Doctor's visit update

Is this not the cutest picture?!?! Never mind that it's 90 degrees out and i was sweating in a tank top and capri's but hey, i gotta keep my boy warm these days. Thankfully I had just bought him this FSU hat last week, didn't know I'd need to use it so soon. Thankfully Grandma had Noah prepared and had bought him an 18 month winter outfit already!! I'm going to go buy him some 18 or 24 month footed pjs tonight to keep him extra warm at night. We had to "squeeze" him into his 12 month ones last night....they were very tight but it was all we had.

So anyways Dr. update.....(shortest topic first) I ended up just taking Noah to the Dr. because I called Haley's school and she seemed to be feeling just fine and no fever. I talked to the Dr. about her when I got there and she just said that she probably has a cold, so we are good there!

Now for Noah's update.....the Dr. was surprised to hear how low his temps were Monday night and when we were in the ER (again these were 92 and 94 rectal temps, meaning 91 and 93 taken normally). She asked if he was really really cold because that is VERY LOW. I told her he was definitely cold but not like he was absolutely freezing. They re-tested his CBC blood count and it came back exactly the same as it was in ER on Monday night except his hemoglobin did go up 1 pt. He's still anemic so we have to go back in a month to have that re-checked but at least it didn't go down. Dr. also said that the CBC results also ruled out any other "very serious" illnesses she was thinking (meningitis and septicaemia) so that's GREAT news!!! Basically she said she thinks it's a type of flu that is affecting the part of his body that maintains his body temperatures. Noah had just taken a long nap before we went to the Dr. so he was in a good mood and ready to play which was wonderful and Dr. was very pleased to see that! As i have been saying in no way, shape or form has he been lethargic through this whole process. Dr. wants us to try to focus more on his behavior and the way that he looks rather than focusing on his body temperature at this time. Even if he does get back to 98.6 if he looks like he doesn't feel well we need to call them. She said that this could last up to 7 days but if by next Wednesday he was still having a low body temp then we needed to call her to discuss "long term". I'm not sure what that really means and figured I'd ask more questions at that time if that was the case. For now I'm going with the flu and that we should be good with in 7 days! Noah is eating and drinking about half of what he normally would. Rather than four 6 ounce bottles he is drinking about a total of 12 ounces a day and each of his meals are about half of what he would normally eat. Can't blame the poor guy though! Since we've been up most the night the past two night's he's been taking very long naps during the days. I hope we are not throwing our routine into a complete nightmare but we'll soon see once we get this guy better. Temp before I put him down to sleep was 96 degrees still.

Noah's Low Body Temp Update......

Well...we got about the same amount of sleep last night as we did the night before :-( I was taking his temp about every hour or so after he went to bed and around 10pm it started dropping again so i woke him up to do a rectal temp and it was 95.7 (normal is 99.6). Thanks to my friend Lindsey who is going to nursing school she recommended that i still call the nurse. I was thinking this was much better and about to head back to sleep! I called the on-call nurse to see what she thought or maybe had a recommendation on how to warm him up while he slept since i couldn't get him to sleep with us in the bed all wrapped up. She said that she really felt that i needed to bring him back to ER as that was just still way too low. Rectal is always 1 degree higher than ear so really his temp was 94.7 but hey that's still way better than the night before but apparently still not close to where it should be. Anything under 97 rectal is considered hypothermia she said. She said she would page the Pediatrician Dr. and have her call me so that we could discuss but if i didn't hear back within 30 minutes that i needed to head to ER. Well i continued to heat up blankets in the dryer and put his FSU ski hat on him and he was already dressed really warm and just swaddled him up. He wasn't lethargic at all which was great! He wanted to play with my phone, remote control, toys, etc but he did get fussy randomly but i think that's just because he was tired and couldn't lay in his bed by himself like he'd prefer. This is the kid that likes to sleep from 6:30pm to 6:30am! The Pediatrician Dr. didn't call within 30 minutes so i decided to take two more rectal temps that were 97.5 and 97.7. I then called the nurse again to report the exciting new numbers to see if we still needed to bring him to ER. This time it was a new on-call nurse that i spoke with but she again thought that i still needed to bring him down to be checked out. She agreed to call the Pediatrician Dr. herself and have them give me a call so that we could discuss. The concern was that if we stopped heating up the blankets, holding him while he was all wrapped up was his temp going to drop again. I agree....this is a valid concern as i was about 99% sure that that's exactly what would happen but his personality was telling me that he was ok. The Dr. agree that he was stable enough that we could just wait till today to bring him into the office so Noah and Haley both have appointments for 11:10am this morning. Yes....I think Haley has a sinus infection so why not bring both kids! Both nurses and the Dr. i spoke with last night i had to repeat all the history of what has been going on so I would tell them "last night he had very low body temps and they were....92.4 and 94.4 and everyone of them would say "Oh my God, that is VERY low"! Well....if i wasn't already I am clearly aware now of what is not a normal LOW body temp! These guys sure know how to scare ya! So far his temp has still been around 96 (taken with ear thermometer) this morning. It's a bit nuts around here for sure! Stay tuned!! Oh and so far Noah's culture is not showing any bacterial growth, they will continue to check this the next 2 days. Here's a quick picture I snapped w/ my phone last night and YES that is a tinkerbell blanket that we borrowed from Haley...lol! Noah's not really sleeping the flash was so bright he closed his eyes.

Thanks to all our friends and family who are checking on Noah and who are staying up with me all night to answer my crazy questions!!! They always say it takes a family to raise a child!

Noah's 1st Trip to the ER for a LOW body Temperature?!?!

I didn't even know that a LOW body temperature was something to ever be worried about BUT......We ended up having to take Noah to the ER last night!! We left at 10pm and didn't get home till a little after 3am. It was actually very scary and I was starting to FREAK out!! I can usually keep myself very calm in these situations but i could feel myself freaking out. Ever since i picked him up from school he seem a little cold. With his current double ear infection he's been running a fever since last Tuesday but then it finally broke on Sunday night! He's been on antibiotics since Friday too. It was a little cold in the daycare room so i didn't think much of it. He slept on the way home and once we got there i put him in bed to take a nap. I woke him up at 6pm to eat dinner and he was still a bit cold so i thought, well at least that means No fever! He was soooo cranky while he was awake and basically cried for 30 min straight so i fed him a little of his bottle and put him back to bed for the night. Just before i went to bed i decided to open my computer back up and google "low body temperature for infants"....and this is what i found...
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060920003349AAKuh06

I FREAKED! Ran up stairs to take his temp again and it was reading 93.7 or it would just say LOW. This was the ear one. I called the on-call nurse and while i waited i went ahead and took a rectal temp (they always ask for that). Once the nurse called back i told her the rectal temp was 92.4 and she said "UMM....you need to call 911! You can't even drive him to ER unless it's 94+, would you like to take it again?"
I said yes, so we took it again and it creepy crawled .1 digit from 92.7 all the way to 94.4!! She said we could drive him down then but he definitely had to go to ER! Clayton's Mom came to watch Haley and we just left the house and passed her on our street. (Thank GOD they live right down the street from us!!!! Haley was sleeping as it was 10pm). That was the fastest I’ve ever been through and ER!!! While i signed him in i told the lady about the rectal temps and before i was even done there was someone there to do his vitals again. Before the vitals were done the next nurse was there and took us to the "Fast Track ER waiting room" NO ONE was in this room but the other waiting room was full and had a 1 1/2 hr wait! I was glad we were in that room but then scared because "why were we in that room and no one else, was it that serious"? We only waited there for about 30 seconds and we were taken back to our room. They took his temps again and they said "Wow, those are low". Yep, that's why we are here :-) They took his temp like 5 times (rectal) and then it took 4 nurses and 3 different tries to get blood and they finally got enough to run 2 of the 3 blood tests they wanted to look at. That was HORRIBLE!!! Noah was screaming like crazy while they dug in his arm for a vein!!!! They were literally pulling his rolls apart and tying the rubber thing around his arm to see if they could find any veins at all! They were going to do an IV but then figured since the blood was so hard to get that they would wait to see if it was needed. CBC came back and said that it was a virus so no IV needed, just gotta wait it out. They are also doing a culture and i have to call my pediatrician this afternoon for preliminary results. Since Noah wasn't lethargic or getting worse they let us come home! His hemoglobin was border line low so we have to have that re-checked again too. Noah didn't sleep even 30 seconds the entire time we were there! He wasn't taking his eye off anyone! He's still pretty cold this morning and the ear thermometer says 96 right now so I've just been keeping him wrapped up in a blanket and dressed really warm with socks, etc. Oh and i forgot to mention when the nurse called back and i told her the 92.4 number she said what color are his lips? I said not sure, he's had a pacifier in....so i ran in there flipped on the light grabbed his pacifier which ticked him off and they weren't purple but they were pale. HOLY COW…….WHAT A NIGHT!!! I don’t ever want to do that again! I don’t know how anyone who truly has a sick child can go through all this so often, they are MUCH stronger than I could ever be!

Happy 2nd Birthday Makayla & Macy!

I had started this post previously but then time got away from me and then Noah got sick, etc so here I am...over 3 weeks late with this post but I wanted to make sure that i still posted it so here goes.....Makayla and Macy have turned 2 years old!?!?! Can you believe it? Crazy i know but these two girls are just amazing and are so much fun! We had our first trip as a family of 4 when we all headed to NC for the big B-Day bash! Notice that we have also moved Noah into his bigger car seat as he was quickly out growing his infant seat.

Aunt Sheryl made an amazing cake and Ice Cream Sundae Cupcakes to go with the Ice Cream and Cupcake theme! When Macy saw that monkey cake she said "I'm gonna eat that Monkey!" It was the funniest thing....so cute! The birthday party was at Makayla and Macy's new house and all the kids were able to enjoy all of their toys as well as a kid pool with a slide in it! Haley was loving it!

One of the Birthday Girl's!
Noah was eyeing that cupcake and ice cream like crazy!!! He really wanted a bite but I'm making him wait till his 1st b-day to have a taste!

While we were in NC Uncle Gary took Haley, Clayton and Grandpa to see and drive the Helicopter!!! She was excited to see and drive it but wanted confirmation that it wasn't really going to go anywhere :-) How cool is that? Not everyday you get to go do that! We had a wonderful trip and can't wait to go back!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MACY & MAKAYLA!

This picture isn't from our trip but it was so cute that i had to post it...hehe! Noah and Papa taking a nap together! They wore each other out :-)

Noah's 2nd Hair cut.....

Look how handsome my man is with his new hair cut :-) Although he hated every minute of it i think he really enjoys his new style....LOL! He was absolutely exhausted by the time it was all over with!

I never really thought about it before but it was drastically different getting Noah's hair cut versus Haley. Haley never really minded getting her hair cut but I guess that's because with a girls' you are basically just trimming it up all around BUT with boys of course you have to get really close and behind the ears, etc. I can see how that would be a bit scary having scissors rubbing up against your skin. Christy did an amazing job working with Noah while he was crying and trying to bounce himself to sleep through out his hair cut. Now that's some real talent there!!! Maybe next time we'll try getting his hair cut in the morning when it's not past his bed time ;-) For goodness sake it was only 6:30pm....but that's typically Noah's bed time these days. He's gotta get a full 12 hours of sleep! Thanks again Christy for making my little boy look so handsome!!! Thanks to Mimi too for all your assistance!! Now Noah is all set for his second road trip! We are heading to NC today for Macy and Makayla's 2nd Birthday Party! Their actual birthday was yesterday so HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY MACY AND MAKAYLA!!!

Papa...Papa....Dadda....galore!

I really think that Noah is just trying to rub it in but last Wednesday night (8/3) while I was feeding him dinner Noah leaned right over and looked at me and said "Ppaapppa" and then he proceeded to say it again.."Ppaapa". So I'm sitting there thinking....is he really saying "Papa" before he says "Momma"????... and then before I even finished my thought Clayton yells "I heard that! He's saying Papa!" Of course as the days have gone on Noah has perfected it and is clearly saying "Papa" all day long! Yesterday after Noah's bath I had him on the counter and he was watching himself say "Papa" in the mirror :-) It was actually pretty funny! I thought once we left the bathroom he'd be done but oh no...he continued to say it for the next 30 minutes until he fell asleep in the car...LOL! MAN...just like pouring salt in a wound. I'm just kidding really....I'm actually very glad that Noah is saying Papa, after all Papa has been watching him at least 3 days a week since Noah was 6 weeks old so I know that they have a very special bond!!! GOOD NEWS though is that Noah finally did say "Momma" just a couple times over the past couple days and I know that he'll be perfecting that one over the next week or so! Noah is almost 9 months old and he has been VERY busy crawling all over the place.....BACKWARDS!!! It's so funny! When I don't want him to get something that is on the floor I place him so that he is directly looking at it since i know that he will go every direction but forward HAHAHA! No, that is not mean....that is one smart Mommy! Noah is also getting in his 2 top teeth now! OUCH! He's been doing pretty good with them, a little fussy now and again and has been waking up a little in the middle of the night. Not enough to where I have to go in there but i do hear him for a min or so before he falls back asleep! That will make for a total of 4 when they officially break through the skin.
Since it rained this past Saturday we weren't able to make it to the pool so we asked Haley what she wanted to do that day and she chose Barnes and Noble! This girl loves that place and Noah really seemed to enjoy himself this time too!!

Haley is growing up WAAYYY to fast these days! Just the other day we were on our way home from school and she just looked so grown up to me that I had to snap a picture of her with my phone. I am trying to capture and remember every detail of my kids' lives but of course that's impossible....but i can sure try! Haley looks just like my cousin Angie in this picture! Same hair, smile, eyes, skin color, etc! Haley has finished her 2nd round of swimming lessons (total of 10 classes) and she has made amazing progress since the beginning of the summer. She ended her last lesson jumping and diving off the dive platform! Soon she'll be joining the swim team :-)

We had a WONDERFUL and busy week recently!! My brother and sister in law Gary and Mandy went on a cruise for a 8 days and left Macy and Makayla in ATL with my Mom and Melissa!!! Even though Macy and Makayla didn't get to stay at our house this trip we still got to see them and play with them EVERY day that week! It was sooo much fun and all the girls were just loving their quality cousin time! Here are a few pictures from the week! Sorry some are from my phone as I was trying to text them to Gary and Mandy while they gone so they wouldn't miss them too much! Sheryl and Melissa took all 3 girls to the Cabbage Patch House one day and look at these adorable pictures they reported back with!!! I think it was a very successful trip!

Drinking milk on Mimi's bed while she was gone...hehe!

Hide n seek in the cabinets

Bath time!

Making their own pizza for dinner!

We are heading to NC next weekend for Macy & Makayla's 2nd Birthday!!!