A Little Logan Scare

So last Thursday we had an exciting day... to say the least! I got up with Logan at about 4 am (he'd slept for just over 7 hours - which he's doing every night now, sometimes longer, like last night when he slept NINE hours!) and I took him downstairs and changed his diaper and made him a bottle. He ate for about 45 minutes and then fell asleep, so I took him back up to his room and laid him down. I looked at the bottle and it was still completely FULL! That's weird, I thought to myself. I guess he was just really tired and didn't wake up enough to really eat, and just sucked on the bottle for comfort but not enough to eat anything, oh well. And I went back to sleep. Well about 15 minutes later he woke up again, which isn't normal but it didn't surprise me because he hadn't eaten anything so I was sure he was just hungry. So I went back and got him and took him back downstairs and tried to feed him again. This time he was kind of squirmy and fussy and didn't really want to take the bottle. I tried to burp and I gave him a little bit of gas medicine and then tried again, no luck. He got a little fussier. So I tried to suction out his nose, he's been a little congested and sometimes has a hard time eating if he's got something in his nose. I didn't hear any congestion but thought I'd try anyway. So I tried that, and still he wasn't eating. He'd suck on his bottle for a second or two and then just start crying. I was thinking, man, I can't believe he won't eat, it's been quite awhile and I'm sure he's hungry. So that got me thinking about exactly how long it'd been since he'd eaten. So I thought backwards. He'd gone to sleep around 9pm Wednesday night and the bottle that I gave to him was one that I'd made for him earlier that evening and had in the fridge. It had about 4 oz in it when I gave it to him and he sucked on it for awhile and fell asleep. It still had 4 oz in in when I put him to bed, but I just figured he was too tired and didn't want to eat anything, no big deal. So then I tried to remember when I'd made him that bottle. It came with us to my Volleyball game Wednesday night at 7:30, but I didn't make it for him before we left, I'd taken it out of the fridge since he hadn't finished it earlier that day. I'd made it for him around 5pm and it had about 6 oz in it, he'd eaten a few ounces and then fallen asleep around 5:30. It was FIVE THIRTY the last time he'd eaten anything!! That's twelve hours without food for my 3 month old baby! I realize that we often go that long when we are sick or have the flu, but he wasn't sick. He didn't have a fever or he hadn't been throwing up or even spitting up much (all of my babies are "spitters" and he's been one of the most mild of all of them). So then I'm thinking, maybe he has a sore throat or an ear ache or something. Both of those things make it painful for babies to eat or swallow or whatever. So I gave him some Tylenol and then put some numbing drops in his ears that I was given for some of the other kids when they had ear infections. Neither of these things seemed to help at all. And now he was pretty inconsolable. Then I remembered something that my doctor had told us when we had taken the kids in several months ago when we I was concerned that we might have the swine flu (we'd been sick for awhile and couldn't seem to kick it) anyway, I wanted to get tested because I was worried about little Logan (who was just barely a month old at the time). The Doctor said that one of the main concerns about babies getting the swine flu is that they don't eat, and they don't get enough nutrients and that causes problems. So now I'm getting really worried. My brother Sterling had just found out on Tuesday that he had Swine Flu and he was with us at our house ALL DAY on Sunday and holding Logan most of the day. This was obviously before he knew he had it but he was still contagious at that point and we didn't know it. Luckily none of us ended up getting it but I was worried about Logan when I remembered that the doctor said that babies didn't want to eat when the had it. So now it's about 6am and Logan still hasn't eaten anything and I can't get him to calm down. I finally took him upstairs to Peter and asked him to give him a blessing. After the blessing I started really feeling like something was wrong with Logan even though he didn't have any symptoms besides not eating. A few nights before Peter had mentioned that he thought Logan might have felt a little warm, but when I felt him I didn't think so. But that was it. I felt kind of silly thinking about taking him into the ER since he was seemingly fine but I knew something was wrong and he still wasn't eating. I went upstairs and threw some clothes and shoes on and brushed my teeth while Peter tried to calm Logan down enough to try to feed him. Emily had gotten up in the night with a nightmare and was in our bed and with all of the crying and me turning on the closet light to get dressed, she woke up and wondered what was going on. I talked with her for a minute and tried to calm her down and get her back to sleep but it was no use, it was too close to morning and she was up for the day. I decided to call the Doctor's Office and talk to the on-call physician before taking Logan to the ER. He called back and told me that he was worried about Logan but that nothing would probably change drastically in the next 30 minutes (it was almost 7:30 now) so he told me to wait until the office opened and to just take him there instead of going to the hospital and having to pay the bill for emergency care. He did tell me to come in at 8 even though they don't start taking patients until 8:30. Anyway while I was talking with the doctor, Peter decided to try to give Logan a bath, he really likes baths and he thought it might calm him down. Well, it did. Logan was quiet and perfect while in the bath and even smiled and squealed at Peter. He was happy as could be and still didn't have a touch of fever or any other symptoms, but still wouldn't eat and now it'd been 14 hours. I'm not much of a worrier when it comes to my kids and I'm pretty laid back about most everything. I don't get worked up or nervous, but for some reason, I was REALLY worried and nervous about him and I just broke down and started bawling. I think because he didn't seem sick but yet still wouldn't eat, it made me think that something was wrong inside of him, which translates to something more serious than can be fixed with Tylenol or even a night of throwing up. So I put him in his car seat to take him in and he started to get fussy again so I made him a new bottle with 6 oz in it and propped it in his car seat with him and he immediately started sucking on it. I watched him for awhile and he sucked the whole time. I debated just not going in, since it seemed like he was eating again and other than that he was perfectly fine. After about 10 minutes of staring at his bottle while he ate to see if I could see it change I decided to take it out of his mouth long enough to see whether he'd eaten any. Not a drop! It was still EXACTLY at 6 oz! And he protested and asked for it back (but he wouldn't take a pacifier). So I propped it back up and he sucked away at it again! Anyway, to make a long story not quite as long, I took him in and the doctor looked him over (I cried some more as I realized again how silly I must seem for bringing a perfectly healthy baby with no symptoms into the doctor and being so worried when nothing appeared to be wrong with him - but still knowing inside that something wasn't right!) he noticed that his coloring was a little "off" and he looked a little gray. He said it didn't surprise him though since he hadn't eaten in about 15 hours. He didn't seem to be sick, and even smiled at the doctor and nurses, but he still refused to eat. The doctor was concerned that he'd been exposed to closely to the swine flu but he didn't have ANY of the symptoms of swine flu, so that didn't seem to fit. He finally decided to send us over to the hospital to get some blood tests and x-rays and to check for the swine flu. I called Peter on the way over to give him a few instructions on getting the kids off to school and getting Emily ready for her field trip with her preschool class and told him that we were on our way to the hospital and I would call him when we found anything out. We did the nasal swab for the swine flu test (which we later found out they don't do in Utah County anymore, they just assume you have it if you have the symptoms, so anyway my doctor sent the sample somewhere to have it tested just to be sure and we got the results the next day) and we did some chest x-rays and then we did the blood tests. Oh... MAN! That was hard! I have no problems when my kids get shots, I'll even pin them down on the table for the nurses. I'm not calloused but I know that it will just hurt for a minute and that it's good for them and so I'm okay with it. And that's how it started out with Logan... but forty five minutes later, I started to get a little emotional. We pinned him down on the table and tried to find a vein in his tiny little arm. But he was so dehydrated and his veins were just so tiny that they were really having a hard time getting a vein. She checked both arms twice and then both of his hands and finally went with one of his arms and poked around in there for about 10 minutes until she finally hit a vein but then it started bleeding under the skin and they had to take it out quick. Then she tried the other arm and after poking around in there for about 5 minutes finally got it in a vein but because he was so dehydrated the blood was flowing so slowly that it would congeal (or coagulate or whatever) before it even reached the syringe and they had to throw it out and try again. Finally the 2 nurses that we working on him called in someone else to try. She did it in the back of his hand and got a vein almost right away, but then had the same problem with it flowing so slowly, she messed with it a little bit and finally it started flowing and they got a good sample. It took them almost an hour and poor little Logan was screaming and crying the whole time and he didn't have any tears and his poor little skin was so pale and gray and when they finally finished he had bands on both of his arms (2 on one side) and the one on his hand looked like a little cast. I picked him up, and stayed composed long enough to thank the nurses, gather my stuff and make it out to the waiting room where I collapsed into a chair and broke down sobbing again. Little Logan was limp in my arms and he was sucking on his bottle for comfort but he wasn't eating. I called Peter to update him on everything and tell him that as soon as I could stop crying enough to drive we'd be home to wait for results. Finally I managed to put Logan in his car seat (I didn't want to put him down, I just wanted to hold him and love him as much as I could) and we headed out to the car. As we walked I noticed that Logan's head was just flopping side to side and I lifted one of his arms and it fell limply back onto his lap. I broke down again as I looked at my pale, lethargic, starving little baby. I called the doctor and asked him at what point we needed to worry about him not eating for so long and would put in an IV so he'd get some nutrients. He told me that we'd wait to get at least some of the results back and go from there, it shouldn't be more than an hour or two. I sat in the car again for a bit trying to stop crying so I could drive. I called my mom on the way home to tell her what was going on. She was in town and had stayed with us a few nights but she was going to help her friend Rachel pack up her house to move but Rachel, who is pregnant with twins, got the swine flu the week before. My mom didn't want to go over and help Rachel move and expose herself to the swine flu and then come back and give it to all of us, so she decided to stay at Rachel's for at least a few days so she could make sure they were all in the clear. Anyway. I filled her in on things and told her that I'd call her as soon as we knew anything. I got home and was exhausted and emotionally drained. Peter and I sat looking at Logan who was now fast asleep in his car seat. We didn't want to wake him up since he was just as tired as we were and we waited for a phone call. I decided to take a shower because I didn't want to be stuck going out to the hospital again in my pajamas in the middle of the day. While I was getting dressed, the doctor called and said that the results from the blood tests were back and that his white blood cell counts looked normal and although they found a few irregularities they were likely just a result of not having eaten for so long, so he wasn't concerned about it. He suggested that we try to get some pedialite in him while we wait for the results from the x-rays and the swine flu swab.
So I took Nathan and Logan with me and went down the street to pick Emily up from her preschool field trip and then we headed out to walmart to get some pedialite and milk and bread. While we were there my mom called to see how Logan was doing and said she hated feeling like she couldn't do anything to help, which is what we all felt like. She asked if I'd stop by Rachel's house while I was out so she could at least see Logan and know that he was okay (by this time no one at Rachel's house had had any symptoms of the swine flu for several days and it'd been over a week since she got it so no one was contagious anymore and my mom had been there for several days without getting it so she was fine - no more swine flu in the air). So we drove over there and Rachel and my mom were on their way home from taking a load of boxes to Rachel's storage unit so while we waited I made Logan a bottle with pedialite in it. Finally around 1:30 I was able to get him to drink a little bit of pedialite and once he tasted it he started just downing it like he'd never eaten before in his life. He finished 4 ounces in about 2 minutes! And he was fussing and begging for more! So I filled it up again and he drank another 4 ounces. Finally!! Just over 20 hours without food and he'd eaten! I was so relieved that I relaxed and was able to doze off a bit. We stayed at Rachel's for a little bit and let my mom hold Logan and know that he really was doing better. His cheeks started to flush with color again and he was giving out smiles again. Peter was anxious to see Logan again too and wanted to see him happy and healthy again. So I came home and called the doctor's office again to see if they'd gotten any of the other results back. The nurse told me that she remembered Doctor Willis saying that the x-ray results came back and that it looked like pneumonia or bronchiolitis (baby bronchitis or bronchitis in the bronchiols). She said that he would call me back that evening but for now he was fine and not to worry about anything. Eventually I took a nap I laid on the couch holding little Logan's hand, he was asleep again. Peter came up to check on us and Logan started to stir, he picked him up and tried to feed him some formula. It was about 4:30 or so and he finally ate about 5 ounces of formula! When I woke up, my house was a disaster and everyone was getting hungry. We had some leftovers from our dinner swap still but the kids weren't interested in it. I called my mom and she came over to help clean up the house and then she took the kids to McDonald's. Peter hadn't gotten much work done since he was taking care of the kids in the morning while I was gone and then worried and waiting and then exhausted and not able to really focus on work. So he took a short nap and then went back down to work around 6pm. Anyway, Logan had a few more bottles that evening, it seemed like he was trying to make up for all of the time he'd gone without food, and then we put kids to bed. I got a phone call from the doctor saying that it was indeed a viral bronchiolitis and that it would just run its course and since it was viral it didn't need any treatment. I asked if it seemed odd that he would have bronchiolitis and not have a fever or cough or wheeziness or any other symptoms, he said it was odd, but as long as he was eating now and didn't have a fever, he'd be fine. Anyway, that was a really long story, but I assure you it was an even longer day! We are so glad that our little guy is doing better and eating again. It's so funny because the doctor said that he had viral bronchiolitis but he never showed any symptoms of it, besides not eating (which I've never heard of associated with bronchiolitis either). Oh well, Bronchiolitis or not, he's healthy and happy and we are relieved that he's eating again!