What a Week!

What a week we've had. It started with a sleepless Sunday night for me. I have a major problem turning my brain off if I wake up in the middle of the night. With a baby around, there's a lot of waking in the middle of the night. We had an appointment at Minneapolis Children's Hospital Heart Clinic on Monday to get a follow-up echo of Bryce's heart. I knew his heart was fine, but I think that is what was keeping me up anyway. (I've mentioned that I feel like everything is too good to be true, right?!?)

Bryce had his first echocardiogram in the hospital when he was about two weeks old. It was fine...the only thing was a small valve opening between the two upper chambers--common in newborns. They wanted to do this follow up to make sure it was closing--the low muscle tone that comes with Down syndrome could make the opening stretch rather than close. His latest echo showed that it is closing--half the size it was. The doctor told us to put heart worries out of our head. Kids with Downs who have heart trouble are born with it...he is no more prone to developing trouble now than anyone else. Whew!

Our sweet, easy going baby was so good during all those tests too! He flirted with the nurses and didn't fuss until he was hungry an hour and a half into the appointment. No crying even when it took three nurses about 25 tries to get his blood pressure--his poor arms and legs even turned blue! He is the best baby ever born.

Little charmer!

On Tuesday, I could tell that our poor little sweetheart was coming down with something. He was so fussy and sleepy. On Wednesday, he spent the day at my mom's house and progressively got worse. She finally called me about 3:45 and asked me to come home. His breathing was so labored when I got there, it was alarming. I had to take him right to urgent care, but wanted to call the ambulance. He just looked so miserable and like every once of energy he had went into concentrating on breathing. It was so scary! Connor was never sick until he was almost two years old, so we've never had a sick baby.

We made it to urgent care and they gave him a steroid shot and nebulizer treatment. He calmed down a little bit. They eliminated RSV and influenza with a nasal swab, and his x-rays were clear, so we weren't sure what was going on. They decided he should be admitted to the hospital for the night so they could monitor him, give him a nebulizer, and be there to help if anything happened. They allowed Mike to drive him to the hospital right down the street from us, where he had spent the first month of his life. He had a good night--only needed the nebulizer once. The docs there determined it was most likely croup. He is so much better now--just still tired and fussier than usual.

With Bryce being so needy, I feel like a horrible mother to Connor. I get so short with him because I'm exhausted, and he acts up or is annoying just to get my attention. I have realized again how lucky I am to have such an easy baby (usually) AND such a well behaved big boy. It has been a long, trying week--starting out with the good news at the heart clinic, and finishing with a sick baby and exhausted Mommy and Daddy. Here's to hoping this is the worst of the sickness in the Larsen house this winter!

I'm feeling a little burnt out right now--being a stay-at-home mom is definitely harder than teaching--but that's a whole 'nother blog post! I'm ready for Spring when we can get out of the house for some fresh air every day. Take care everyone!