Week 44

23rd -  29th October 2005

Emma's Entry

Evan showing off his nose only a few minutes after it's last wipe!

This was my 5th week back at work and it was another chaotic one. Evan already had a cough and I just put it down to the start of Autumn and that it was just something minor. By the time Sunday came though, Evan was sleeping lots and not as playful as usual. Throughout the night Evan's coughing became worse that it actually woke the whole house up several times and I was having to get up to calm him every 45 minutes or so. This prompted Caroline to move her bed downstairs. Evan and I still made it into nursery and work respectively but the reports I had from the nursery staff made me realise that Evan was pretty poorly. Of all the days for us to have bad traffic, some traffic lights were out near the nursery and as a result it took me almost an hour to collect Evan and then just over and hour for us to get home from the nursery. Evan was tired and unwell and whilst the car was stationery, he just cried and grizzled. There was nothing I could do or say to comfort him and I was pleased for him when he finally fell asleep... poor baby. He had developed a fever and it was extremely difficult to get an accurate temperature, but it was coming out as 39 degrees. A Bath, bottle and a dose of Calpol later, Evan was tucked up in bed.

Monday night was as bad as the previous night with me getting up to Evan every 30 minutes. I'd bought some cough medicine earlier in the day hoping that it would help him through the night. I ended up giving him his bottle of milk at 1.30am and that sent him off into a deep sleep allowing us a few hours rest. I worked from home on Tuesday and Evan spent most of the day sleeping. He wouldn't eat anything and would only take bottles of milk before falling back to sleep. His temperature was back to normal so I believed we were through the worst of it. I finished work late that day because I was working with a client in the US and I was exhausted by the end of it. I was due to go and watch a local football match and in the end I went to bed with the shivers myself.

My two poorly babies providing me with pictures for this week.

The nights are hard when you have a child that is ill, but they are even harder when you are ill yourself. Caroline was keeping her distance as it was the last thing that she needed after everything she had been through lately. Wednesday was probably the worst day. With Evan not eating solids, it was important that he drank some milk and fluids. However, on Wednesday evening he vomited all his milk from the evening feed all over me. Our clothes went straight in the washing machine and we went under the shower. 3am Thursday morning and he vomited again, all over me and we were once again back under the shower. Miraculously none of the vomit touched the floor, my clothes managed to soak it all up. My poor baby, his nose was blocked completely and his cough was much worse. His temperature had returned with a vengeance and this time he was breathing very rapidly. After a conversation with the NHS Direct, they got a Doctor to call me back. I had to give Evan a sponge bath to help his temperature come down (this was the reason he was breathing rapidly) and then I was told to give him a double dose of Calpol to help with his fever.

I managed to get him a Doctor's appointment on Thursday and they discovered that he had bronchitis and an ear infection. They prescribed him some banana flavoured antibiotics that stained his skin leaving him with a yellowish moustache! The Doctor warned me that it is quite common for babies with bronchitis to be admitted to hospital where they can be monitored and given fluid. If Evan hadn't shown signs of getting better by the end of the day (after 3 doses of the antibiotics) he would have been admitted. This was my worst nightmare, at the moment everyone around me who goes into hospital ends up in worse condition so I really didn't want this to happen. Apparently the coughing and bringing up catarrh causes babies to vomit and that can lead to dehydration. Luckily for us all Evan's temperature was back to normal and he was a lot better by Thursday evening.

He still refused to eat on Friday but I was able to feed him a banana on Saturday and Sunday. Unfortunately, the inevitable happened and Caroline caught my cold by the end of the week. So this week has been full of sneezes, coughs and colds for all of us... bring on next week!

Emma