The BIG Birthday!!!

2/14/2010 Sunday

Happy Valentine’s Day to you all! I am so excited to say that we survived a wonderful year with our incredible son. William Henry turned 1 yesterday and we had a BIG party! Of course though everything was done William style, which lately seems to occur with no less than a handful of drama. ;)

We have been planning William’s party for months actually…gathering ideas and items if I saw them along the way. (I have to admit my dark secret that I actually bought a party kit on clearance during Black Friday shopping when I was still PREGNANT with him…but hey it was on clearance and I had a 40% off coupon on top of it, so I’ve had the monkey theme picked out since then). We’ve been looking forward to a big celebration since many of the most recent holidays have been a little crazy with all of the medical issues popping up at the most wonderful times.

This week was pretty hectic for us as Paul’s bowling schedule kicked back in, he started a new session of community ed pottery classes, and I had both parent/teacher conferences Thursday night, and an Autism conference to attend all day Friday which meant sub plans for one of the craziest days for first graders: Valentine’s Party Day!!! Dun dun dun!

Wednesday afternoon I was nearing the end of my school day when I got a phone call from our Daycare lady Jan. She called to let me know that Will had vomited while napping in his bed and was laying in it. This was a surprise as she said he had been doing fine all day. After cleaning him up she said he sat and played happily until I came to pick him up. He also popped his first tooth on top (which makes for 3 teeth now) so it made us feel pretty unsure if he was sick or if perhaps it was the tooth coming through that made him feel ill.

Wednesday had been our scheduled day to run a few errands, including a trip to buy Will’s birthday presents. Paul and I decided to meet up in Woodbury after Will’s finger poke. We got his gift and then went to dinner at Noodles and Co. where they were doing a fundraising night for my school. Will ate the mild baby food I had picked up very hungrily, but a few minutes later vomited it all up at our table. We packed up our meals and everything else so we could take him home. In the mean time he puked all over Paul’s black jacket and through his two shirts. We got home and put him to bed.

Paul stayed home with him Thursday and they had a very typical day, playing, napping, and carefully eating. He did fine until he vomited around 4:30 pm. Paul put him to bed that night while I was at conferences and just like the night before he slept soundly and never had any issues.

Friday I dropped him off at my Dad’s house pretty early. The plan was for Mimi (my mom) to leave work early and spend the day with Will and Yaya (my dad) getting the last things from the store for the big birthday party. Unfortunately Will vomited up his whole breakfast and spent a lot of the day being sick. I was at my wits end by the time I made it to my parent’s house after my conference in River Falls. We continued to get everything ready for the party, but I was worried sick that Will wouldn’t recover and we’d have to cancel his 1st Birthday party.

We brought William home and tried to give him his antibiotics (from last weeks ER trip for the fingertip infection) right before bed. He was coughing and gagged a bit on the medicine and then proceeded to puke up everything, all over himself, the white carpet in his room, and Mommy and Daddy. During the night he slept well again and nursed well in the morning. We had planned to let Paul and William stay home in the morning to nap normally while I went to my parent’s house to decorate and set up everything left for the party. I guess the morning at home went ok, and his breakfast stayed down. When they arrived at my parent’s he was very clingy and attached to me. I again felt extremely nervous that he was going to be sick for his party. (I can’t discount the fact that there were almost 40 people there, but generally he is friendly and happy to be around most anyone). We fed him carefully but soon enough he vomited all of the baby rice cereal back up!

We were leery about giving him cake, but he dug right in to his carrot birthday cake and even got his face right in there to suck off a lot of the frosting! He did his job as a one year old and it felt good to have that special moment. Amazingly he seemed to feel a little better after that. He got on the floor and played with the kids at his party. He smiled and was held by people. Then he survived the storm of presents that everyone spoiled him with! (THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!) Not long after that he fell asleep on my grandma’s lap and stayed on the couch with she and my grandpa for maybe 45 mins.

After he woke up he acted very hungry again (throughout all this he has had the DESIRE to continue eating and I think he has been truly hungry for days). We decided to give him a bottle of breast milk, which he drank right up. Unfortunately he sat up after that and vomited it all over me! This sort of started an off and on cycle for the rest of the evening. We’d feed him broth or other clear liquids, and as soon as he would cough, up it all came! After everyone left the party, his sweet daycare lady Jan, and her husband Mark stopped by to bring him his gift. He did ok while they visited but threw up a lot after they left. We decided that this could not continue. He was not keeping anything down and we were worried that he was getting very dehydrated. Paul called the on-call Hematologist and then we decided it was best for us to just take him to Children’s ER. In fact I was on my 3rd outfit for the day by the time we made it to the ER!

So yes, poor baby got to spend his memorable first birthday visiting the ER… ☹

The Dr. there decided that since he was coughing, sneezing, and also had diarrhea it was probably not just the antibiotics irritating his stomach. He felt that it must be some sort of virus. They said that they would give him a medicine called Zofran which is an anti nausea medication which would hopefully get him to stop the gag reflex which occurred every time he coughed. Since William was dehydrated their plan was to give him an IV, and at the same time take a little blood to check his hydration levels.

The nurses used something on him that we had not seen before. They called it a “J tip” which I guess is a pressurized tube which shoots air into his skin, pokes a hole with the air pressure, and injects Lidocaine to numb he skin instantly. They said that he wouldn’t feel any of the pokes after that. He still cried very hard, but the nurse explained that kids often get really scared of the sound the “J tip” makes. After 2 attempts, the 2 nurses could not get a vein in his arm. I think it was due to being dehydrated. They were able to get enough blood to “check his chemistry”, meaning that they would see how dehydrated he had become. The Dr. said that level 20 was pretty normal, 12 was admission to the hospital for dehydration, and Will was about a 15 at that time.

We decided against another poke attempt to get an IV started and instead gave him an oral dose of the Zofran. Will then nursed very well and we got to try and give him his first popsicle. They were pleased to see that he nursed so well and kept the milk down. They sent us home with instructions on how to try and re-hydrate him and with a little bit more of the oral Zofran.

Today (Sunday) he has gagged and burped off and on but has not vomited any of the liquids we’ve been giving him. Now we just have to hope that he is on the upswing!

Thank you to EVERYONE for the different ways that you helped to celebrate William’s birthday! Despite the drama, he had a wonderful day with lots of smiles here and there. We are SO lucky to know so many amazing people. We are proud of ourselves for surviving the first year, but so immensely proud of what a tough little boy we have! He is incredible…

Love,
Katie, Paul, and our Birthday Boy