"Ma Ma"

Sheesh...it's been a long week! Camden was admitted to the hospital last Saturday night for Bronchiolitis (a respiratory virus) and was finally discharged Thursday afternoon. I definitely was not expecting to stay that long. Actually, I really didn't think we would stay at all until we were at the ER and I saw how bad he was. He has been sick since the Thursday before Valentine's day with his usual respiratory funk. This happens a few times a year and he's usually over it in 3-5 days. This one was slightly different from the beginning because he was running a fever. He never has fevers. He had his first one a few weeks ago. Still, I thought it was no big deal. As long as we can keep the fevers down, keep him hydrated, and do breathing treatments, we are good. I think as a nurse (I'm sure a lot of my nurse friends would agree with me) I tend to sit on things longer than I probably should. I always say "eh...you'll be fine". When I got home from work Saturday evening I could tell that things were not so fine. He had a 103.8 temp, labored breathing, and just looked terrible. I tried my best to fix it. I gave some Tylenol and a breathing treatment and rocked him gently to try and console him. A half hour later he didn't look better. He was lethargic and in distress. I still debated on whether I should take him in. My mommy instincts kicked in and told me to take him to the ER. Now I feel guilty for waiting so long. I'm definitely not winning any mom of the year awards this time around! I must say that they did a fantastic job in the ER prioritizing the kids. Someone is there to immediately assess your child right when you walk in and then they are put on a list according to the severity of their illness. We didn't sit down one minute before they took us back. As soon as I saw that his oxygen saturation was 83% I knew we were staying for good. It took 4 hours to get his temperature down (which had risen to 104 at that point). The boy was absolutely beyond miserable and it broke my heart.

He honestly felt as bad as he looked here.

Each day was filled with breathing treatments, a few more fevers, lots of cuddles, and tons of tears. It didn't help that I was sick too. Camden was so exhausted day after day and was extremely emotional. I could maybe get him to calm down twice a day for a few minutes at a time in his own bed. Other than that, he was in my lap holding on tight or sleeping. He did attempt to play once and even gave me one smile. Yep...just one whole smile while we were there. He usually flashes that big grin at least 20 times a day and usually more. It was pretty sad.

This was pretty much his expression every day.

Out of his 6 breathing treatments a day, I had to physically pin him down while was screaming and thrashing for 4-5 of them. It was not fun for either of us and I wouldn't let anyone else hold him down. I was relieved when he would sleep through at least one of them. He wasn't able to come off oxygen until Wednesday afternoon and that's why he had to stay so long. Once Thursday came I could not be more ready to get out of there. Everyone was absolutely wonderful but there is no place like home and my baby boy needed to get out. We are not sure why this illness was so bad because he has had bronchiolitis a few times before with minimal problems. He was taken off Lasix last month and we are wondering if that may be a factor or it could be that this one just simply kicked his booty. Either way, he is home and doing great. Let's hope winter bugs are gone from this household for good!

Had to play with the CPT stuff before we left!

What I really wanted to tell everyone is that we are sure Camden has his first word. That wonderful little word would be "ma ma". He's been babbling so much more since his tubes were put in and he's been saying "ma ma" for a month now. I assumed it was part of his random sounds, but Richard thought he was saying it with meaning. Sometimes he said it at appropriate times and other times it was completely random. I really didn't think he was saying it. However, while we were in the hospital Camden would turn and reach his arms out to me anytime he was in bed having something done to him and say "ma ma". It was the saddest "ma ma" I had ever heard but yet it was the sweetest. He did this every time he was not in my arms. If I left the room for a hot second to get water the nurses told me he would start getting upset and cry out "maaaaaaa ma" over and over until I got back. We are pretty sure he knows what that word means. So, yay for first words and I couldn't be happier that it happens to be "ma ma"!

I also want to say thank you to everyone who prayed and supported us during this hospital stay and every other day. So many of you truly love my boy and it touches my heart more than you know. Your kind and loving words have helped us in so many ways. We are so blessed to be surrounded by some truly amazing people! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!