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2006-10-12 - 11.56pm previous entry next entry
Starting_to_improve_at_LAST_-_yay!
Oh thank you all SO much for the lovely messages!!! I feel so supported and uplifted here :) Thank you!
We are doing okay. Matthew, Neil and I are still well, thank goodness! Arthur seems to be improving today, at LAST, and I don't need to tell you how relieved I am! He has been so poorly. He hasn't vomited since my last diary entry though, which is really something! On Tuesday I am sure he would have if we hadn't been very careful with the volume and frequency of his fluids all that day. Wednesday we were just as careful (and I asked my GP for advice as I took Matthew to see her about his nappy rash AGAIN), and today is Thursday. I started taking photos for some crazy reason on Monday, so here is my poor little boy's week in pictures:
Monday, around noon:
Two hours later:
Another two hours later:
Tuesday:
Wednesday afternoon:
Thursday morning (today):
Thursday afternoon:
I have NO idea why I go around taking photos of poor sick children! ;) But you know with Arthur I just can't help whipping the camera out at every experience he has in life. *sigh* Anyway, he was just sooooooo weak by Wednesday but I gave him 4 swallows of breastmilk as often as possible, unless he asked for water instead. He napped a lot so he didn't get fluids then, of course. The last two nights I have given up my sleep (literally!) to make sure I breastfeed Arthur on demand during the night (as well as Matthew) so that he gets every possible opportunity to get some nourishment and fluids into him. The first night he woke hourly through the evening asking for milk, and then twice in the night, and the next night he woke less during the evening.
This morning he seemed a little less pale and hollow and his eyes looked less sunken to me (they were sunken with dehydration before, poor lovey), but he was still very quiet and seemed uncomfy and stuff. He can't walk or even stand. He tried twice today and just cried as he tried to push onto his legs to get upright. I had to rescue him both times. I think that his legs just must feel wobbly and he is scared or upset by the feeling.
Today Neil went back to work and I was nervous about getting through the day with Arthur still poorly. I am so proud of what I've achieved though, although I am EXHAUSTED for it. I have breastfed Arthur 8 swallows of milk EVERY FIVE MINUTES throughout the day, except for only two short naps! Wow. I have sat with him on the sofa or lay with him in bed most of the day, and Matthew has either been napping or in the bouncy chair nearby, or rolling on the mat. Matthew is just as good as gold. I am so proud of him. He seems to know something is wrong with Arthur. He stops all his happy playful activity and just watches us very still and intently while Arthur is crying or being sick or something. Anyway, when Matthew has needed feeding, I have washed myself thoroughly with soap and then fed him. I don't care if it dries me out, that's what Lansinoh cream is for :) Then I continue nursing Arthur every five minutes till Matthew needs another feed. Eight swallows (more than that at bedtime!) isn't much but he's tolerating it well and when you add all those 5-minutely feeds up, I think he has probably gotten quite good nutrition today all in all, so I'm thrilled to have been able to provide that for him before he's even able to take solid food. I can't imagine not breastfeeding him at a time like this. I keep thinking, what on earth would I do if he was only on water for alllll those weak and wasting-away days?! I mean, he'd get through it and be thin and then put on weight again afterwards, but still. He's so hungry all the time. I'm just relieved to know that breastmilk will satisfy his tummy when he's hungry but can't eat food yet. This illness has strengthened my resolve to continue breastfeeding Arthur as long as possible, all the more. It's SUCH a valuable thing for a toddler to have, especially when they go through all these illnesses that are bound to happen. Anyway, I do not know what we would have done without breastmilk this week! I'm very grateful for it :)
This afternoon Arthur seemed a bit more bored (always a good sign) watching Teletubbies and A Bug's Life and his other favourite things. So I asked if he would like his Mega Bloks on the sofa to play with. He looked eager and said yes so I got them. He put a few together and then they wouldn't stand up on the sofa so he threw them weakly to the floor and cried :( He did poke about with his Stickle Bricks a bit later though, but he didn't have much interest or strength. He started to take much more active interest in the things he was watching on TV. He would point excitedly to things and name them, and started telling me colours of things again - what a wonderful relief to hear him say normal Arthur things again! The best part came when I was changing Matthew's nappy and started blowing raspberries on his almost-edible little tummy. Arthur can never resist a farting sound, and after a while I became aware of this odd little catching-breath sound from the sofa. I looked up and there he was peeping down at us on the floor, the weakest smile I ever saw on his face, given that Arthur's smiles are usually sooooo huge! And it sounded like his laughing muscles were just exhausted because he was trying to give a little chuckle at the sound I was making, but it was just coming out like a short breath and a catch. But a LAUGH all the same!! Music to a worried mama's ears!
Later on, he was watching CBeebies and the presenters had a line of stuffed animals on a table, and there were real animal sounds being played so they could match the sound to the stuffed animal it went with. There was a lion and a monkey, amongst others. They played a real lion's roar, or growl, and you know how a real lion's growl can sound rather... parply? Well it was quite a sudden loud sound, and suddenly I heard the same little breath-catch sound from the sofa, and when I looked, Arthur was grinning at the TV with an actual glint of mischief in his eye (how lovely to see!), and he did a few of these gaspy catchy sounds, and then turned to me and said, "Monkey, fart!" (how funny, he thought the sound was actually the one that went with the monkey - a fart, haha!) and then did a real Arthur giggle :) Weak, but still the real thing! And he didn't stop laughing about it for 10 minutes into the next children's programme - keeping on stopping to look at me and say, "Monkey, fart!" and giggling all over again :)
I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO relieved to see my little boy emerging from such a yucky time at last!
Tomorrow we start food again and I have lovingly (!!) pureed an apple tonight which is ready in the fridge for warming up tomorrow. We are doing the BRAT diet (thanks Jemma for the advice!) - bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast for a couple of days, with plenty of breastmilk of course, and if he tolerates that then we'll be back onto normal food by Sunday. Phew! I have bananas, a sliced loaf of bread JUST for Arthur, and rice ready and waiting. One good thing to dome from this horrible bug is the opportunity for Arthur to be completely starting from scratch with his food again. It's like weaning him onto solids all over again, but without it having to take so long between stages. Very helpful, since he was pretty much refusing anything but baked beans, raisins and cereal bars before he got ill. Urgh. Now that he's starting afresh, after he's well and off the BRAT diet, I plan to offer him a wide variety of homecooked meals, whether he eats them or not at first. I don't plan to offer him ANYTHING that he was eating before, so we could be in for a rocky start as I'm sure he's at an age where he'll basically reject what he isn't used to. But I am determined to get him used to a varied and healthy diet, and I don't plan to give in if he refused to eat. I think it MIGHT mean I end up just breastfeeding him a LOT, but I won't offer him the breast much outside of naps and bedtime (and first thing in the morning), so he'll have to get hungry if he won't eat any meals. I will never force him to eat what's in front of him, EVER. But things need to change, and this seems like the perfect springboard for action.
Tonight before bed, Arthur was acting more like himself every hour that passed. By the time Neil was home from work, Arthur was happily playing with all his toy cars and emergency vehicles on the sofa, sorting them and shouting out their names with great excitement. He held them out to Neil when he came in the door, all excited and smiley, and Neil was so happy to see him looking better. He is so much thinner than he was, and I can feel his spine so sharp and bony all down his back. He is leaving a lot of "brick-dust residue" in his nappies which means he really has been dehydrated - that's his kidneys flushing out the impurities that it didn't have the fluid to flush before. Or something like that. Anyway, he is still getting that every nappy I change, but I know he's improving, and he has certainly had good fluid intake today. His lips cracked and peeled yesterday and the last of that came off today, and now he no longer looks dry around his mouth, which is good.
I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday and it's nearly weekend again! I can't wait to get a bit more sleep and help Arthur get back to normal. He still can't stand up, let alone walk, but I'm sure his strength will return as he takes more in. This evening I found that he can't sit up on the carpet without me sitting behind him - he gets wobbly and whimpers like he's anxious, and so I sit behind him so he can lean on me and then he plays happily. But I have high hopes that he'll feel stronger in the morning. I meant to only give him 8 swallows of milk again at bedtime, but I got distracted listening to Neil putting Matthew to bed after I latched Arthur on in his bed, and COMPLETELY forgot I was nursing! So then suddenly I realised I had been nursing Arthur for 5 minutes straight - a LOT more than 8 swallows, hehe! - and got worried that it would be too much for his tummy. Well he was fine, and seemed rather pleased to have had all that milk :) So I'm sure he'll improve more tomorrow. He will still be considered infectious as far as I'm concerned though. They say 48 hours AFTER vomiting and diarrhoea have stopped, but he hasn't vomited since Monday, so that would have meant yesterday for Arthur. Which is crazy because he was so obviously still ill yesterday. I know he would have still been vomiting if we hadn't been carefully controlling his intake, maybe even up until this morning, since I know he still had nausea this morning. So I think it's safest to consider it 48 hours after SYMPTOMS go, including feeling ill and nauseous. Better safe than sorry with nasty things like tummy bugs. Sunday I think we could go places without a risk of infecting anyone else, but I can't say I'll want a big drooly kiss on the lips from him that day! Monday, maybe ;)
Anyway. Matthew stirs, so I must go. I have pictures of Matthew to post sometime. I just love my boys SOOOOO much. Thank you for all the concern for Arthur and well wishes and prayers! It has meant so much to me. I'm so glad he's getting better! There seem to be a LOT of tummy bugs out there this season (urgh) so I hope he won't just stroll on back into playgroup and come down with another one right away. That would double suck. Personally, I'd be happy to NEVER set foot in another childcare establishment, haha! But that would be silly, and of course we MUST because Arthur needs to be around other kids for a million different reasons. So we will go back. I just hope this immune-strengthening stage hurries up and seems to pass quickly somehow! And that we don't catch much of what the boys get. I'm SO beyond thankful that Matthew didn't catch this one. Although of course we're not quite out of the woods yet. I am still praying that we'll stay free of it.
Okay, must go. Will update again soon!
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