Crosby's Trip to the E.R.

I'll start with saying HE'S FINE!

But I did have a scare on Monday, so for my record, here's what happened...

Things were going fine. Crosby took a morning nap, then as soon as he woke up we all went out to run some errands. We came home and Alexee took her nap then Crosby took another nap. When he woke up he was in his usual happy mood and laughed and laughed as Rhett and Alexee splashed him from the bathtub (they'd been running in the sprinkler, so they came in and hopped in the tub). Then we went upstairs to get dry clothes for R & A, so I shut the baby gate and I was putting some things away in C's room. He was just walking around and playing. Then I noticed him coming out of Rhett's room and he seemed to kind of stumble and sit down, then he started crying and didn't want to get up. From that point on he was fussy and wanted me to hold him. We went in the playroom and then I started noticing that he was making an unusual grunting noise every time he exhaled. He didn't want to stand up--he kept rolling around in the floor. I'd stand him up and he'd just sit right back down. It seemed to me like his heart was beating faster than normal, but I don't know if that was my imagination. Then I noticed his eyes started looking sleepy which worried me because he'd had a good nap and hadn't been awake long at all. So then I started scaring myself. (This was around 4:30-4:45). I had R & A follow me over to my neighbor's house to see if she thought he sounded strange. The grunting seemed to be getting worse, and the thought crossed my mind that maybe he'd been playing in Rhett's room and swallowed a coin or something. I thought maybe it was causing the grunting sound. So around 5:45 I decided to take him to Children's Hospital. Rhett was playing outside and when I went to get him our sweet neighbor offered to keep the older two kiddos for me (Lane wasn't home yet). I put C in the car and off we went to the ER--fast! I left in such a hurry that I forgot to get a clean outfit for him--so he went in only a diaper.

The timing worked out for Lane to meet us in the hospital parking lot and go in with us. Everyone at the hospital was so nice and helpful. They checked us in quickly and took him for an x-ray. He had to sit in a little clear plastic thing to hold him still. It held his arms straight and it really upset him (and me). They said that him crying was actually helpful in getting a good image. Nothing showed up on the x-ray though, so they took us back to a room and took his temperature and started checking other things. By that time his temp was 103...I don't think he had any fever at all when we left the house or even when we got checked in. He didn't even feel warm to me until that point. They did a strep test, which was negative, and looked in his ears. The doctor said his right ear looked a little bit red. They gave him Motrin and kept us for a while to see if his fever went down. It did, and he stopped grunting. They said that the grunting could have just been a reaction to the pain. I wonder if he had a virus that just happened to hit at the same time as his ear trouble? Maybe not, but since he got tubes in his ears they have drained once and he didn't even seemed bothered by them then. I don't know, but I was just very relieved that it was nothing more serious. We left the ER around 9:00 I think, and went by Walgreens to drop off an antibiotic prescription. Lane had gone home a little earlier to get R & A at the neighbor's house. They'd had a blast jumping on the trampoline and playing, but when I went to check on them in their beds they both asked how Crosby was doing.

He felt so bad and he was so tired. He was able to fall asleep on my shoulder even though he was so hot from his fever. We were both sweating. I held him on my shoulder for almost the whole time we were there. He'd get upset if I tried to move him, so I did my best to keep him comfortable so he could get some rest.

I slept in his room Monday night so I could be sure I'd hear him. He only woke up once, around 3:30 a.m., but he was able to go right back to sleep after I gave him Tylenol. His fever was back up to 102.4 then. Tuesday morning he still didn't feel great, but he was better, and by Tuesday evening he seemed to be back to his happy self. I'm grateful that it was just an ear infection and/or virus. If he'd had fever before we left the house I would have probably given him a dose of medicine and avoided the ER trip, but I just had to go by what information I had right then, and I knew I was uncomfortable waiting at home to see what happened next!