Little Man and an I.V.

We got back from visiting Chris' family on Sunday night, and during the night, Colin threw up. Okay, I thought, we have a little bug, no big deal. Monday he was pretty lethargic - just wanted to lay on Mommy all day, and didn't eat anything. Tuesday dawned pretty much the same - while I enjoyed the snuggling with Colin, I was starting to get a little worried - he wasn't eating any food, and wasn't nursing all that well. When I put him down for bed that night, I just had a strange feeling that something was wrong. I called Elizabeth and asked her about symptoms of dehydration. She told me to take him to an ER. I knew that was what I needed to do, but it was nice to have someone else validate my "mommy instinct".

We left the apartment at 9 pm, checked into the ER at 9:23 pm, and finally got back to a "room" at midnight. Our nurse, Darlene, was a little "off" - I didn't know if she was just tired, or not altogether there. She just seemed unsure of herself - didn't help me feel better about being there I'll tell you.

Mr. Donald (the paramedic) came in and inserted a catheter into my poor little guy (there was much screaming; mostly because I was holding him tightly against me). Mr. Donald was actually really nice and seemed very competent. Seems Colin inherited his daddy's visible veins versus my almost non-existent ones - thank goodness!

Dr. L. came in shortly after and she asked what was happening with Colin. I went through the litany of issues with her. She spent about about 5 minutes with us, checking Colin out and ordering some blood work, a urinalysis (ha!~that would require someone to be outputting urine!) and a chest x-ray.

Colin and I then spent the next 2.5 hours just hanging out together on the bed while the I.V. ran. At 2:30, Darlene came back in and told me that the doctor wanted me to wake Colin up and get him to drink the 4 oz bottle of Pedialyte. Easier said than done - Colin is not a fan of drinking from a bottle, and I was trying to figure out how to mainline it into my breast to get it in him. After about a half hour of futile trying - our new nurse gave me a straw to help Colin drink. So I then spent the next hour putting the straw in the bottle, covering the top with my finger, pulling it out and dropping the 4 drops into his mouth. I got 3 oz in him this way!

The nurse then told me that the doctor said we could leave. Since it was after 4 am at this point, I didn't even think about asking, but I assume that all of the tests and x-rays came back fine. I never saw Dr. L after that 5 minute stop at midnight. Overall the care we received was a little lackluster.

Fortunately, Colin seems to be getting back to himself. His funny little personality is back in full swing and he's cruising all around. He's starting to eat again. The bright side of our ER visit was that even sick, Colin made everyone smile. That's my little man!