The One I Haven’t Wanted To Write….

I’ve been milling this post over in my mind for a week and a half now, trying to come up with the right words to describe the fear and horror of watching you’re baby struggle for air. I’ve decided that there are no words strong enough, so instead I will just tell you what happened.

If you’ve followed my blog you might remember a few month’s back when Noah had a bad experience with cheese. If not you can read it here. Well, the ER doctor had told us at the time to wait a few months and then try dairy again. As Noah approached 8 months we decided we would try it again soon so I bought some organic baby yogurt. I was so afraid to feed it to him that it set in the fridge until like 2 days before it expired. Anyways, we decided to try it on Monday of last week (I think it was the 14th?) We only gave him 4 baby spoons full of the stuff (and of course he LOVED it) because we were afraid to give him to much. Well ya’ll apparently 4 spoonsfull was WAY too much. Almost exactly 1 hour after he had it he started sneezing like crazy. There was snot everywhere! Then the hives appeared, and boy did they come fast. Well we immediately gave him benedryll and called the doctor. The doctors said to bring him in right away so we loaded him up. Noah had been screaming the entire time, but by the time I got him in his carseat he was having difficulty holding up his head.

At this point his entire body was bright red and it sounded like he was having trouble breathing. By the time we got out of the neighborhood he had stopped crying and was seriously struggling for air. Thank God we live like 1/2 a mile from the hospital so we just booked it there since we were already in the car. I am SO thankful for my husband who remained calm the entire time, because you guys I LOST it. Billy had to walk me through things to try to get him to cry so there I sat trying to tickle his feet and begging him to “just cry for mamma.” As soon as we got to the ER I scooped him up and ran inside. While the receptionist was trying to get his info a nurse saw us and yelled that she was taking us and she rushed us back where they immediately started working on Noah.  It was so overwhelming watching them wrap my baby in a blanket to hold him down so they could put an IV in him. I had actually walked away, but then Noah looked at me with this fear in his eyes and I realized just how selfish I was being. I immediately returned to his side, where all I could do was sing “You Are My Sunshine.”

The nurses and doctors were amazing! They got his IV in first try and immediately gave him epinephrin and more Benedryll. He also had a breathing treatment right away which he did not like but I took his fighting it as a good sign; at least he was breathing. After the breathing treatment they gave him some steroids. Actually, he ended up on steroids for 6 days. All of the drugs worked their magic very quickly and soon Noah was flirting with the nurses and being his regular happy self. Unfortunately about half an hour later he started itching and screaming again so they had to give him another dose of Benedryll. Noah seemed completely stoned for about 10 minutes and then he was BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS CRAZY. Apparently he reacts to medicines the same way my father does (Benedryll makes him hyper, novacain doesn’t work -which we learned from his circumcision)

After the last dose of meds the doctors told us they wanted to keep him for observation overnight so we were moved upstairs to the pediatric ward. It was amazing the difference in the nurses up there. They are some seriously amazing people and Noah absolutely loved them, but really the kid loves everyone. Luckily my mom came up to visit and brought us up some things. By about 9 o’clock the crazy effects of the drugs had started to wear off and Noah fell asleep. He had a hard time getting comfy with the IV (he was sleeping on the cot with me  while hubby slept on the pull out couch) but did pretty well. At 1 am his IV went bad but since he was nursing and peeing fine they said they could just leave it out. At that point Noah fell alseep and didn’t budge until about 7 when a nurse came in. (He slept straight through the nurse checking him at 4.) She told us that Noah looked great and as soon as the doctor looked at him we should get to go home. We were so excited. Unfortunately it took until about 1 pm for the doctor to see us and another hour and a half for the nurse to discharge us, but we were thankful none the less.

The whole trip only lasted about 24 hours but it felt like a week. I honestly don’t know how parents of seriously sick children do it. My heart goes out to them. I can’t even imagine their struggles. We left the hospital with a healthy baby and a prescription for a junior Epipen. The doctor told us he actually had to look it up and see if Noah could have it because he had never given one to a child that small. It’s scary but it’s also a relief just knowing that it’s in the diaper bag at all times.  We followed up with our pediatrician yesterday and he’s getting us a referral to a pediatric allergist. Until then we just have to hold off on trying any new foods. My hope and prayer is that he outgrows this. Dairy is in EVERYTHING. He has had pancakes and things in the past that have dairy in them so we are hopeful, but I guess only time will tell. Here are a few more pictures from our hospital trip to close this post out. Sorry everything is blurry!

By the way Noah thought this crib was the bee's knees and ever learned how to pull himself up on it!

Where The Wild Things Are…

So a lot of my favorite mamma bloggers have been doing nursery tours lately so I thought I’d share some pictures of Noah’s room. While it may not be as modern or cutesy as many of the others I absolutely love it. I can’t even count the hours we spent working on it. Once it was finished you could usually find me sitting in there at 2 in the morning folding and organizing all of his drawers, dreaming about how this little peanut kicking inside of me was going to change our lives forever. I really never could have imagined this. So here are a few pictures of the room in progress. My friend Liz hand painted all of the murals and my loving hubby did all of the molding and trim work.

Now the arctic animal theme was inspired by the bedding which we both fell in love with. We wanted to do something a little different from the standard safari or sports theme. I’d like to point out that when we chose this theme it was IMPOSSIBLE to find things with whales on them. Now if you buy anything from Carter or Old Navy you will see that whales are every where. I like to think that Noah was just ahead of his time. So here are a few pictures of the bedding.

And finally a few pictures of the finished project. Now you should know that our house was built in the 40’s which is extremely old for where we live. It’s also all of 1,000 square feet and was literally in shambles when my hubs bought it 5 years ago. It has been an endless project since then but this is definitely my favorite room in the house. Here’s the crib,

And this is the view from the door.

Although I love my glider I hate to say I hardly ever use it. I think it’s mostly because Noah sleeps in our room so we’re never really in here.

I have a serious love for children’s books, and as an ex-teacher my son inherited my classroom library.

Since our house is so tiny there was really no room for a dresser. So it is hiding nicely behind these closet doors.

So there it is. I know it’s nothing fancy but I love it and I hope that when Noah is older he loves it to. Right now the room doesn’t get much use but I know that will change eventually.  Oh yeah and this post has made me realize that I REALLY need a new camera that can take decent photos. Mine is ancient and doesn’t do anything for my non-existant photography skills.