A Little Scare {Trip to the ER with Andrew}

Trip to the Emergency Room {2.23.11}

Thursday we were having an awful day... but the whole week was awful.

So stressful but for some reason it seemed Andrew was worse with the screaming fits, and pain.

I had been giving him formula, and pumping and freezing my milk as well - double duty.. (very time consuming. He'd eat, and I'd have to put him down sleeping for the short time he would sleep.. and then I'd pump store and label and freeze bags.)

So Thursday I noticed he was miserable, but also not eating and pooping/peeing which made us really nervous.

He had literally been crying and screaming in pain for 2.5 hours, we could not calm him.

My Mom was over watching Samantha and she saw how he was .. she suggested we take him to the ER. Crazy, right? But I was afraid it may have been something that we were unaware of, something in his intestines, or stomach, or worse..

So we packed bags (again) for the hospital. I felt like I was JUST there.. We went to another hospital though, Children's Hospital. We spent about 2 hours waiting, and they decided to do an abdominal x-ray to see if anything showed up.

I brought him into the xray room, and saw a tiny little board with straps, it looked like some kind of device they use to constrain mental patients, and they put my 3 week old baby in there.. They said we had to wait outside.. and as I stood outside the door I heard my baby screaming and screaming.. and I lost it... Crying uncontrollably.. I had been soo spent at that point, dealing with my poor miserable baby and his suffering for over a week.. now we're in the ER and Im scared to death that something else is wrong...Mat just hugged me tight and put his head on mine.. We feel so helpless.. and we're so emotionally and physically exhausted.

No one wants their baby to be in pain, but worse, to not be able to console them? That is the worst. And o see a poor 3 week old baby be in such pain, my heart breaks every time he cries.

The xray came back negative, everything looked great.. What a releif. But they wanted to admit Andrew anyways.. to see if anything else is going on, and to observe.

So it was around 1am at that time, we got to our room and finally all settled to sleep a little around 4am. We were beat. Daddy slept in a chair with his head resting on my diaper bag sitting on a table, and I got a fold out chair/bed.
Poor thing was hooked up to a bunch of monitors... its so scary to see your tiny baby in a hospital crib, and hooked up to wires..
I was trying to thank God during all this and remember how blessed we were.
Andrew is healthy, he is just having a few minor issues, which in the grand scheme of things are not a big deal, just painful and emotionally draining.
We were on a floor with some very unfortunate children and small babies whom Im sure would love to trade places with Andrew, who only stayed a mere 12 hours at the hospital.

Andrew slept pretty well in the hospital, go figure! The staff must have thought we were crazy making up such stories about a screaming, vomiting, uncontrollable baby.. But he was good.

They said he was suffering from a few things..

Colic, Severe Reflux, and Hyperlactation (my issue- my milk coming in too fast for him)

So I met with a bunch of Nurses and Doctors, giving us tips, what to watch for etc..

And we have an appt to have a scan of his tummy done to see how sever the reflux is.

It was a scary scary 12 hours, but we have piece of mind now, and know it is nothing more severe, and that to me is worth it to know.

Im glad he will eventually be alright, but every day is a challenge.

Im taking it one day at a time.

The main challenge for me, is that he's so high maintenance AND I have a 2 year old to watch on top of it all.

So this too shall pass..
I hope this is the one and only time I ever have to see any of my babies in a teeny hospital crib like this.