An OK Week, Except for the Vomit

On Wednesday, Jeff was playing with Henry on the patio. Henry walked to one of the locked doors and tried to open it. Jeff told him it was locked. Henry said "keys." Smart boy. Jeff dropped off Henry at my parents' house in the early evening. He met me at school, where I was having an end of term dinner with my graduate research methods class at Frog & Firkin, which was a lot of fun. They were the best graduate class that I've ever taught. Then, we went to the UA basketball game vs. San Diego State. I suspect that is to be our last game of the season. I look at the RSV (that stands for Respiratory Syncytial Virus) report that Arizona's Department of Health Services puts out each week. Last week's report showed that there were no reported cases of RSV in our county. But this week's report shows the total at 5. Not that many. The numbers just show the trends, not actually what is going on in the community. When adults get RSV, they often don't know it and write it off as a trifling cold, which for adults it probably is. It's the little ones and elderly that have problems with it. Once the numbers in the report start increasing, we know that we have to be more vigilant. Right now it isn't that bad out there, but it is amazing how RSV can explode within a couple weeks.

On Thursday, Henry turned 16 months adjusted. He was more sluggish than usual...relatively speaking. He'd play and then crawl on the couch and rest for a couple minutes before resuming play again. Grandpa visited Henry in the afternoon. I went to the doctors b/c my voice was at 30% (an improvement over the last few days when it was out completely). Saw the nurse practitioner. She said that I had bronchitis. Gave me some super strong antibiotics to wipe it out. Can't say I'm surprised, although I've been fortunate the last three years in Arizona. In Philadelphia, I'd get bronchitis every spring. I attribute it to my crappy preemie lungs. As the research shows, even "bigger" preemies often have lung issues when they are older. I was born at 33 weeks.

On Friday, Jeff took a vacation day. Henry had been snuffly during the night and felt a little warm, so he suggested to Alicia that she not work today. Henry's appetite was fine for breakfast, but he didn't eat lunch or much dinner. Henry and Jeff went to the back to take a nap around 11AM. Jeff struggled with him for an hour. He gave up holding him and put him on the ground. Then, Henry crawled onto our bed and fell fast asleep. When they woke up, played golf in the living room and in the backyard. Henry was full of energy. We went to R&R Pizza in the late afternoon (not crowded at all). Henry watched the train travel around the restaurant. He wasn't interested in food though. We played in the living room in the evening. We decided to let him watch his first TV program (not ball), "Frosty the Snowman Returns." But he wasn't interested. Watched maybe 5 minutes and then said that he wanted to look at "pics." He was hard to settle down. It was getting late, so Jeff took Henry to the back for bed. Over much wrestling and tears, Henry made himself so upset that he threw up. After we cleaned him up, he settled down to sleep.

Henry and I slept until 9:15AM on Saturday morning. He was in a great mood. It took us awhile but we finally got out the door around 11AM and headed to Joel's for breakfast. It was nice outside, and the patio was empty. We were one of two sets of customers at the restaurant. We then headed over to the turtle pond for some exploration. Played tag around a palm tree. We came back home around 1PM, thinking that Henry would take a nap. He took a 20 minute nap in the car but then was alert as ever after that. Around 4PM, I took Henry over to Grandma and Grandpa's house. I stayed until about 5PM, then headed home. As I was leaving, Henry had Grandma's car keys and was trying to set off the panic button. He said, "Beep, beep!" once he set it off. Apparently, he has said this to the grandparents before.

The grandparents brought Henry home around 8:45PM. Henry was wide awake. He liked the flash light that Jeff uses whenever they pull up. With all of the creepy crawlies, we check out the drive way before walking on it at night. We tried taking pictures of Henry for a family Christmas card. A no go. We had a beautiful picture set, but then Marley walked in front of the camera. Go figure.

VOMIT DETAILS NEXT (skip paragraph if you have a weak stomach)

Henry was very active and wouldn't settle down. Jeff took him to the back. Henry was talking up a storm. I went to help around 11:15PM. Not that I'm very good at settling him down. He is a daddy's boy at night. In any event, Henry got upset again at being told to go to sleep. He vomited all over Jeff. Jeff got up, took off his vomit shirt, and went to the kitchen to get towels. In the meantime, Henry was sitting upright with me holding onto him from behind. He projectile vomited all of his front four or five times. I managed to catch about half of it in my hand, cupped against Henry's body. I called for Jeff to get a plate to catch the vomit. It was a mess, but only about half of it doused the sheets. Henry was not happy but relatively calm at this point. I think that he was trying to figure out what his body was doing. Ultimately, I think that he felt better after the vomit. It contained foods from his brunch, snack, and dinner. Obviously, his digestive system had come to a halt. We went to Henry's bathroom and started up water for a bath. I gave him a bath while Jeff changed the sheets and gathered up the vomit clothes. Fun, fun. Henry wasn't in a bad mood at all, but he wasn't energetic either. He took some swig of water from a cup to clear his mouth. Splashed around with his toys. I scrubbed him, and then he was ready for new clothes,

All three of us stayed in the living room for a little bit. I believe it was after his bath that he decided to collapse on the floor near me but from an angle where I didn't get a good look at him. I thought that he had "collapsed, collapsed" and started calling out his name. I was afraid he was having a seizure or something. Jeff had a better look from where he was sitting and couldn't figure out why I was panicking b/c Henry had actually just "flopped" on the floor not collapsed. I saw a video about a month ago on "The Preemie Experiment" blog where there was footage of a child having an all out seizure. I think that the visual must have affected me more than I thought it did. I was not an easy video to watch. I actually had to stop after a minute. Anyway, Henry and Jeff went to bed. I was about 10 minutes behind them. Marley had taken my place by the time I arrived. She wouldn't move either. Acted like dead weight. I managed to squeeze in.

This morning, I got up at 7:35AM. Henry and Jeff remained sacked out until about 9:45AM.