I took Wednesday off because Dan had to commute out to Philadelphia. I took Ben in and the ped kind of made light of RSV but after listening to him she agreed to swab him. It came back positive. She gave him a breathing treatment using saline, not Albuterol which I've learned all about since then. We left with a nebulizer and I went to the pharmacy to pick up the saline. Of course, the prescription never made it so I had to go home, feed the babies and pack them back up to go out and get it once the peds office called and confirmed that they sent it again. So I went, and guess what? Oh, they didn't have it. So they figured it out and I had to drive around for 20 minutes with the babies in the car while we waited. Lame. So I gave him breathing treatments every 3 hours and planned to take the next day off. All the while my poor teammates had taken 10 of my kids each since there was no sub available. I've got plenty to say about that subject but I'll spare you the rant.
By Thursday evening, Ben wasn't finishing his bottles and was sounding worse. As Sheila was helping me get the babies ready for bed I actually noticed Will's breathing looking labored. He was "retracting", forcing air using his diaphragm which is what the pediatrician told me to look out for. Then I checked out Ben and realized he was worse than Will. I called the triage nurse from the peds office and she said if he was worse, he needs to be evaluated. They told me to go to Cardon Children's Medical Center. I went back and forth with whether or not to bring Will too, but his symptoms were nothing near Ben's and once his hiccups went away his breathing went back to normal. So Sheila and I headed to the ER with Ben.
We arrived and there was seriously a line out the door. We checked in and they bumped us to the front of the line because Ben is so young. This was about 10:30 pm. They were super nice and pretty quick considering how busy the ER was. They said I did the right thing by bringing him in because he was working so hard "retracting" that eventually he would get too tired and give up breathing. Turns out that is the main concern with RSV in infants; respiratory distress. The monitored his breathing, pulse ox and heart rate and used a machine to suction his mucus. Based on how hard he was working to breathe they decided to admit him. We called home and had my mother in law Mimi check on Will's breathing to determine if he should come in too. Although he had started coughing and was congested, he was breathing steadily so we decided to leave him home.
By this time it's 2:00am. We were sitting on a gurney in the ER triage, so I slept holding Benny from about 3-5 when they came in to check him again. They were in and out all morning and kept telling me we'd be in a room in 15 minutes to 2 hours. This literally went on all day. Every time I had to go to the bathroom I had to page a nurse to hold Ben. I also had to type my sub plans for Friday since I had planned on going to work until he took a turn the night before.
Around 11:00am Sheila text me and told me that the pediatrician sent her there with her 2 year old son Nicholas who was having a hard time breathing as well. Good old RSV courtesy of our day care. Turns out they were just two rooms down from us! Finally around 1:00pm they told me they had a room for Benny so we packed up and headed upstairs. It was a nice room with a baby jail type crib and a place for me to sit/sleep. We had a tv, bathroom and mini fridge, it would have been SO nice to have been brought up here around 2:00 the morning before but whatareyougonnado?
They checked all of his stats, listened to his lungs every two hours and we had a visit from the respiratory therapist. We spent the afternoon cuddling, Benny napped and Ruth and Jen came after school and brought me something to eat, thank goodness! If you're not breastfeeding, you're not able to receive hospital meals so I was hungry.
They kept monitoring him and his stats stayed up and he didn't need to be put on oxygen, which would have kept us there longer. They basically wanted to make sure his labored breathing calmed down before he was allowed to come home. At one point in the middle of the night the nurse told me that he met the criteria to go home and that it could happen as early as first thing in the morning. Ben slept pretty well despite having his vitals checked every two hours. I however, did not but that's to be expected when your tiny infant is hospitalized :( The pediatrician rounded on him by 8:30 and signed the discharge papers! We were packed up and out of there by 10:00am. I was happy to give up the room to someone who needed it and Ben was doing much better.
Both of the babies are still suffering from cough, congestion and wheezing but they're not retracting or pulling to breathe so I'm keeping up with suctioning their noses, giving the occasional breathing treatment and keeping the humidifier running.
Will is trying to sleep it off but Ben has barely slept since we've been home. I've resorted to sleeping him in the swing in our room, both so he has the incline to help with congestion and the security of the swing since he's not used to sleeping on his back.
It has been quite a week here but luckily Dan will be home today and I can get some rest. Keep your babies out of daycare if you have any option at all! The doctor told us to expect to be back over the course of the next month so I'm going to have to figure out how to make that work. Until then, lots of cuddles with the sweetest babies I know!!
Ugh! What a sucky few days :( Alex had RSV at one, and she had to do albuterol breathing treatments three times/day. Fortunately, no hospitalization required. Hope your boys are feeling better soon!
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