Late Saturday night (Sept. 24th), Landen all of the sudden got really fussy and was crying. This was a little weird because he typically only cried when he was hungry. He had eaten not too long before so we figured that maybe he had gas. (Unfortunately gas was beginning to become something of an issue.) We tried bicycling his legs and rubbing his tummy but it wasn’t really helping. John got him swaddled up and sat with him in the rocker patting his butt for a VERY long time. Landen just kept crying. Eventually he finally dropped off to sleep and John was able to put him in his bassinet and go to bed. When he woke up for his next feedings he did ok but still seemed kind of uncomfortable. At least the heartwrenching crying didn’t come back.
The next morning I was really relieved because Landen woke up and wasn’t crying. I was starting to think maybe he was a little colicky but figured we’d have to wait to see if a pattern developed. We fed him in the morning but I could tell something was a little off. He just didn’t seem like himself. I wasn’t really sure if I was imagining things or not so I watched him like a hawk throughout the day. He would eat when we gave him a bottle but he never cued us that he was hungry and wanted to eat. He was peeing and pooping normally and when I took his temperature it was fine. He was sleeping a lot but he was only 3 weeks old and hadn’t reached his due-date yet so that was sort of par for the course. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right though. John, “Mr. Denial”, kept telling me he was fine. I thought about calling the pediatrician’s office but it was Sunday and I didn’t want to be the paranoid, first-time Mom who calls over nothing. I turned to Dr. Google but he didn’t really help either.
As the day progressed Landen seemed to be getting more and more lethargic. When he was awake he was just a “lump”. He laid there and would look at us but didn’t really move or show any interest in anything. I held him while he took nap. When he woke up about 4:00 I thought he was kinda warm but wasn’t sure since I’d been holding him while he slept. I decided to change his diaper and check his temperature one more time. After being in the 98° region all day, this time the thermometer said 100.2°! A temp of 100.4° is serious business for a newborn and this was really close. To be honest, I was a little relieved though … I knew something just wasn’t right and I finally had some real evidence!
I’m not feeling well Mommy.
I called the pediatrician right away. When the doctor called back she was hemming and hawing about whether we should wait it out overnight and see them first thing in the morning or to take him to the ER. Since he was eating and peeing ok she was hesitant to have us go to the ER with all the germs milling around. She finally decided that since temps tend to rise at night she didn’t feel comfortable with us waiting. 100.2 was too close for comfort. It was back to the children’s hospital for us … John seemed a bit put out that I was dragging them to the hospital. He really thought Landen was fine but he didn’t fight me or anything.
We got over there and told them we had a newborn with a fever. They didn’t mess around – we got taken to triage immediately. Landen peed on the nurse while we were getting his weight … I felt so bad because the nurse was so sweet with him and Landen thanked him with a spray of pee. They took his temp and it was up to 100.6°. The doctor came in right away and after I explained some of his symptoms they sent us right back to a room. Someone came in to check his blood sugar and then we got moved to another room. After a little bit of waiting a pediatric ER doc came in to see us. I started giving him Landen’s history and symptoms (the doctor thought I was in the medical field because I knew all the jargon … after spending time in the NICU and doing research on preemies I picked it up pretty quickly). As he was listening I could tell he was getting more and more concerned. I felt better when he told me that my instincts throughout the day had been right. He said they were going to do a bunch of tests and hope that it was a virus, but if it turned out to be bacterial Landen would have a mandatory 2 week hospital stay. Even with a virus he was going to have to stay at least 2 days for observation. As we talked to the doctor I could see that John finally “got it”.
After we talked to the doctor a flurry of activity commenced: x-rays, blood draws, IV, urine sample, … The scariest though was when they took a sample of spinal fluid to test for meningitis. I knew they needed to do it but them putting a needle in Landen’s spine freaked me out!!! He cried a bit but he did really well. I hated that he had to go through all the poking and prodding again. He’d only been home from the NICU a week and a half and here he was back in the hospital again.
Is the crib big enough??
Worn out from all the poking and prodding.
They called the NICU to see if there was a bed available for him. There wasn’t because he’d have to be isolated from the other babies to keep from spreading whatever he had and they didn’t have room. They talked about moving us to the Pediatric ICU but we eventually ended up in a room on the regular pediatric floor. By the time we got up there and got settled it was midnight. The good thing about being on the peds floor was that they had those fold out chairs in the rooms so we could spend the night. Unlike when Landen was in the NICU, I did not feel comfortable leaving him there alone. John and I switched off spending the night because we really didn’t get much sleep. They had him in a big bed/crib that was ridiculously uncomfortable to feed him on but we couldn’t take him off because of his IV and monitors. We couldn’t pick him up and hold him either because it set off alarms every time. It sucked.
Here’s our home away from home for the next few days
Sleepy from getting settled
Mommy and Daddy’s bed
Feeding time
Stretching out
By the next morning, Monday, Landen’s fever was gone and he was doing MUCH better. He seemed almost like his old self again. The initial cultures were coming back negative for bacteria so we were hopeful we’d only have to stay one more night. That was not the case ….
Landen continued to get better and was doing awesome. All the bacterial cultures, including meningitis, were completely negative. John and I were freakin’ exhausted and wanted to get the heck out of there but they had to send the HPV culture to an outside lab and they weren’t on top of their game. On Wednesday we were told that they hoped to get the results back Thursday but it may not be until Saturday. We were not happy campers. I know they were just following the protocols and everything but at that point Landen was completely fine, we were freakin’ tired, Landen’s IV was positional so the dang alarm was constantly going off, and another (very nice) family with a sick teenager had been moved into our room so we were cramped. After talking to an intern I found out that they were concerned about the HPV results because Landen had “sores” on his lips and I hadn’t been tested for it since the screen at the beginning of my pregnancy. They apparently thought that I may have given it to him in the birth canal. I almost blew my top!! Those weren’t “sores”, they were sucking calluses from his bottles!! It’s like they’d never seen a newborn before who was getting used to bottles. I wanted to rip that intern a new one. I didn’t though. John let the resident know that we weren’t happy when I went home for a shower. It had started to feel like we were being held hostage. We were pushing them to push the lab to get those dang results back. Again, we knew they were just doing their jobs and they were really wonderful to us. We were just so worn out and we knew Landen was fine and didn't have HPV. We could have tried to sign out AMA but we decided to wait another day to see if the results came back.
Check out Landen’s poor foot. The IV was miserable.
Sleepy!
Some video of Landen
That night John stayed with Landen at the hospital. Thursday morning as I was headed out the door to go back to the hospital, I got a call from John telling me to be sure I brought in the baby carrier with me. The test results were back, and they were negative, and we were being released!!! Woohoo!!! They said he must have caught an unidentified virus somewhere even though we had kept him quarantined after coming home. I wish we knew where it came from because we were being so careful!! Once I got to the hospital we went through the discharge papers, unconnected Landen from all his tubes and wires, got him dressed, and got the heck out of there before someone changed their mind. Oh man were we happy to all be home again! Poor little guy spent half of his first month of life in a hospital. :(
Getting a bath to get the hospital “dust” off of me. I’m as good as new.
We’d already been paranoid about germs and visitors but after going through that hospital hell we decided to stick to our guns and restrict visitors and keep Landen home except for doctor’s appointments. We didn’t want to run the chance of him getting sick again. Luckily our diligence paid off and he got past the 3 month mark without another illness. We're hoping he doesn't get admitted into the hospital again until he's very old and gray!
