EthanEthanIt's been a tough couple of weeks. Ethan had his first hospital stay since he was born, and it was traumatic. Well, it was traumatic for Jenny and I, Ethan seemed fine. He was diagnosed with RSV. We actually went to the emergency room on the day the Packers lost to the Rams in the playoffs (which didn't add to the joy that day), but they sent him home after about 3 hours saying we should just give him Tylenol and go see his doctor in a couple of days. Well, we went to see his doctor on the Tuesday following and they observed that he was breathing about 95 times a minute, which is about 60 times too many. Odd how they didn't pick up on that in the emergency room. Anyway, he was admitted to the hospital in Waukesha where we stayed for four days and three nights. Ethan did well there. He had to wear an oxygen mask which he didn't like too much at all, and he had to have Albuteral treatments every 2-4 hours. A series of miscommunications made it so that we had to stay even longer. One night a nurse decided that he didn't have to be on oxygen and didn't need treatments, so he reverted the next day to breathing 70-80 times a minute. Back on the oxygen!!! On Friday (we'd been there since Tuesday), our doctor had off, so she passed us off on one of her partners who decided to go in an entirely different direction than we'd been going. The entire time, Ethan's oxygen saturation level had been consistent, it was only his respirations that were keeping us in the hospital. On Friday, his respirations were down to an acceptable level, but this new doctor didn't like the saturation level... Oh well, I guess we got to finally go home that day with an at-home nebulizer kit, but it was hectic to say the least.
The next week, Ethan's Grandma Grady came down and took care of him as he
couldn't go to daycare for the week. He really loves his Grandma, and she
did a really nice job of getting Ethan back on a schedule and eating
again. Of course, we had to take him to daycare this week again, and now
he's all off the charts again... It's a mixed bag to be sure (daycare,
that is).
Other than the sickness, Ethan is doing very well. He lost two pounds while he was sick, and you can definitely tell the difference. He's much trimmer, but doesn't look small at all. He's gotten much more proficient at crawling and pulling himself up on the furniture. Soon he will be able to catch Barley, and I won't feel sorry for Barley one bit. He's started to say "dada" all the time now. Of course, he says it to me, to Jenny, to strangers... In short, I'm pretty sure he doesn't know what the word means, but he says it.
No new teeth yet, but the two front teeth on the top are just begging to come out. So much so that the gums have kind of swollen to the point where if the teeth don't break through soon, we may need to have a doctor look at them. They have been pretty sore in the past couple of weeks, but seem to be better this week. Hopefully that means that the teeth will pop out soon.
Ethan's latest development is his dancing. He doesn't do it all the time, but often when we play music with him or play with his piano toy, he will bounce up and down and smile really big. It is very cute. I'll get it on tape and show anybody that's interested.
That's about it for now. I'll write back with more interesting developments as well as a report from the swimming pool in the weeks to come (Ethan is taking swimming lessons and loves them). Check back soon.
