ER Visit....

Well Ethan had his first emergency room visit.  To make more sense I will start from the beginning....


Monday night, I picked Ethan up from daycare and the daycare lady mentioned that he was really fussy all day, which hasn't been the norm for him at daycare.  I took him home fed him and we snuggled...about an hour and half later he woke up screaming and crying...but not his normal scream or cry.  I also noticed he felt hot so I took his temperature...99.9...okay slight fever..we can handle this. So we took some cool cloths and put them around his wrist and he fell asleep.  He slept 15 minutes here 15 minutes there but not long .... around midnight he was just screaming again...so unhappy.  So I took his temperature...100.1...okay it has gone up but not too much so I tried cooling him off again and he fell asleep again for about 15 minutes.  At 12:30 he started screaming...and I felt him and believe it or not he was hotter then he was at midnight...so I took his temperature..101.4..okay now we are getting high.  So I woke Pete up and he tried to console Ethan and cuddle Ethan while I called the after hours nurse at the hospital.  She said to give him some baby tylenol drops and that should help.  So we did and about 30 minutes later he fell asleep for about 2 hours.  When he woke up he was in normal Ethan self...temperature normal and smiling and kicking his legs :-)



I took him to daycare and the ladies at daycare said they would watch him and make sure his temperature didn't come back.  So I left and came home and started working.  About 10:00 Tuesday morning, Jen, our daycare lady, called me because his temperature was 102. So I quickly went to daycare and picked him up and decided I should take him to the doctor because he could have an ear infection and if he did I need to get some antibiotics.  We got to the doctors office and they tested him for an ear infection and a cold and both came back normal.  The doctor said that because he is under 3 months of age that a temperature that high is dangerous and they need to find out the reason so they were going to walk us over to the emergency room where they would do more tests.  They asked me if I needed to call someone to be with me at the er...I told them no I should be okay.



We get to the ER and they take his temperature and it is back down to 99.9 and take his little blood pressure and everything and everything comes back normal.  They then tell me they really need to find the source of the fever and why it is spiking so much so they were going to do a chest xray, ultrasound, take blood, and put a catheter in so they can get some urine...once I heard what they were doing I realized I needed someone there...I called Pete and he said he would finish what he was doing and then head to the office, change his clothes, and head home.  In the meantime, our friend Sarah came and sat with me in the hospital.  First thing they did was put the catheter in to get some urine...Ethan just screamed and cried...I knew he was in pain but I couldn't fix it! Once they got some urine they removed the catheter and then let me pick him up...so I picked him up and sang to him and just held him close to me and he calmed down...about 5 minutes later they took his blood...they had to lay him on the hospital bed and one nurse held his arm while the other took the blood--they had to take blood from both arm...Ethan screamed and cried ... and I shed tears as well because my baby boy was hurting and mama couldn't fix him :-(  After they drew the blood I picked him up and cuddled him close to me and just held him and he cried for a little bit and then calmed down and started to fall asleep. 




About 15 minutes later the nurse came to take us to do his ultrasound and xray.  We did the xray of his chest because back in December, Pete became very sick with pneumonia, and they wanted to make sure I wasn't carrying some pneumonia and transporting it to Ethan.  Luckily, his chest xrays and ultrasound came back normal.  They decided that because all his tests came back normal, they were going to give him a shot of antibiotics and let us take him home, but we had to do a follow up with the doctor the next day.  Luckily, Pete had gotten there right after the chest xray and ultrasound so he was able to help me try to calm Ethan down while he got the shot of antibiotics.  Then Pete picked him up and he cuddled right up to his daddy and fell asleep in the hospital room. 



Our follow up appointment with the doctor went well...looks like he just had a virus...I'm sure this is the first of many sicknesses to come and glad that the staff at the hospital took his fever serious...you never know what could happen with your sweet precious child.



Here is a picture i took of Ethan and Pete in the hospital...someone was very happy to see their daddy and just fell right asleep in his arms.  (Not to mention, I was soooooo happy to see him!)

Back to Work..Busy Week!

Well Monday was my first day back to work.  Since I had a c-section I took 8 weeks off of work.  Ethan's daycare is only about 4-5 blocks from the house so that is very nice. 



Monday started off awful! Ethan and I both fell back asleep after my alarm went off about 7:00.  My sister called us at 7:49 am to see how dropping Ethan off at daycare was...well needless to say, THANK YOU MELISSA for calling because that woke up me up.  I quickly changed Ethan and put him in some clothes for the day and drove to daycare.  On the short drive to daycare Ethan was making lots of noises so I just talked with him...I love his littles coos :-) When we got to daycare I was still doing really good...happy about the thought of going back to work and Ethan making friends at daycare.  As I was talking with the daycare ladies in the infant room ... 2 other babies started to cry and as those 2 babies cried it hit me...I wouldn't be there to comfort him when he cries during the day! What is he going to do! I tried very hard to fight back the tears, but low and behold, I started crying.  The day care ladies were so comforting...assuring me it was absolutely normal to cry on the first day because he is your baby and this is your first full day apart etc etc etc....  By the time I got home from dropping him off...I was 5 minutes late to work...5 minutes late on my first day back! ei yi yi yi!!!



I had to run up to the daycare on my lunch break to bring more breastmilk because since I just recently started pumping I'm not producing a ton of pumped milk for Ethan and when I went up there he was sleeping so i didn't bother him :-).  We are now on day 4 of daycare and he is doing awesome! The ladies at the daycare love him and he seems to be doing really good. 



On Tuesday night, Ethan and I went with Great Grandpa Wally to Elkhorn to his sister Helen's house to see my second cousin Allison and her baby girl Ava.  Ava was born about a week before Melissa's baby was born so she is about 4 months old.  It was so fun seeing her with a baby! Allison's sister also had a baby so the 4 of us cousins had babies all at the same time...Allison had her little girl first, then Melissa had Elizabeth, Jennifer had a little girl, and then I ended the "Cousin Baby Boom" with Ethan...I was the only one that had a little boy!

Cousins

Melissa had a little girl in March...so Ethan has a little cousin name Elizabeth Rose that is exactly 2 months older then him.  They are so much fun! Here a few pictures of the two of them!

Ethan Ayer Casarotto

May 15-19.......

..... Was the longest few days of my life! On Tuesday May 15, we went in for a scheduled induction at 8 at night. We were excited That we would hopefully have a baby the next day....we had so many emotions that we could barely sleep! They started me on the potosin shortly after I arrived. Wednesday morning I woke up excited that I was going to be a mom that day! (now before this induction we were about 85% effaced and 2 cm dilated) because of the progress I was making my doctor had told us that she thought we would have a baby by Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday afternoon came and gone...I am still laying in the hospital bed ...still only about 2 cm dilated ...and now it is 5:00 pm on Wednesday! Still no baby and I am starving ... Becuz when you get induced you can't eat much...except jello and chicken broth...so I am crabby and hungry....about 7:00 we still had no progress so the doctor said lets stop the potosin and let me eat. So they stopped the potosin and let me have toast and ice cream :). Then they had me take a shower ..THEN our hospital has a room that has a queen size bed in it ...so they let Pete and I sleep in that room that night so we could sleep next to each other...they still checked me multiple times in the night....by 7:00 am I still had no progress ..but they decided to start all over again...so we started the potosin...by 3 that same day...I STILL had no progress and they were mentioning that maybe they would send me home. We were so upset! Dr.beckenhauer came in about 5:30 and said that because I have had no progress and because they can not give me more potosin..because it would be a dangerous level...that they were sending me home. We were crushed, sad, mad...so many emotions!! The doctor told us to go home and try to put me in labor...eat Mexican food, drive on bumpy roads, go for walks, etc.... This brings us to Friday. Friday morning I was having contractions but nothing serious. I went to fremont with my mom to have lunch with my dad and grandpa. On the way to Fremont I had 2 strong contractions but kept going to Fremont. While at lunch, at Gringos, I again had a few strong contractions. After lunch my mom took me back to Blair and the doctor had called asking me to go get a ultrasound becuz they were worried about the size of the baby. At the ultrasound they determined that the baby was looking about 9.2 lbs give or take a few lbs either way. So then we went to the doctors office to discuss what we just found out. Dr.beckenhauer really wanted me to have a natural birth, but because of the amount of potosin I had in the past 48 hours my options were limited. We decided I would come back to the hospital a 7 that night and be induced again...however...I had 12 hours to have that baby otherwise I would have a c section. So mom and I went home to prepare for me to come back ...about an hour and half after being home my contractions were painful and stronger and I had the urge to push...so my mom took me back to the hospital ...and I was admitted...YEA I PUT MYSELF IN LABOR!! My mom stayed with me until Pete got there. My contractions were getting stronger and stronger so about 1030 I got my epidural and fell asleep. They woke me up about 2am on Saturday May 19 and I started pushing...after 2hours of pushing they had me take a break because they didn't want too much stress on the baby. Then they woke me up again about 745...I pushed for another 2 hrs...about an hour and half into the second round of pushing it was determined that we had to try to use the vacuum to get the baby out. After trying twice with the vacuum it was determined that the baby was stressed and we had to do an emergency c section. I was so upset ...I wanted to so badly have this baby naturally! They prepped me for the c section and had Pete change into scrubs then took us to the surgery room. At 1036 am on May 19... We became the luckiest people in the world....we became parents to a healthy 8lbs 9oz perfect little boy!! Ethan Ayer Casarotto was here!! Pictures to come on the next blog.....