It's been awhile...

Things are starting to get a little more normal around here. I've wanted to post a little about our hospital stay a week or so ago. It all started on Sunday morning.

Amedeo had had a bad night. Lots of crying. He woke up really unhappy. My husband was trying to console him. He tried lots of different things: rocking, toys, change of scenery, but nothing worked. Finally he brought him to me for some mom tlc. He wouldn't settle in my arms either. He screamed and screamed, and then was silent. His eyes rolled back in his head and then moved in different directions. His body was limp. Then his arms got stiff. He was pale and clammy. Scary doesn't begin to describe what happened.

We thought it was a seizure. So, we called 911. By the time the paramedics arrived, Amedeo had come out of it and was crying again. They took us to the hospital.

We spent a couple of hours in the ER. They drew blood, took urine, and established an IV line. Shorty after these procedures, he vomited. All of those procedures were horrible for Amedeo. Fortunately, he's too young to remember any of this.

They decided to keep A. for observation. The doctors thought he had picked up a GI bug. We spent most of our time holding him while he slept. They moved us to his room. A baby's hospital bed looks a lot like something that would contain a tiger. The mattress was waist high and it had metal bars that could extend up about 4 feet in the air, where they met a "lid" for the bed. It was designed to keep more mobile children from escaping.

Amedeo had a CAT scan. For this, he had to swallow some dye-liquid mixed with Pedialyte. Since he doesn't take a bottle, we attempted to syringe it in his mouth. This made him gag, and he vomited. Eventually, they inserted a tube through his nose and into his stomach to get the liquid inside. They took us to the CAT scan machine, where they took pictures of his digestive system and his brain. Everything came back normal.

He had an abdominal ultrasound. It was the least invasive of all the tests, but he still cried when we put him on the table. All the anatomy was normal.

He had another test that involved swallowing a barium mixture (which, again, he refused to drink). So, they syringed it down his throat. The test works best if they can see the liquid going down his throat, but since he wouldn't drink it, we could only see it in his stomach. The test did show some of the barium refluxing up. So, he's definitely got reflux.

The doctors decided that the episode we thought was a seizure was a "breath holding episode." When babies are in lots of distress and pain, they can do strange things. Especially if they have reflux. Probably, he got so upset on Sunday morning, that he simply passed out. Fortunately, he never stopped breathing.

The night in the hospital was better than I expected. Amedeo slept in our arms, and for a few hours in the tiger cage. Pietro and I slept like sardines on the itty bitty couch.

The next day was much better. Amedeo was doing really well. He seemed much more alert, playful, and generally happy. We asked if we could be discharged around 4 pm.

The next few days were a blur...Amedeo went on and off with the vomiting. Every time he vomited, the pediatrician advised us to give him pedialyte with a syringe for 6 hours, and then start giving milk again. At this point, he had been off Prevacid for 2 days. I started to realize that he wasn't vomiting because of a GI bug; it was due to being OFF the medication!!! He's got a very strong gag reflex, so when we'd syringe anything into his mouth, it was hit or miss as to whether he would gag it all up again. We stopped syringing, he stopped vomiting, and I nursed him as much as he wanted. It's taken us about 3-4 days to get him back to semi-normal with the reflux.

The day after we got out of the hospital, our Doc recommended that we put him on Prilosec instead of Prevacid. I filled the Rx. We attempted to give it to him 3 times. He barfed it up 3 times. I tasted the medicine. Even with 'grape' flavoring, the stuff is awfully bitter, and hard for me to swallow let alone a kid with a gag reflex that's on overdrive. I called the doc. She said that he would eventually take it, keep trying. That's when I decided that the doc wasn't listening to me, so we're changing pediatricians. We've got a follow-up appointment with the new doc tomorrow.

The last two days have been great. Amedeo is feeling really good! We went to the pool yesterday...he splashed and laughed. Today, he rolled from front to back, and back to front...3 times!! Over the weekend, we managed to get more than 2 molecules of cereal in him...I think the new highchair had something to do with it. It's the Fisher Price Healthy Care Rainforest thing. Hideously ugly, but he likes it. The features are awesome. It's highly functional. Butt ugly. Maybe I can make a cover for it.

My parents helped us a great deal last week. They held our hands and made us dinner. Mom even stayed overnight one night that was particularly bad. I was hysterical most of the time...which is probably why I didn't call on any of my good mommy friends for help...I was barely functioning. BUT! It seems like we've made a full recovery. It looks like we're going to get back on track and start socializing again.

Thanks to everyone who offered help, thoughts and prayers. We're all better now. At least mostly.