In and Out

Let me start with this; Riley is okay. Now let's continue... we spent last night at Children's Hospital.

Here's what happened, from the beginning...

Riley has had a cold, with a lot of congestion and sinus drainage for the past 10 days or so. Friday night was really rough. He was so stuffed up he just couldn't get settled into sleep. Jamie and I got very little sleep and Riley only finally settled down sleeping on my chest with me sitting propped up in our bed.

Saturday morning, Riley nursed, ate breakfast and took his morning nap like usual. He seemed his normal self, in spite of our rough night and his cold. After he woke up from his morning nap at 11 am, something changed. He is usually rearing to nurse and then eat lunch. He refused to nurse and became very lethargic and limp. All of a sudden he started gagging/choking and he threw up a bunch of mucous.

He did this 2 or 3 more times before I really got concerned and called Jamie at work. He called our pediatrician and we got an appointment for Riley at 11:40am, last one available for the day. Thank the Lord they were open on Saturday and that they had an opening. While we were rushing around to get dressed (Soph and I were still lounging in our pjs) and get out the door to the doctor, Riley threw up again, but this time the mucous was yellow.

Jamie left work to come get us and take us to the doctor. Riley threw up yellow mucous again in the car on the way to the doc. Our pediatrician did an exam and found Riley's ears to be infected and his lungs to not be clear. I was praying that he'd do the gagging/choking throw up in front of the doctor so she'd see what was going on. The Lord was so good and just as the exam was ending and we were discussing going home and what antibiotic options there were, Riley threw up big time and it was a lot of yellowish-green mucous. Immediately the pediatrician changed her tune and acted much more concerned. She said the throw up looked like bile and was concerned about Riley being dehydrated, since he was still refusing to nurse and by this point had thrown up about 6 or 7 times. She was also worried that he was developing bronchitis or pneumonia. She recommended we drive up north to the children's hospital.

Jamie called his boss to let her know he wouldn't be back to work and we ran home to grab a few things since the children's hospital is an hour from our town and the ped. had implied Riley might be admitted. Thankfully, both of our parents live in the city where we were headed. Jamie's parents were going to meet us at the ER to get Sophia so she could hang out with them at their house.

Riley threw up one more time just as we were arriving at the hospital, around 2pm. We were quickly taken to an room in the ER and seen by a resident. The plan was to get Riley hooked up to some IV fluids, draw his blood to run some lab tests and do a chest and abdominal xray. The main concerns were to keep him from getting further dehydrated, to rule out pneumonia and bronchitis and to rule out a bowel blockage - which was a possible cause for the bile throw up.
Riley was still refusing to nurse and was so lethargic. Jamie's parents soon arrived and stuck around for awhile. When the resident came in to examine Riley he looked up at her and totally started flirting with her. :) We were so happy to see him have some expression and smile!
He did so great through getting his blood drawn, the IV put in, getting fluids and getting his xrays done. He hardly cried and seemed to tolerate it all very well. Shortly after they started his IV fluids he started to perk up and nursed, which was a huge answer to prayer!

The dr. said he'd have to be admitted if he didn't start nursing. So, I was very hopeful we'd get to go home. His results started to come in and all his labs were fine except his white blood cells were elevated, due to the ear infections. His xrays showed no pneumonia, bronchitis or bowel blockage.

Unfortunetly, the dr. was still concerned about Riley not getting dehydrated and also wanted to do a more thourough test (an upper GI) to completly rule out a bowel blockage - which is obviously serious and can only be repaired with surgery. Due to all of this he wanted Riley admitted for the night for observation.

So, somewhere around 5:30/6 pm, we headed up to a room on the unit. Sophia had long been gone to spend the day/night with Jamie's parents. We are so thankful for them! We got settled pretty quickly upstairs in our room. Riley nursed some more and even ate some baby food! My parents came to visit around 8pm, which was a great encouragement. The radiologist had to come in for some other test, so they were planning on squeezing in Riley's Upper GI at 10pm.
Riley fell asleep sometime even before my parents came for a visit. He slept great and then woke right up around 10pm when it was time to go downstairs for his test. Jamie and I were both able to go and be with him. He had to drink some barium from a bottle while they xrayed him so they could watch it work through his anatomy. This would confirm or rule out any issues with his bowel. Thankfully all was well! No problems with his bowel. Huge answer to prayer.

We headed back upstairs to get settled for the night. Riley nursed and fell back to sleep. I settled into the "o so comfy" vinyl couch while Jamie had to cozy up on the rocking chair. Jamie seemed to saw logs pretty good, but I only slept on and off. Around 4 am Riley woke up to nurse and so I told Jamie to get on the couch. I didn't anticipate being able to sleep anyways, so I nursed and rocked Riley. I didn't fall back to sleep until later that morning, around 9 or 10am when I was able to get a little nap.

The doctors felt really good about Riley's progress and wanted to slowly wean him off his IV fluids and said as long as he kept nursing we should be able to leave by the afternoon. He had been started on antibiotics the day before and there is a chance he'll have to have a second round of them when this one is over since his cold has hung on so long. We'll see what his ped. says when we go for a follow-up in a few days.

Basically Riley has a bad cold with ear infections. He was throwing up, either because he got some sort of tummy bug, or (which is what Jamie and I think) he was throwing up because of all the sinus drainage.

He continued to nurse and eat all day, though not with nearly his normal appetite. In the early afternoon they took him off the IV fluids. My parents dropped lunch off for us- Thank You Mom and Dad! Sophia was taken well care of with Jamie's Mom and Dad - Thank You!

Riley was having a lot of fun practicing his attempts at crawling in his crib and even got a bath! He won the hearts of all the nurses; they all oohed and aahed over his big eyes!

We finally got discharged and got to leave around 4 pm. Jamie was scheduled to have today off, which was another huge blessing, and his boss is letting him switch shifts with a coworker so he can have tomorrow off too. Riley continues to eat, but not as much as normal. We can tell he's feeling better, but still not 100%. We are spending the night with his parents tonight and then will hang out some with my parents tomorrow. We're so thankful for the support and help so we can get rested up from our crazy last couple of days.

God is so good and was with us each step of the way. He protected Riley and we're so thankful we were sent to the hospital where he received such excellent care and was kept from getting any more dehydrated or sick. Some of you - mainly family, were aware of what was going on... thank you for your prayers!

Needless to say, we're looking forward to Spring and sunshine and health!

Here are some pics of our adventure. You should have seen Soph gently kissing and hugging her brother when we were reunited today. She missed him so much! As we stayed in the hospital last night I just prayed for all the babies and children who don't get to go home after one night. Please pray for them if you think of it.

Riley's little hand that had the IV. They cover it up really well so he couldn't pick at it, though he sure tried!

Mommy and Riley, hanging out in the ER, waiting to go upstairs.

Daddy, going crazy from being in the little ER room for so long.

Riley's hospital room, cute isn't it? :) See Jamie peeking out?

Riley's name outside his room.

Is that a crib, or a mini-jail cell?? :)

Daddy and Riley looking out from the window in our hosptial room.

Ruthie :)