My tired little baby ...

... do you need a kiss?

This is how his favorite book begins. And Monkey received plenty of kisses this past week.

Thursday morning, shortly after my mother arrived to help out, DH and I decided that lil' Monkey should go to the hospital again. His diarrhea diapers just weren't diminishing in number, he still hadn't peed and the test where you press the fatty part of their toe to see how quickly the color comes back wasn't satisfactory for us.

So mom and I took him in while DH headed off for work. It took the ER nurses another 3 tries to get a vein for the IV again (that's 3 on Tuesday, 3 on Thursday). This time I wasn't so brave. I didn't cry but the stress of it was getting to me because this time Monkey knew what was coming and cried harder and longer than last time. I felt my chest tightening.

Because he hadn't been urinating very well and had lost a POUND in the past week, they decided to admit him for the night. Not good news for me since I had put off all of my work for the week due to the previous hospital visit. I had something due the next day and knew now that it would be nearly impossible to get it done. Plus, I wanted to call DH to let him know the deal. Plus, I was feeling bad because mom drove 2 hours to help me out around the house and with Monkey but there we were in the hospital. So I had all of this in my head floating around and I could barely think due to the lack of sleep in recent days. So the stress of all of it was weighing in pretty hard. At one point during the day, it took all I had not to either punch something or break down and cry (I did eventually have a moment on Friday where I cried a bit). I don't think my brain has quite recovered yet so I'll apologize now for the scattered nature of this post.

The crib at the hospital

The nurses at the Pediatrics wing LOVED Monkey. He can be quite the charmer even under stressful circumstances apparently. He had the splint thing on his arm again with the IV tightly wrapped so he couldn't pull it out. He enjoyed playing what I can only describe as jump rope with an invisible leprachaun using the IV tubing. He'd just swing the tube round and round.

The room he was in did have a bed for me to sleep in overnight (not comfortable but better than a chair). They had free little soda and juices for the parents and did send up one meal tray at dinner, breakfast and lunch time. DH came up after work and took mom home with him so they could sleep in something other than a chair. I forgot Monkey's favorite book but think I did a pretty good job remembering it while kissing him goodnight. Not quite the same without the book but he did go to sleep and slept well until the techs came in for their routine temperature check (which happened every 3-4 hours).

The next day mom came to keep me company while we waited for news about whether Monkey's bicarbonate numbers had improved (this would indicate his system was keeping up with the diarrhea).

Monkey's bandages from IV and blood tests

All in all, we're both glad to be home. Unfortunately, my mom caught it yesterday and had to stay another night at our house to recover. She's feeling better and headed home this morning so she could do the rest of her recovery in a more familiar place.

Monkey expressed his pleasure of being home last night by breastfeeding for 17 minutes (he's usually done in 7 max) and falling asleep at the breast. When I put him into his crib I realized that he still needed some pants. He woke up a little cranky while I put them on but when he realized where he was he promptly fell asleep again.

BTW, this turned out NOT to be the dreaded Rotavirus like we thought (which is good since he's been getting the vaccine for that!). The doctor thinks it might have been the Norovirus ... you know, the one from the cruise ships.

Also, in case anyone was actually wondering, my deadline was extended to Monday. Guess I better get off of here and do some work!