Nolan's trip to the ER

I'd better blog about this before I forget. Nolan slept from 9:30 p.m. Monday night until 8:00 Tuesday morning. Fabulous, right? Well, that's too good to be true for him. A great night for him is a six-hour stretch. This was just too long. When he did wake up, he didn't really want to nurse, he seemed lethargic, and he wanted to go back to bed. His cough sounded terrible. I decided to see if the pediatrician could squeeze him in. They got him right in, and were not happy with what they saw. His pulse ox was only 89, and it didn't improve after a breathing treatment. His left ear was infected (of course, I had no idea!), and he was pretty limp for them too. So, they sent me to the emergency room. Great. If I had known they were going to do that, I could have gone straight to the ER and saved myself a co-pay!

I found a way to by-pass the agonizingly long wait at the ER. Walk in and tell them that your baby has a bad cough and his pulse ox is low. You are immediately taken back to a room, and within 15 minutes of your arrival, one nurse, one doctor, and two respiratory therapists are examining your son. They suctioned him out, which helped his breathing, ordered a chest x-ray (which came back clear) and then monitored him for several hours. For awhile, they had him on oxygen to help boost his numbers. I could tell the ER doc was on the fence. He said normally, he would send someone with Nolan's oxygen levels home. But with Nolan being so small (he was 14 pounds, 13 ounces with a wet diaper and a onesie on), and given the fact that he was premature, the doctor didn't want to take any unnecessary risks. Just before 4 p.m., he had two pediatric doctors come down and take a look at him. Nolan had bronchiolitis (also known as RSV), but the doctors decided he was at the peak of it and should be starting to improve in the next day or so. They put him on an antibiotic for his ear and told me what to look for should Nolan not improve.

I was a bad mommy, though. I had grabbed a muffin on my way to the doctor at 10 a.m. I knew we'd be at the ER for a minimum of 4 hours, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to leave Nolan unattended once we got there. So, we stopped at Arby's on the way to the hospital. I bought a sub sandwich and stuffed it in his diaper bag. Good thing--I didn't get home from the hospital until 5 p.m.

Nolan was starting to perk up on Christmas Eve and is now back to his old, smiley self. TJ never did get an ear infection and is also back to normal. Sam didn't get sick until the 22nd and is having a hard time getting over it. He's lost weight and is still coughing and out-of-sorts. I kept him home from church this morning. I kept Nolan home too, just to avoid exposing him to any unnecessary germs.

I'm ready for spring. I really am.