I will make this short because most of our readers probably already know what is going on and I just don’t feel like writing alot about it. Aaron drove up and met us, then we headed out to Saint Louis. We will hang out in Saint Louis until we know what is going on with the storm.

Well, Victoria certainly had an exciting time visiting with Ethan last weekend. She was disappointed that she misses out on so much because she lives in Dallas. I guess he felt bad for her and decided to get sick so that she could experience the fun of taking him to the ER. Oh and the ridiculous amounts of diarrhea. She was missing out on that too, haha.

Friday when she arrived we didn’t get to hang out much before we had to take him to the hospital. What a wonderful welcome, haha. Saturday, she slept in with Ethan while I went to work for a while. We went to lunch and we went to Janie and Jack then we came home. Nothing terribly exciting.

Sunday started off pretty slow also. Ethan was feeling much better so we went to Houston’s for lunch. It was delicious and we all had a good time. Later that afternoon, we took Ethan to the park for some fresh air. We took some pictures and Victoria pushed him in the swing. That night we attempted a group shot self portrait in the bed. Ethan was feeling so much better Sunday evening – he was wild. He was kissing Victoria all over the face and the mouth. He was so funny. He would pounce on her and grab her face and just slobber all over her.

Monday I had to go back to work so Victoria got to spend one on one time with Ethan. They slept in until it was time to go to the doctor’s office. After the doctor visit, I headed back to work and Victoria and Ethan hung out for the rest of the day.

On Tuesday, they went to Graceland. After Graceland, Victoria had to head back to Dallas, so Ethan came to work with me for the rest of the day. He was pretty crabby in the evening. I know he missed his Auntie Vicky!

Well, I think that’s about it. I hope Victoria had a good time with this crazy boy. We miss her!

Here are a few more pictures:

Our group shot!

Some more pictures from the park

Another first occurred last night… And its not a good one…. I guess it had to happen sometime…

Ethan fell off the bed for the first time and he’s now working on his first black eye. I woke up at 3am because I had to pee. He was still asleep, so I got up and didn’t turn on the light or the bathroom light and I left the door open. He heard me or noticed that I was gone, so he woke up and started crying and crawling to the end of the bed. I couldn’t get up to stop him without peeing on the floor, and I thought I was going to have to do that to grab him. He stopped when he got to the edge of the bed, so I relaxed and decided I didn’t need to pee on the floor. Then, he crawled right over the edge and landed on his face on the comforter. He only fell about 2 feet and the comforter broke his fall. And he didn’t land on his head. But I was terrified and so was he.

He screamed and I scooped him up and turned on all the lights so I could get a good look at him. No bleeding or busted lips, nothing swollen or broken. I called Aaron because i was really freaked out and not sure if I needed to take him to the ER. We talked it out and decided that he was fine aside from the swollen red rug burn under his right eye. I stayed awake for a bit to make sure he was fine, then I went to bed.

He is fine today. The area under his right eye is swollen and red, and it is sore, but he is OK. I am still a bit freaked out and I keep having visions of Ethan falling off the bed. It was very scary. I thought he was going to be seriously injured. And I would have felt awful that I didn’t pee on the floor to save him!

Ethan had a follow up visit with the pediatrician yesterday. His fever has not returned since Sunday morning. The pediatrician thought he was better, so she repeated the blood work to make sure that his white count was returning to normal. His blood work came back normal except that he’s now a bit anemic. I’ll have to give him iron drops after he’s done with the antibiotic. The pedi wasn’t very concerned about the diarrhea. She said it is not possible to tell at this point if it is a cause of illness or an effect from the antibiotics. She just told me to feed him binding foods, stay away from juice, and keep him hydrated. He has a little diaper rash too. His first diaper rash since leaving the NICU.

We said goodbye to Auntie Vicky today. She headed back to Dallas. I will have some pictures to share soon.

Ethan goes back to daycare tomorrow and I should be finished with work by Friday.

Update: here are a few pics of ethan and victoria

Ethan is feeling a lot better today. He woke up this morning with only a 101.5 fever and the Tylenol took care of that. His fever hasn’t returned today. He does have diarrhea though and that is pretty disgusting. He is acting more like his normal self. The diarrhea does concern me, but I can ask the pediatrician about it tomorrow. He has to follow up tomorrow. I’ll let everyone know how he is doing after the appointment. Thanks for all of your well wishes

Ethan has come down with some mystery illness this week. My last post talked about what a great mood he was in and how he was going to bed early and sleeping so well at night. Well, now I realize that he was probably just being calm and cuddly because he was starting to feel bad. On Friday morning, around 1 am, I woke up to hot potato little baby sleeping next to me. I took his temperature and it was around 101 so I gave him some Tylenol and nursed him back to sleep. He was a little stuffy, but it cleared up almost immediately so I didn’t think anything about it. At 5:30 we woke up and his fever was around 102.5. I gave him more Tylenol and nursed him and called in to work. I made him an appointment with a pediatrician in town for 9:30.

At the pediatrician’s office they drew blood and collected urine. His white blood count was pretty high. The doctor said it was high but not quite high enough to worry her enough to send him to the hospital for further testing. She thought that if he started on antibiotics right away, all would be fine. His ears, throat, and urine were all infection free and his lungs sounded clear, so she suspected that he has some sort of bacterial respiratory infection.

I filled his antibiotic and he came to work with me for the rest of the day. His fever came and went, but responded well to Tylenol and ibuprofen. Victoria arrived around 6:00 and Ethan and I left work shortly after that to meet her. By the time we were ready to go out to dinner, his fever was coming back. I had only given him ibuprofen 3 hours prior, so I was surprised that his fever was back so soon. We decided to go eat quickly before he got crabby. By the time we finished our meal, he was so miserable that he fell asleep sitting up on my lap, snuggling with my chest. He felt like a fiery hot coal. When we got back to the hotel, his fever was over 102 and he was acting pretty miserable. An hour later it was up to 102.8, and still not time for more ibuprofen yet. I got really worried about him so we decided to head to the emergency room. I gave him some tylenol on the way out the door and when we made it to the hospital an hour later, his temp had fallen to 102.6.

The nurses gave him some more ibuprofen when they moved us back to a room in the pediatric ER. The doctor was a real jerk. I won’t go into too much detail because I could seriously write a book about how awful he was. He basically said that his gut feeling was that it was a viral infection, but that he would do bloodwork, urine sample, chest x-ray, just to make sure nothing shows up. I told him the results of the blood work from the morning visit to the pediatrician and he totally dismissed it saying that the doctor’s offices do not produce results reliable enough to make any judgements. He said that he didn’t believe Ethan’s white blood count could have been as high as the pediatrician claimed it was.

Well the bloodwork came back and his white blood count was just about double what it was at the pedi’s office. The ER doc said he was surprised that it was such a high number (just under 30,000), but that he didn’t think it meant anything at all. He said his “gut feeling” was that it was not a bacterial infection even though the bloodwork shows otherwise. I’m no doctor, but from what I understand, 30000 for a white blood cell count is really really high and indicates a massive infection. But he just dismissed it as having no meaning at all. He said its just too common for babies to have a virus so that’s probably all it was. He said he would give Ethan an antibiotic IV just in case, but he really didn’t think it was necessary. UM ok, that makes no sense, but whatever. I am not complaining that he gave him the antibiotic, but I didn’t like his “gut feeling” diagnosis and his dismissal of the test results. I also didn’t appreciate condescending attitude and failure to listen to / answer my questions.

After the drip was finished, they sent us home. Ethan’s fever came back this morning at 103.5, but it went away with a dose of Tylenol and it stayed away for most of the day. Around 1:00 he started to feel warm but not too hot so I gave him some more tylenol. At 4 he had a major diarrhea blowout and he had to have a bath. He was feeling feverish again at this point and was pretty hysterical about having to take a lukewarm bath. After I got him cleaned up and took his temp at 4:30 he was back to 101 again. And he’s feeling really bad again. He’s had a lot of nasal congestion today and it has made him gag and throw up a few times. He’s also had a few diarrhea diapers. He had a pretty good appetite around lunch, but he didn’t want to nurse most of the day. When he was feeling good he wanted to hang out with Victoria instead of nurse. He even bit me to get me to let him go play. But as soon as the fever crept back in, he was whiny and clingy and miserable and wanting to nurse.

If his fever spikes up very high again, we are taking him to the ER at the Childrens hospital here in Memphis. That is where we should have gone last night, but I forgot that there was a pediatric hospital in memphis.

So anyway, the long story boils down to this. He is sick and taking antibiotics and we are hoping that he gets better soon. I am trying to keep him comfortable and hydrated. We aren’t really sure what is wrong but I believe the pediatrician more than the ER doctor that he probably has some sort of bacterial respiratory infection. I will post an update if anything changes.

So far this week has gone really well. It was a little rough in the beginning because Ethan was sad to see Aaron head home. The last two days, however, have been really great. I think his mood today was the best he has had for the whole trip. He came to work with me for a few hours this evening and he didn’t cry at all!

He went to bed really early last night and slept all night. He went to bed at 6, work up a little after 8, then went back to bed at 9 and he slept all night. That was the second or third night in a row that he slept without waking up crying or waking up to nurse in the middle of the night. Tonight he went to bed around 8:30. This was the second or third night in a row that he hasn’t nursed to sleep. He will nurse before bed, then we brush his teeth, then he cuddles in the bed with me and falls asleep.

He is eating a lot more solid foods now. He will only take about 5 ounces of milk from his cup when he’s at daycare, but he eats a whole breakfast and lunch and some snacks too. He nurses about 4 times throughout the time he is with me and he has dinner or a snack too. This evening at work, I fed him an entire blueberry nutrigrain bar!!! And then he had a little of my meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Ethan will eat just about anything. Its pretty surprising to see him get excited about sauteed onions and bell peppers. He has even eaten (and begged for more) pickled banana peppers from my tostones at Bahama Breeze. They were more sweet than spicy, but they did have just a twinge of heat.

Ethan is really showing his personality now. He is enjoying meeting all the new people here in Millington. He expects everyone he sees to talk to him. If he doesn’t catch someone’s attention right away, he will yell at them and wait for a response. Then he will act shy and duck his head when they talk to him. Little stinker…

Aaron drove up to visit us this weekend, Yay! Ethan was so happy to see his Dada. He clung to Aaron the whole weekend.

On Friday evening, Aaron arrived at Uncle John’s house really late, so we went to sleep almost right away. Ethan was really crabby. Eris licked him in the face and scared him, so he was not in the mood for playing or hanging out.

Saturday morning was a different story. We slept in pretty late, and Ethan woke up as happy as can be. He was overwhelmed to wake up between mommy and daddy. He couldn’t believe his eyes that Dada was here.

We went the day at the zoo on Saturday. The weather was so nice. Ethan had a really good time for his first trip to the zoo. The Memphis Zoo was surprisingly nice. I have heard good things and bad things, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’m glad we decided to see it for ourselves because it was well worth the visit.

Here are some pictures from the zoo

After the zoo, we headed to downtown Memphis to find something to eat. The plan was to drop Ethan off at the Peabody with grandma and grandpa so Aaron and I could go to the Flying Saucer by ourselves. They didn’t answer the phone, so we tried to take Ethan to the Flying Saucer with us. That plan didn’t work. You have to be 21 to enter. I didn’t think it would matter since he is an infant and its not just a bar, but they made us leave. Luckily, we met up with grandma and grandpa quickly, and Aaron and I went back into the Flying Saucer to have beer and bratwurst. We were going to tell them that we left the baby at the nearest fire department, but nobody asked what we did with him. Bummer.

Ethan had a good time with Grandma and Grandpa while we ate. They took him shopping in the gift shop and bought him and Elvis T-shirt. Last week was Dead Elvis Week, so Ethan needed a souvenir. Aaron and I had a good time at the Flying Saucer. We had beer and bratwurst!

Next stop – we headed back to the Peabody to pick up Ethan and to see the Peabody ducks. We missed their march, but we did go to the roof and see them in the duck palace. Very interesting. I think Ethan liked them. After that we said goodbye and headed back to Uncle John’s house.

Sunday we made a trip back to Memphis to see Mud Island. It was another beautiful day. A fantastic day to be out seeing the sights in Memphis. I think Mud Island is way cool, so I was glad to share the experience with Aaron and Ethan. Ethan had a good time dipping his feet in the water and being sprayed by the fountain at the “Gulf of Mexico”.

OK, I’m getting really tired now so I’ll make the rest of this short. I wanted to write about the things that Ethan is doing now, but I’m too tired.

We headed back to Uncle John’s to say goodbye and pick up the doggie, then we headed back to Millington to the hotel. Lots of time on the road this weekend!! When we got back to the hotel, I inquired about moving to a first floor room and thank goodness, they had one available. Aaron helped us move to a new (and much nicer) room, then we went to Kroger, then to Sonic, then to sleep!

Aaron and I dropped Ethan off at daycare this morning and it was very sad. Aaron had a long drive home. We miss him already!

(and don’t forget to look at the two other new posts below this monster new post)

On Wednesday, Mom drove up to Millington to visit with me and Ethan for a few days. I had to work really late on Wednesday, so I was still at work when she made it into town. Ethan fell asleep on the way to the hotel and he was so surprised to see Grandma Tina when he woke up. He was so wound up with all the activity that he didn’t want to go to bed until past midnight.

The next two days, he played hooky from daycare. He hung out with grandma and went to the pool instead. I had to work really late again on Thursday, so it was nice to not have to worry about Ethan on those late nights. He certainly had a lot more fun hanging out with Grandma than he does with me at work. And on top of working late, I got really sick… fever, cough, sore throat, chest congestion, and lots of sinus junk. I felt like I had been hit by a truck.

On Friday, I only had to work for a few hours, so I went to the doctor. Bronchitis…. yuck. When I got back to work, I was happy to find that I had received a package – the three new lenses I had ordered! YAY!

After I was done at work, we went to the mall and bought a few things. We had a late lunch at Bahama Breeze, then we headed to Memphis to wait for Pops to arrive on the train. Grandma Tina and Pops planned to stay the rest of the weekend at the Peabody in Memphis. We checked into the Peabody and hung out for a while. Ethan loved the room, especially the bed. As soon as we got there, he lay his head down on the bed and smiled. Usually, he is trying to crawl off of a bed – not lay on it, lol.

Pick me up and put me on the nice bed, please!

Napping on the comfy bed

Unfortunately, I had to wake Ethan up from his nap so we could head out to Uncle John’s house and wait for Aaron to arrive. I hated to move him because he was so comfortable and cute, but it was getting late. We said bye to Grandma for the evening and walked around the parking lot for 30 minutes trying to find the car.

Here are a couple of pictures from last weekend (August 9 – yes I know, I’m behind on blogging!) from our visit with Uncle John and Aunt Beverly and Anna, Russ, and Rob.

Ethan loves his cousins! And he fits right in with the blond hair and blue eyes, lol.