Yesterday was completely insane. For starters, we were still trying to get back on schedule from all of the travelling we did this weekend. We went to a Fourth of July party at Aunt Patty’s in Rush on Friday and an engagement party for my sister and Jerry in Buffalo on Sunday. It usually takes him a day or so to get back into the swing of things after we do a lot of driving, and we also added into the mix swimming classes. He and Chuck go on Mondays while I work, and I’ll join them on Wednesdays for the month of July. Nicky had a blast – Chuck said he was the class clown and LOVED splashing in the water. Needless to say, he didn’t fall asleep until almost 10pm on Monday night, and then he woke up around 5am Tuesday morning.
First, Uncle Don and Aunt Ruby were coming to visit, so I wanted to get in a good vaccuum because Uncle Don is pretty allergic to dogs (he’s always tolerated Keanu well, but I didn’t want him to be uncomfortable). I had Nicky in the baby sling while I vacuumed, and he started to fall asleep (very cute!), so I took him to his crib. He woke up immediately, but I decided to leave him in there to play for a bit while I took a shower. When I got out of the shower, I noticed that he was whining in a different way than I’ve heard before, so I threw on a shirt and a towel over my hair and went in to check it out. Nicky was standing up in the crib, smiling away with something on his head. When I opened the window shade to shed some light on the subject, I noticed that my baby was naked. That’s right, his diaper, filled with poop, was resting on the floor in front of his crib and there was poop schmeared everywhere! ALL over the railing and bars and on his sheet. I did get a couple of photos, but they didn’t turn out great because Nicky got mad when I left to get the camera.
So, I thought my adventures for the day were over and I’d have a funny blog post and we could laugh about it. I wish that were the case.
Nicky had been fussy while eating his dinner, so I decided to give him something different to see if he’d do any better. I was making zucchini, so I mixed some of that with some baby brown rice cereal. He INSTANTLY started to cough and choke and wheeze and I thought he was choking, but I didn’t know on what, since the zucchini was pureed. I tried to smack his back upside down while Chuck called 911. They immediately asked about allergies, and I ran to check the box of rice cereal and IT HAD MILK IN IT. I got his Epi-Pen Jr., but by then he was getting air in and out and his tongue wasn’t swollen, and we didn’t see hives anywhere.
I started to give him Benadryl when the fireman arrived. I finished getting it down, but he threw it up immediately, along with the rest of his dinner. I’ve never been so happy to see him throw up before. By then, the ambulance had arrived, and we put his car seat on the stretcher and away he and I went while Chuck followed behind us. I wish we could say that we were just taking a trip down memory lane going back to the hospital where Nicky was born, but it was really only precautionary. The EMT gave Nicky a shot in the arm of Benadryl, and he immediately seemed better. He was very sleepy but fought it so that he could see all of the fun wires and things that he was being monitored with.
By the time we arrived at the emergency room, he was really so much better and really wanted to walk around and touch things. They took his weight (21 pounds!) and checked his heart, lungs, ears and throat. They said he had to stay for an hour to be monitored, but they left us alone for half an hour, came back to check him, then discharged us. He fell asleep in the car on the way home and woke up just enough to take a bath, read a book and nurse before falling back asleep. He woke up a little late this morning, and he took a short nap at his normal time, so he’s totally fine. I, on the other hand, am totally shaken up by everything and am burning anxiety calories like crazy.
We’ve just learned that NO MATTER WHAT, we always, always, ALWAYS have to look at the ingredients in everything that gets near him, even if we think that there’s no possible way for it to contain milk. We’ve got an appointment to see his regular pediatrician tomorrow, so I’m going to ask for referral to an allergist and see if there’s more testing and such that we can do. I’ll keep everyone posted…