So Monday night was going to be mine and Jeremiah’s first night to sit down and relax and actually spend a little bit of time with each other since we started doing upgrades in our house. We put Matthew to bed around 8pm and he was fine, and we sat on the couch and started to watch “Little Rascals”. About 9:30pm Matthew woke up screaming. It was a sad and scary scream. We ran in there and he was inconsolable. He was clutching his lower abdomen and crying uncontrollably. It took about 20 minutes to calm him down enough to tell us that his belly was hurting. He would whimper for about 5 minutes, then have a bout of pain and start screaming again. I got dressed and prepared to take him to the hospital. Jeremiah was concerned about transporting him if he was in so much pain, so he called for an ambulance.
The ambulance arrived somewhere around 10pm, they checked him out and loaded him up. On the way to the hospital he would be okay for a few minutes, then start crying, then he threw up. After throwing up he fell asleep for much of the ride until he woke up whimpering right before we arrived.
They wheeled him into the hospital. At this point, like many kids do, he started acting like nothing was wrong. He became bright eyed and bushy tailed and I started feeling dumb for bringing him in. They got him in a room, took his vitals and got him snuggled in the hospital bed in front of the TV. He was okay for a while until he started crying again and curling up, then threw up again. He would have these waves and in between he’d be fine. The doctor came in and explained it could either be something small, or intussusception (telescoping intestine). The way she explained the latter seemed like exactly what he was going through. A medical website says this:
Infants and children with intussusception have intense abdominal pain, which often begins very suddenly and causes loud, anguished crying causing the child to draw the knees up. The pain is usually intermittent, but recurs and may become stronger. As the pain eases, the child may stop crying for a while and seem to be feeling better.
The doctors had an xray done, then we had to wait a while for a radiologist to come in since it was after midnight by that time, and they only have them on-call. During this time he had 3 or 4 more episodes of pain & vomiting. A while later, we had the sonogram done and waited to hear back. At around 3am, the doctor came back and said it didn’t look like intussusception. The sonogram showed nothing wrong with his intestines, but the xrays showed lots of poo. She said that by itself didn’t explain the vomiting, but it could be a virus on top of the bowel issues. She sent us home with a prescription for zofran (anti-vomiting medication) which they’d given him earlier to stop the throwing up. She told us to buy some Miralax (though I decided to buy Pedialax since it’s just saline laxative rather than the medication. I figured if it didn’t help I could go buy the Miralax), some sort of juice and some gatorade to help “loosen” things up and give him electrolytes.
We got home around 4am, hoping Matthew would sleep in. No such luck, he was up just after 8 in the morning. Tired and dragging, we made our way to Walmart and bought the things on the list, and headed home.
Since then, he’s been feeling much better. Not that everyone wants to hear about bowel movements, but in the last 2 days he’s had a few, the latest one being pretty … decent. ;P I’ll continue the fiber and laxative filled diet so that this doesn’t happen again. He’s still telling me his belly hurts a few times a day, but I think in another day or two he’ll feel just fine. 
I appreciate any messages, texts and calls I’ve gotten asking about his well-being and sending luck and prayers. I am glad it seems to be only that he’s backed up and doesn’t recur. Even though it turned out to be a small deal, there’s nothing worse than to see your child suffer like he was that night.
To the marriage of two of our very good friends. This was one of Jeremiah’s best friends growing up, and the only one who lives anywhere close(ish) to us. His fiance (wife today!!) is the nicest girl I could imagine, and they are perfect for each other. Even better, they adore Matthew. He really treats Matthew more like his nephew, than his friend’s child. It makes me so happy to see them interact with him like family, and they are our family.
Jeremiah will be a groomsman, Matthew the ring bearer. I am nervous, but excited. I know that even if he doesn’t do things perfectly, everybody is just going to think he’s ridiculously cute. He looks adorable in his little fancy pants and vest, with the tiny little tie. Of course, Jeremiah looks really sexy in his fancy pants, vest and tie. 
I can’t wait. You better bet I will have lots of pictures. Most of them will be private if they show any part of the wedding party, but I will still try to post a picture or two of Matthew himself. Yes, I am wearing a dress, and no, you will probably not get to see that. 
OHHAITHUR.
I’ve been spending close to.. zero time online. Part of that is just reworking my priorities in terms of family and taking care of the house. The other part is just boredom with the internet. I got bored of my website and bored of forums and facebook, etc. Now I’m back and hoping to find that healthy balance. Of course, Jeremiah’s out of town right now so I’ve been online more in the evenings, but I’m enjoying my alone time, and I’m obviously being semi-productive online.
How do you like the new layout? This is the first one in.. 2 or more years that I’ve built from the bottom up. I generally either edit other themes or edit my old themes that I’ve made. I decided I want to actually get back into webdesign a bit, so I need to start refreshing my memory and learning new things.
Matthew is doing really well. He’s all talk and attitude now. While he’s in the terrible three’s, he’s really mellowed out in the last week. For about a month, Jeremiah and I were hanging onto our sanity by a thread. I’m so glad we stayed consistent with punishments, etc, and now I think he’s gotten the hint that it’s not going to fly. Of course, he still acts up.. he IS a three year old, but it’s been a few days since we’ve dealt with one of his horrible tantrums, and those were happening 3x a day for a while!
I’m off to spent a few with my mom, and eventually head to bed. I hope everyone had a great weekend!
I signed up for a YMCA membership yesterday, and today I went in to start my ‘wellness plan’. It consists of talking about my goals, what I’m comfortable with, what classes I’d like to try, and also gives me a workout plan for me to follow when I go into the gym equipment area. Matthew was in childcare maybe 10 minutes when one of the ladies came up to me. “Are you Matthew’s mom?” .. “Yes..” Here’s me thinking.. oh god, he did something horrible, they’re going to ask me to leave.. “Well.. another child.. bit Matthew. On the face. Everyone was playing fine, and the other child approached him and just.. bit him. Their mom is also being notified.. we’ll fill out an incident report.” … okay.. really, on his face? Not his arm, leg, torso region? HIS PRETTY FACE? “Alright.. is he bleeding? Is he crying?” “No, it didn’t break skin. It’s red, I’ll be honest. We’ve put ice on it.” Okay, so I go over there. The other kids mom apparently walked in there very upset with her child, and immediately left while scolding them. I didn’t even get to see the other kid or their mom. They filled out an incident report and had me sign it. Sounds like Matthew was totally the victim and didn’t provoke or anything. I can’t imagine him doing that anyways, but hey, kids can be naughty. I hate to be the mom that says “oh my child would nevvverrrr do that” because you never say never, but he is SUCH a mellow kid and just wants to hug and cuddle and play cute little innocent games. I hope it stays that way forever.. until he’s 40.
As for me, thank God I have life insurance because it’s moments like that which could give me that stroke that takes my life. I mean.. this was Matthew’s first incident like that and I think I kept my cool pretty well. Even my trainer was like “Wow, I’d be way more upset”.. but as I told her “He’s alive, he’s breathing, he’s not crying, he’s okay.” and I try not to over react in those situations because it’ll just teach Matthew to over react, but man I was fuming inside for a little bit there. How dare some kid put some giant red mark on MY beautiful child’s face?!
