15 month appointment and 1st ear infection :(

Brayden started again with another fever Monday night.  Poor kid can't seem to catch a break this winter. I feel like he is a germ magnet, every time we turn around it's something else.  I hate when we gets a fever and he seems to run a fever for everything.  I was hoping this time it wasn't going to be a repeat of Decembers sickness.  He was screaming and inconsolable for the last 2 hrs before it was time for bed on monday, he wouldn't eat or anything and i felt AWFUL not knowing how to make it better for him.

Saddest face :( 

We had his 15 months appt on Tuesday so it worked out perfect for the dr to see him.  I called in the morning and told them about his fever since it was over 102 i told them we would have to wait on the shots. He was due for his MMR vaccine and since it's a live virus they were on board with waiting till he is healthy.

Not that i'm happy there is something actually wrong with my child but I was relieved to know that there was an actual source this time for his fever. He officially has his 1st ear infection.  Poor baby. We had a later appointment so I was glad we were able to get his prescription for his antibiotics called in and were able to start his meds that night.  I had asked the pedes about ear drops at the appt and she seemed confident advil would do the trick for the pain. HAHAHAHHA.  It was a hellish night to say the least. he was up literally every 30-60 minutes screaming and crying. It was awful, I felt terrible that I couldn't make it better. Needless to say none of us got any sleep and it was looking like it was going to be a rough day. he fever kept spiking despite alternating tylenol/advil every three hours. In the morning I called the pedes and told them the HAD to call in an RX for the benzocane ear drops. Fortunately we got them but he still wouldn't eat or drink anything from a sippy cup. We got desperate and let him have milk in the bottle as often as he wanted.  All i cared about was getting fluids in to him. Normally he only likes milk and water and he won't drink anything but milk out of the bottle so I didn't really have much of a choice.

In the meantime, things have gotten better.  He's still not close to being 100% but his fever finally did break this morning.  I'm hoping it stays away!! He is eating a little bit but not much so i'm trying to push the fluids and keep him hydrated. Hoping he feels better soon and starts sleeping better. He doesn't sleep through the night as it is so anything has to be better than getting up a few times a night to an inconsolable boy.

As far as the rest of his 15 month appt goes he is doing really well! He weights 22lb 2oz (18%) and is 33" tall(95%).  I was concerned that he has barely gained a 1lb over the last 4 months but the pedes was okay with it since he is staying on the same growth curve (percentage).  his overall height to weight is only in the 10th percentile which just means he's tall and skinny! Lucky for him he got that "Nolte" metabolism that skipped me.  lol

His language and motor skill development is really great!  I am so proud of him. He now says 18 words, and 5 two word sentences. Which the pedes said is at a 18-24 month level.  Of course he doesn't use all the words every day but that's still great. He seriously blows my mind with how smart he is. He knows how to do so many things and can follow all kinds of directions. He is really getting to big too fast!

Like I was saying we are still working on his sleep. He is a horrible sleeper! He has never been a good sleeper but i had a long talk with the pedes about things.  She feels like we have tried and are doing everything right so it's really no fault of our own.  He is a restless sleeper, fusses in his sleep wakes up min 1-2 times a night inconsolable and even had night terrors on occasion. His lack of quality sleep definitely affects how he naps so it's a vicious cycle.  For now we are going to keep trying and see how things look at 18 months. She said sleep studies are out b/c he wakes too much and that won't really help at this point.

I feel like time is going WAY too fast and I'm sure it'll go even faster when we have two kids.  Brayden is definitely my "dramatic" child and can be moody but he is so much fun. His laughter and excitement really make even the worst days better.  I can't wait to see what he has in store for us next!

Now some fun pics! 

What mom, i'm eating a cupcake! 

 Oh coloring! 

 What happens when he gets bored! 

The never ending fever scare

I'm sure if you're reading you've probably been following what's been going on with Brayden on Facebook. Needless to say the last week has been ROUGH!  On Monday Brayden started with a fever. On a side note, I jokingly (although it's not actually funny) call Bray my "fever kid"  he runs a fever every time he's sick and even a low grade when teething.  Jason and I both were notorious for running high fevers as kids, so i shouldn't be surprised.

my poor baby 

Anyway, the fever started Monday and was around 102 degrees. So i started the usual regiment of all the "tricks' to help break it, alternating tylenol/advil, luke warm baths, cool rags, light clothing ,you name it. The odd thing was, was that he wasn't presenting with any other symptoms, so i figured it was probably the beginning of a stomach virus or strep throat again.  By just Tuesday the fever was the same. The meds were keeping his temp around 101-102 so it was somewhat manageable.  Then things got worse. No matter what I did the fever kept creeping up. He was waking up multiple times at night screaming and crying BURNING so hot. Even with the meds his temp was rising about a degree a day. And still, no other symptoms.  I had called the pedes on wed when is fever was lingering around 103.6 only after 2 hours of meds.  At this point i was alternating doses of meds as per  the dr every 3 hrs.  So it seemed really ridiculous that his fever would be so high.  The pedes told me to keep doing all the things i was doing and if we hit the 72 hr window on Thurs and it was still raging to bring him in.  His eating and drinking were definitely starting to suffer. He was still taking in some food and drinking an "ok" amount that this point but I was REALLY worried b/c it didn't make sense why he was so sick. He was still peeing in their recommended every 6-8 hours but it was definitely a stretch in between.

You know he's sick when he SITS and cuddles

Thursday was a a nightmare. The fever at it's highest was 104.6 and was consistently staying around 103-104.  The poor kid was crying all the time, lethargic, and just wanted to be held. As soon as the drs office opened I called and they got him in for an appointment.  We saw Jenna the nurse practitioner, she's really great.  She was really concerned that at this point it had been 72 hrs, which is when fevers usually start to break with viral infection, and he was presenting with no other symptoms. His lungs and chest were clear and ears looked okay so they did a strep test and wanted to do a urine collection to rule out a Urinary Tract Infection. Normally UTI's are not a big concern for boys but Jason and I both get them so they wanted to make sure that wasn't the case. Not that I was hoping he had strep but I was hoping it would be something simple enough that a course of antibiotics would fix. But the strep test was negative.  Urine collection was interesting. He was not a fan of the "sticky bag" around his penis but we were able to get a sample. Since he wasn't drinking much it took like 4 hours to get him to pee.  The test came back negative, which i was SO relieved about. If it had been positive they said they would of had to cathederize him to get a sterile sample to send to the lab, and I did NOT want to have him go through that.  His urine did come back positive with the presence of  ketones which just reiterated he was dehydrated and not eating enough.  :(

At the pedes

Friday the fever was still raging, staying high.  At this point I'm really getting scared. The dr sent us for blood work to see if they could figure out what was going on. Doing blood work on a dehydrated 13 month old was a nightmare, he cried, I cried, it was not fun. The techs at the lab were really great and only had to stick him one time but they were digging around in his arm with the needle for well over a minute and had to take 4 vials.  I felt AWFUL for him, it felt like  the longest blood drawl ever.  He did so great considering but it was still hard.

By Saturday morning the results were in and of course they were inconclusive. So they still have NO idea what made him so sick with fever.  Fortunately by Saturday the fever was staying around 101and lower with the meds and looked like it could finally be breaking. HUGE sigh of relief.  Today he's doing even better. The pedes office has been calling every morning to see how he is making out.  If he had a fever this morning they wanted to bring him back in. Not that they would be able to really do anything.  But this morning his temp was normal. Earlier this afternoon he was a little warm but a dose of Tylenol put it back down.

Needless to say it's been a rough week. I hate the feeling of not being able to make things better for Brayden when he doesn't feel good. And it was really scary not knowing, and still not knowing what the hell is causing the fever in the first place. Here's hoping we don't have to go through this again any time soon.  I just keep praying this fever stays away.  I hate the idea of giving him medicine to start with let alone giving him SO much meds with in a 5-6 day span.  That can't be good for him. :(

Scary fevers!

Brayden has had colds and stuff before where he's ran some fevers but NOTHING like his last bout of sickness. The fever literally came out of no where and he was down for the count. His fever was lingering over 104 degrees.  It was all actually pretty stressful because we couldn't get him to take ANY fluids. As a result he wasn't really peeing. I talked to the pedes and they had reminded me to make sure he was peeing at least every 6-8 hours and if not to call back. We tried getting him to drink formula, water, pedialite(which he HATES...what a waste of $5...lol but it was worth a try), and even juice/water mixtures and had no luck. It had been 10+ hours with NO wet diapers and of course it was after the office was closed so they had a nurse at the hospital call me back. They had us force feed him via syringe to get something in to him. I cried, he cried but it helped. The way the nurse put it, it was the lesser of evils than bringing him in to the hospital and hooking him up to iv's.  By the middle of the night i was able to get him to take a little bit of bottle so I was SO relieved. A little bit after he gave us a little wet diaper..huge SIGH of relief!

For the fever we had to alternate between tylenol and advil every three hours. Even then alternating meds was only keeping it at about 102. Fortunately by morning his fever broke and finally dropped to the 100's range. You could tell he was sick because he was cuddly and docile, the absolute opposite of his usual energy filled hyper personality. I did love the cuddle time but I absolutely hate him being sick and burning up so bad. Looks like he's going to follow in both mommy and daddy's footsteps with high fevers...uggh not looking forward to that! Fotruntately he's been okay since then, so it had to of been viral.  I'm just glad he didn't present with a rash after the fever finally broke! 

Saddest little face ever :(