase, even though she wouldn't have slept much. But, Chase was doing so much better, we felt ok in having him go to Aunt Sheri's. He was a gem for her.
We shall see how things play out with this, hopefully we find the answers. I do know this, we will always have benadryl in our medicine cabinet!!!

2 comments:

  1. I hope you got some sleep, but looking at the time I doubt it. he still looks so cute. His ear and stomach look the most painful. I hope he gets feeling better soon!

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  2. WHAT A NIGHTMARE!! It seems like that stuff always happens on the weekends when everything is closed. I have a great allergist if you want to take him for testing.

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