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2006-04-03 - 9.50pm previous entry next entry
Just a quick update...
Thank you so much for the messages and the prayers! I appreciate them so much!
Just thought I would snatch my first chance to write a quick update on how things are going.
We are getting a courtesy car from the insurance people which is going to be delivered HERE tomorrow. Nice for me, as I will be able to put Arthur's car seat in it and use it, but it does leave Neil stranded in the north of England! He will have to get the train or a coach home, or hopefully his brother or sister will be leaving the day he's hoping to and won't mind bringing him the extra distance home. I don't know what will happen to our car yet, we're still waiting to find out.
Neil has come down with Arthur's lurgy and is really poorly :( He sounded terrible on the phone. He had been to the viewing of his dad's body and seemed at peace about that. I just hope this virus doesn't spread all through his family over the next couple of days leading up to the funeral. It seems to be a nasty one, very flu-like. Baby Ella is there with them. She is 9 months old and I desperately don't want her to catch it. Neil also seems to be showing signs of some neck and back trouble since the car crash :( I hope it won't be a major issue for him and that he'll feel better soon.
Arthur had a terrible night. He slept for blocks of 40 minutes at the longest, and just 2 or 3 minutes at the shortest. His fever sat around 102 all night and I dosed him with the right medicine and stripped him right off to just his nappy and no covers, and nothing seemed to make any difference to his fever. I just felt so scared and alone all night, because I didn't know if it was okay that he was still feverish or what I should be doing. I was up googling several times in the middle of the night between Arthur's wakings, and the websites I found reassured me a lot. I just didn't understand why the methods I was using weren't working at all. I tried the tepid sponging thing too but he reacted like he was terrified of the cloth whenever I approached him with it and I couldn't get it near him. Poor Arthur was so miserable all night and cried such a lot, no matter what I did. He signed for milk a lot so I offered him the breast frequently, but every time he latched on he immediately gagged, gave me a frightened look, and cried inconsolably :( I just felt like there was nothing at all I could do for him, and it was a horrible way to feel. I had him in bed next to me and just spent the night stroking his back and medicating him and wiping his nose, etc. The fan is in the loft and I didn't feel safe to climb the ladder with my huge bump to get it, so I sometimes fanned him with a damp facecloth, and other times I wet my hands and then stroked his back with them, which he seemed to tolerate okay. None of it made any difference to his fever though.
He slept two one-hour blocks from about 3.30-4.30am and 5-6am, so that was the sleep I got as well. I'm just glad I got SOME sleep, but I'm exhausted today. Poor Arthur was still just as poorly when he got up for the day sometime between 6 and 7am. His temperature was still 102, which slightly worried me since it was morning and they say fevers are at their lowest in the morning.
He's awake and coughing, back in a minute.
He has such a bad cough at the moment, poor love. It's that kind that when I hear it, I know it hurts like red hot needles stabbing your chest every time you cough or take a deep breath. Urgh. I have had enough of those to know just by how he sounds when he coughs. Also he cries like he is in pain every time he coughs, which makes him cough more and that makes him cry harder. How I wish I could just make him better instantly! I feel so bad for him.
Anyway, where was I? Oh, so his temperature wouldn't come down even in the morning with Calpol. I had used up all the Calpol quota for the next few hours and just didn't know what to do, so I phoned my parents and Neil and the doctor, and tried to get Arthur to drink some cool fluids. He has pretty much refused to drink most of the day, but he has picked up a bit this evening. He isn't peeing well, but he is still making his nappies damp to the touch after a few hours, so it could be worse. He hasn't eaten breakfast, lunch or tea today :( He has picked at some raisins and fed himself half a yoghurt, but that's it really. I have made a zillion foods available to him throughout the day but to no avail. I know it's normal with a fever and I don't need to worry, but it's still hard not to, somehow! Hopefully he'll feel more like food tomorrow. He doesn't seem poorly in his tummy, just off his food. He is farting a lot though, and they smell terrible! Poor poor baby.
So he had an hour of solid sleep for his nap today, which is a relief, and I napped curled up around him. He isn't gagging on the breast anymore which is also wonderful, but I just WISH more than ever that I still had milk! There is a little colostrum but it's still clear and not golden yet, so not the proper stuff yet.
He went to bed on time and slept over an hour before waking, and he sounded peacefully asleep during that time, so that was another big relief. It's just this cough that wakes him and then he's choking on goo and crying with pain and hard to console. I am breastfeeding him absolutely on demand though. He really needs the comfort. Just now when I went in, he was half back to sleep already but he was signing milk frantically with his eyes closed, bless his heart! He just knows he feels horrible and wants the most comforting thing he can think of, even if he's half asleep. He was asleep before I could even get in next to him to nurse him.
I found out I can give him more Calpol (the dose size, that is) than I have been giving him, now that he's in the age 1-6 category. So I've started giving him 7.5mls each dose (he can have up to 10mls) instead of 5mls and that seems to have dramatically improved his fever and symptoms. Perhaps he just wasn't getting a high enough dose to help him properly before? His fever came down to normal this afternoon and has stayed down, though it's hovering just slightly above normal at the moment, but evening would be the peak time anyway. I could have cried with relief to kiss his forehead and feel that it was a normal temperature! I have hated feeling him so hot. I know it has only been a day and a night but it feels like forever. I feel like I can't remember when he was healthy, it's weird.
Well, I should stop now. It's 9.40pm and I have to eat something. Last night I didn't eat till 10.30 because Arthur just woke too frequently for me to make any food or sit down to eat it before then. I have been sneezing and having to blow my nose a lot this afternoon and evening, but I am just taking my high-dose Vitamin C and hoping and praying that I'll throw it off or else just have it mildly! I thought Arthur just had some cold badly, but Neil seems so knocked sideways with fluey symptoms and not being able to eat or relieve his headache/congestion, etc, that I am wondering if it's just how this virus is, and if it IS then I don't know how I'll manage looking after Arthur if I get it that badly. Urgh.
Thankfully my parents ARE coming, though my dad is poorly and infectious - my grandparents told them to come anyway and they'll take the risk. His doctor told him he has a fluey thing that has been going around the little town they live in. I just hope we don't swap or mix germs during their visit! Mummy seems well at the moment. She will be here tomorrow, probably from mid-morning, to help me with Arthur. I am SO thankful, and so relieved that she will be around. It has only been a day or two but I feel insecure and lonely already. I think it wouldn't be like that if Arthur was well, but anyway.
Oh, in true Arthur-style, he is cutting teeth. He does that such a lot when he also has a cold! Someone suggested perhaps that's actually why he GETS the colds at those times, because teething has him run down and more vulnerable to catching things. It makes sense to me, especially now that it's happened again. He is getting that fourth bottom front middle one, his tenth tooth. It's almost visible through the gum this evening, and I did notice that his whole gum on that side at the bottom was puffy and squidgy and swollen right up when I put Bonjela on it today and in the night :( Poor Boo. Perhaps that's why he has had such a fever - the combination of bad teething and a nasty cold? Anyway. I think he is also working on more molars, which doesn't help.
Okay I need to eat something and go to bed in case a) it's another wakeful night with Arthur, and b) I am coming down with the lurgy. I just hope soooooooo much that my little man is feeling better in the morning, and has his usual smiles for me (sadly missing for what feels like forever already!) and eagerly eats his breakfast. I can't wait for the joy of seeing him healthy and happy again. I love him so so so so much.
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