Somewhere Called Home: Our little 8 week old & a hospital stay

This is going to be a bit of a long post.... my little guy Harry was admitted to hospital for a few days the weekend following my last post. I'm still quite emotional about it, so I'm hoping writing it down might bring me some peace.

Harry had been sick (along with the big 2) since the Tuesday with a runny nose, so it was nothing to really worry about until Saturday morning when he started projectile vomiting all his feeds. He was working quite hard with his breathing by mid arvo and with that we were getting concerned so I took him to the weekend clinic. The Dr checked Harry out and was a little puzzled as he had a clear chest, had a raspy cough, a temp of 38.5 and you could see his poor little belly working hard and just under his ribs was sucking in as he breathed. He thought it was possible he had croup but wrote us a letter and sent us straight to the hospital. The nurse on the desk begins to triage us and comes around to check Harry out and tells me his chest is clear and it's most likely just a blocked nose. I then get "So this is your first baby?". I snapped back "No, it's my third". I was feeling anxious enough about my almost 8 week old being sent to hospital without her making me feel like I was wasting their time. I know my babies and I know when they need medical attention. Anyway... we were called in almost immediately to the Paediatric side of A&E and the nurse and doctor we had were just wonderful. They were very thorough and sweet and were quite concerned with all of his symptoms. They took blood and inserted an IV in case he needed fluids or medication. It was heartbreaking to watch.

After about an hour the doctor came in and told me that there were inflammatory markers in his blood but that the blood test couldn't tell them where the infection was. She said that she'd spoken with the Paed Dr from upstairs and she wanted further investigations done. I was ok with that, whatever was needed to get my baby better. That was until they told me that further investigations meant a lumbar puncture. That stopped me in my tracks. The positive outlook I had was now gone. The Dr could see how I was feeling and she told me that I obviously had the option to say no but if it were meningitis it was best to know. I don't even remember saying anything, I think I just nodded my head agreeing. She explained the procedure to me and told me that to do it they would take us around to a resuscitation bay as they had all the equipment there and if on the odd chance something did go wrong he was in the best place. At that point I wanted to take my little man and run. My head was spinning and I was feeling terrible that I couldn't protect him from what was to come. As soon as we got into the resus bay I burst into tears. Here was my perfect little man, an IV in his arm and about to have spinal fluid drawn from his back. They weren't going to give him any anesthetic, only sucrose drops (which they had got me to drop into his mouth while they were taking blood etc earlier). I knew it was for the best but it honestly broke my heart. I sat there next to the curtain, fluffing my stuff, organising and reorganising it while they did the procedure. I had the sweetest nurse come in and she tried to get me to go for a walk and have a breather. She knew I wasn't coping and I'd held in my tears pretty well until she told me that I wouldn't be a bad Mum if I needed to have a break and that it was ok to do just that. Not even 5 seconds after she'd finished telling me that, it was all over. Relief swept over me and I immediately went and scooped up my little man and snuggled him so so tight for a while. The next step was to collect his urine. We'd been trying since we'd got into A&E but it just wasn't happening. In the end he had a needle inserted into his bladder to collect some and thank goodness for that it was pretty much the last horrible thing he had done to him.

Left- Just about to do the lumbar puncture. Right - Post lumbar puncture, an exhausted little man.

From there the Paed Doctor came in and told us that Harry was being admitted and that he would be on antibiotics for 48 hours which is when all of the tests would be back. A million thoughts were racing through my head... many that weren't so rational. My hubby had had a procedure done on the Friday so was meant to be resting but was at home with the big 2. So I was concerned for them all that I wasn't there to help but obviously was not going to leave my baby for anything. Hubby was amazing and went from "patient" mode into Daddy mode and I tell you what... he's damn amazing that man.

So before we were taken up to the childrens ward Harry was hooked up to fluids to make sure he stayed hydrated. Once up there his antibiotics were started and my beautiful Mum and brothers brought in clothes etc for me and sat with us until 11pm. Once they left we settled in for the night. Harry was just so exhausted that he slept from 12am until 6.30am. Hubby brought the kids in for the day on Sunday. He's a man that doesn't show a lot of emotion but as soon as he saw Harry with machines beeping and drips/cords attached to him he was quite emotional. It is horrible seeing your baby who is only 8 weeks new so sick and connected to such things. The kids were amazing and I can't believe how fantastic they were with Harry. They asked questions and weren't scared of anything.

Monday came and all the tests were coming back clear which was great. Harry wasn't vomiting as often and it wasn't as forceful as they had been and his temp had come down. It was looking like it was just a very nasty virus and nothing sinister. The IV kept getting blocked though as they had put it in the crease of Harry's arm, so that was taken out Monday arvo. Harry had started tolerating feeds again and we were set to go home on Tuesday morning, they just wanted him to stay one more night to make sure he was doing ok. It was such a relief and it was amazing to see our little guy back smiling again.

Tuesday morning came and I was out of bed like a shot, dressed and packed up, waiting for the Dr to give us the all clear. Around 10am the Dr came in and told us we were free to go as all of the tests were clear. They were the best words ever! I was hanging to get home to my hubby and the big 2!