Oh What a Weekend!

I'm finally getting around to posting about our shenanigans from the weekend. It was not exactly the relaxing weekend I was hoping for. Here's the low-down.

Friday went off without a hitch. After work, we packed up the car and headed to my in-laws' farm. We got there a little before 8pm. My MIL (mother-in-law) had supper waiting - lasagna and cheese Alfredo pizza. She always over-feeds us because she is from the "food is love" school of thought. It was yummy though. Shortly after supper, Isaac crashed on the floor with his pillow pet and Grandma L's stuffed kitty, which he snatched off of her night stand when we weren't looking. He slept wonderfully.

We all got up early-ish on Saturday so we could get to Pierre at a decent time. It's about a three hour drive from the farm. While we were eating breakfast, J noticed that Isaac's forehead felt a bit warm. Grandma and I agreed, so we gave him some Tylenol and crossed our fingers that it wasn't a big deal. However, in the back of my mind I was remembering that Isaac's friend from daycare was out sick for a few days last week, and I was really hoping that he didn't catch whatever it was that she had. Then we set out for Pierre.

After about two hours of driving, Isaac started to get a bit cranky. I felt his forehead and he was burning up again. About that time, we stopped in a small town called Miller for lunch at the Dairy Queen (which is pretty much the only restaurant in the whole town). After we ordered, we gave Isaac some Motrin to help with his fever. We didn't have a thermometer, so we didn't know exactly how high his temp was, but it was obviously higher than normal. When we got our food (side note: our cheese curds tasted like fish. It was disgusting.), Isaac refused to eat. Even french fries, which he loves. That's when I knew something was wrong.

After we were back in the car and had been driving for about a half hour, Isaac freaked out. I mean screaming, crying, grabbing at his hair, face, shirt, whatever he could get a hold of. This is sooo not at all like my happy-go-lucky little boy. So I decided to call his daycare provider to see if she knew what Isaac's daycare friend had been diagnosed with. The answer: strep. Awesome.

So I called my SIL who is a nurse and asked if Pierre had an urgent care type place we could take Isaac. If he had strep, I wanted to get him on antibiotics ASAP and not have to wait until Monday when we got home. Well, they don't have an urgent care. Our only option was the ER. So that's where we went.

The ER doc checked his ears and ran a strep test. His ears were fine and the strep test came back negative. The doc said it was probably just a virus and to continue rotating between Tylenol and Motrin for the fever. I felt better having gone, even though it probably cost us a couple hundred bucks (not sure if that particular ER is out of network or not), because then I knew we were doing all we could and it would go away soon.

Saturday night was not good, but not as bad as I expected it to be. Isaac woke up a few times crying. The first time, I couldn't get him to stop, so I put him in bed with us (which we've never done before) and he went to sleep there. I, on the other hand, didn't sleep a wink knowing he was right next to me. I guess I was worried about rolling over him or something. So when he woke up again, I gave him something for his fever and put him back in his pack and play so I could get some shut eye.

Sunday was the baptism. James had to take Isaac out of church a few times because he got cranky. Then he played with his cousins and had a pretty good time. He still wouldn't eat though, but was drinking a little. We drove to Watertown that evening and had supper at a Mexican restaurant with J's brother and SIL who couldn't make it to the baptism. Then we went to their house to let the kids play for a while. That's when Isaac had a major meltdown. He was in pain, although we weren't sure where. Then I smelled it - poop! And it occurred to me that he hadn't pooped all weekend! He was working really hard, crying and screaming to get this poop out. When wee changed his diaper and saw the fruit of his labor - a little marble sized poop - my heart sank. My poor baby was probably blocked up. After his diaper change, he went on playing. Not long after that, I smelled poop again and was relieved to see a great big poo in his diaper. It was like that little hard-as-rock marble poop was a plug or something. Then we went back to the farm and went to bed.

Sunday night was HELL! Isaac woke up several times screaming and writhing in pain. It was pretty evident that his tummy was the culprit this time. He kept letting out little toots and then screaming some more. We were helpless. Grandma L tried to help, but there was nothing any of us could do. It was horrible! After about an hour of screaming, Isaac finally fell asleep. My wonderful husband, bless his heart, slept in a separate room with Isaac so I could get some sleep. Being the paranoid Mommy that I am, I kept the monitor on, even though I knew J was in there with him. Isaac woke up crying twice more that night, but the episodes were not as bad as the first one.

Monday morning came, and Isaac was acting like his normal self again, although still not eating. Then around noon, he freaked out again. It was exactly like the episode from last night, and it was terrible. Let me tell you that one of the worst feelings in the world is knowing that your child is in pain and that there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. We quickly packed up and left for home.

As soon as we got into town, we went immediately to the urgent care clinic. Four hours, one exam, and a stomach x-ray later, we found out he had bad gas and an ear infection. Ugh! Four hours in urgent care for GAS! So we gave him his gas drops and amoxicillin and we all went to bed. He was up a lot that night. He would grab his ear and cry and say "Owie, owie!" It broke my heart.

I didn't send him to daycare on Tuesday because he was still pretty crabby that night, and he still wasn't eating. I just couldn't do that to our daycare provider. Plus, I wanted to let him sleep in as much as he wanted to, and make sure he was eating.

Tuesday he was pretty much back to his normal self. He started eating and drinking as usual, and he only had one freak-out session. He really hates having to take the omoxicillin. He fights us and tries to spit it out when we give it to him. I have to hold his mouth open, and even then he just gurgles it until he has to swallow. Last night we put it in his juice and it worked pretty well, but he wouldn't eat it when we put it in his applesauce this morning. Any suggestions are welcome.

That that was our weekend. It was long and stressful, but it was nice to see J's family, and Isaac really got to bond with his Grandma L and Papa since we were with them alone most of the time.

Not exactly the weekend I was hoping for, but that's life when you have a little one.