We worked so hard to avoid it...

... but Benton landed us in the hospital. Tuesday he was spiking fevers upwards of 104.2. We finally got them under control with Motrin. The only thing keeping us out of the hospital on Tuesday was that he was still nursing and making wet diapers. Wednesday morning when he woke up he still had a slight fever but his breathing was about the same or had improved a little. So I was naive enough to think we were on the mend. Alas. At about 3 PM I was getting really woried that Benton hadn't nursed since 10:00 AM. He also had only taken two 15-20 minute naps all day when he normally takes three 1 to 1 1/2 hour naps. We were both exhausted. I had called the doctor and she told me to keep trying for another hour and then to call her back. Well, we tried everything under the sun from nursing to a sippy to a syringe. To no avail. I begged and pleaded and cried, but he would have none.

So I called the ped back and she told me to bring him in to the ER. (And can I just say that having your ped call into the ER ahead is the way to go.) We waited less than 5 minutes and the ped made the calls and not the ER doc. Nothing against the ER doc... but he didn't know that the levels for dehydration in a kid were different than for an adult so he was ready to send us home even when I couldn't force a bottle of Pedialite down his throat. Did I ever mention Benton does NOT like bottles.

Although being at the hospital sucked, they treated us great. When I was in the ER trying desperatly to get Benton to take some pedialite and he was screaming and tired and miserable, the sweet nurse could see how exhausted I was and came in and took him out of the room and walked around the ER bouncing him to calm him down and then she tried to get him to take the bottle. It didn't work, but my arms and my sanity really appreciated the short break.

At this point the ped decided to have us admitted. They started an IV and moved us up to a room. They had a crib set up there for Benton that looked more like an animal cage than a crib. It was pretty ancient. I really hated it. They kept hasseling me about putting the other side of the crib up so he wouldn't roll out. Dude... he doesn't roll, I promise. And honestly, even if he was a roller, he doesn't have the energy to do so. It woke him up every time I attempted to put the side up because as I mentioned it was ancient and LOUD.

They had to tape his arm to a board because he wouldn't keep it straight...go figure. And that Really ticked him off.They brought in this cute gown for him to wear. He couldn't wear one of the Baby ones because they didn't snap at the shoulder and he couldn't get it on with the IV. The poor boy was drowning in it. But it was sure cute.At this point the nurse walked in while I was taking pictures and gave me a weird look and said, "you're taking pictures of the poor kid?". What was I supposed to say? "yep". All I could think was this woman is obviously NOT A BLOGGER.

Well, I spent A LOT of my time like this.Wasn't he so cute and pathetic looking all at the same time.They kept trying to get his blood pressure which was a joke. The baby cuff came off anytime they blew it up and the child one drowned him. But it was pretty cute.By morning he was a much happier kid. Daddy came to visit and got a few smiles out of him.And he got him to play a bit. And for the record, he ended up loving the continuous pulse-ox monitor. (The thing on his foot). He was always trying to pull his sock off to get at it. This usually bumped it which sent his stats down which in turn made the machine make horrible sounding LOUD beeping noises.

I am just so glad to be home- away from hourly alarm from his IV at which point a nurse would come in to make sure that his IV hadn't become infiltrated, of course waking him up from a sleep I had just managed to get him into from the previous time they had come in. Needless to say we are glad to be home and sleeping.