Unwanted Houseguest

The mammoth has been showing up uninvited.

Creeps into the cave around the same time each night.

He's big and unstoppable. He presses against swollen, red peices of gum and ravages Jackson's throat.

Yesterday, it prompted me to take him to the doctor. And maybe I'm crazy to run to the doctor when we all know it's teething but please understand I have never seen our child like this. Not once in the last 14 months has he ever writhed in pain, cried nonstop and drooled like a fish.

We medicated. We iced. We soothed. We watered.
We sang. We rocked. We walked. We Orajel-ed. We cuddled.

We did it all. And still the misery.


Nothing could make it better, except for random snatches of time where we rocked and patted. And only then would he settle for three maybe four minutes before starting all over again.

Finally, he cried himself to exhaustion. His voice hoarse from cries. He slept for two hours. And then Eric took the next shift. But still those cries come piercing into the part of my brain right behind my eyebrows.

This morning I let him sleep until he woke up. He was not a happy boy but not miserable. We got ready for school and played a bit. No longer writhing, we went to the local drug store for teething tablets.

I've heard from fellow mothers that these are the best way to tame the mammoths.

The miserable molars.

Get out of my cave.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Grace

The boys say the best graces before dinner.  Yes, the boys. We have multiple graces at our mealtimes. Everyone wants a turn. Sometimes they are sing song, sometimes they are short and silly and sometimes they will melt your heart. The other day, Jackson was mid-grace and thankful for food and family and force fields. Yes, he ended his grace by asking if God could put a force field around our loved ones. I'm hope God is a Star Wars fan.
Read more

Eli Fletcher Copley

Things can change in an instant. Our baby boy was born Nov 9 at 10:35. He weighed 7 pounds and 13 ounces. He arrived three weeks early. But appeared to have enough poundage for a safe delivery. He arrived with quite a healthy cry. His healthy cry gave everyone a sigh of relief. We were thrilled to hear those healthy sounds. Eric stayed with him while the doctor finished my surgery. We would all meet up in the recovery room. When I was wheeled in to the recovery room, no one was there. I was told Eli had to be taken to the special care nursery because he had started grunting to get the fluid out of his lungs. Everyone remained positive. After an hour the nurses came back to explain he was not absorbing the oxygen he was receiving and they bumped his intake. Eventually they would put him on a cpap. He was taken to the NICU. By the end of the night he was put on a ventilator. Things can change in an instant. That night he was monitored and it appeared he was going to be able to be weaned
Read more

Saturday

Eli's numbers, machines, blood gases, pulse ox and oxygen rate have had no change. We have been told this is a good thing. While there have been no major improvements...there have been no further deteriorations. This is how we get closer to stable. The long term goal is to get him stable and then eventually wean him off his numerous medications and machines. But for now, we focus on the fact that his information stayed the same throughout the night. It is difficult to see him like this. Every time we visit him we want to scoop him up into our arms. It is impossible to believe that I have yet to hold my baby. But I know he is where he needs to be. Those machines are tiny miracles. The nitric oxide is our miracle. We have even heard the NICU nurses refer to Eli as The Nitric Baby. So far it appears as though the nitric is working to relax his artery. Our happiest moment came early this morning when we learned they had decided to start giving him small feeds of breast milk. We would
Read more