A mother's day present

Barf. This evening. I kid you not.

And I suppose I should add diarrhea from Friday and Saturday. Winston has been sick (see previous post). He seemed ok since yesterday, so he went to school today, while I stayed home sick. Got the call from daycare that the diarrhea was back. No sooner was he home than he barfed all over the both of us and the living room rug.

Now that we both have showered and are sitting here watching Nemo together, I realize that this whole recent sickness was really my mothers day present. For only a mom can be drenched in vomit and be soley focused on their child. I scooped Winston up and rushed into the bathroom, did an initial clean-up and made sure he was ok before I realized that I had vomit in between my toes. But it didn't matter. Now, that's the real gift. I am indeed a mom. For that I am most thankful. Vomit and all.

I am not being sarcastic. I am serious. It's the times like this when I have perfect clarity and all the stresses of work, etc slip away. My child is sick and all that matters is how I can protect him and make him well and feel better. I need to remember to thank Winston for making me a mommy (and Jay too ((wink))). It shouldn't take vomit to remind me. :-|

Our latest illness and a milestone

Winston was super clingy last night and seemed super tired. But didn't get to bed and sleep until about 9:30. Then he was up at 6:45. Seemed really sad. Even had circles under his eyes.

I took his temp (in his ear) - 99 in one ear, 100.4 in the other ear. An hour later 98.x in both. Odd, yes? He wouldn't eat or drink anything this morning, although he did request it.

Then twice he cries out "OWIE!" in a sharp, shrill voice. First time tells us that the owie is in his lower back. DH massages the spot, gives cuddles, all is fine. Until the next time abotu 15 minutes later. Again, "OWIE!" but it's his tummy (lower right side) and he sort of bent over. He climbed onto my lap and just clung to me, sort of panting. Freaked me out to say the least. Then about 5 minutes later he's fine. Happy even.

We get in the car and he goes right to sleep. Drop-off at school was fine and he seemed ok. But I am worried. A coworker says it sounds like a kidney infection or maybe urinary tract infection. All morning I am thinking, "What could be up w/Winston? "

Around noon I call daycare to check on him. They said that Winston was super quiet and didn't eat but two bites of food. Fever 100 exactly. No further tummy/back owies, but he's "just not himself."

They were going to try and get him down for a nap and then I planned to pick him eary. Unless fever spiked before that, in which case I would get him immediately. If anything seems weird we are going straight to the pedi.

But I can't wait. So I call the pedi. Pedi wants to see him asap. So off we go.

Fast forward thru the pedi appt .....

Pedi says that there's a gastro-intestinal virus going around and Winston appears to have the start of it. She was concerned that some of his "owies" are in his back, so if his fever spikes we need to take him in. It could be a kidney infection. Otherwise, we just keep him hydrated and try to get him to eat.

He was sleeping when I got to daycare and I just scooped him up and headed out. He was so hot to the touch that he burned my skin. But when we got to the pedi his fever was fine. He was also hot to the touch to the pedi. To the point that she double-checked what the nurse wrote down. Pedi says she expects the fever is on it's way up. Faaabulous.

Anyhow, we are home. He had another owie incident, even said that the owie was 'scawweee: (scary). Shortly thereafter he had some diarhea. Looks like the virus is really here. In any case, we are camped out on the couch. Winston is eating popsicles and watching Elmo.

So there's the latest. And the big milestone? This is the first illness/pain incident when Winston could actually tell us where it hurts. That's a big one!

Winston's 18-Month Well-Baby Appointment

I guess we need to start referring to it as his "well-toddler" or "well-child" appointment. Anyway ......

We had a great, great appointment this morning! Winston was in wonderful spirits and the (new) pediatrician we saw was supportive, helpful and overall just lovely.

Here are the stats:
Weight: 22 lbs, 4 oz - 10th percentile (this is huge as he fell off the curve at 12 mos, was at 5% at 15 mos)
Height: 31.5" - 25th percentile
Head: 48cm - 50th percentile

He's also in good shape with the number of words he's saying (almost 50 now -- see the full list on the right column), all gross and fine motor function dvelopment, etc. Now, if we could just get him to eat his veggies. :-)

Next appt in 6 mos. Wow!