Jackson and the terrible, horrible, very bad day

If I could redo a day in our lives, I think last Friday would totally be one of them...

It all started a few weeks ago, when we all got sick on our anniversary. Par for the course, as soon as Jackson finished up his antibiotics he got sick again. We went to his allergist and he was given the official label of an asthmatic toddler. Jackson got another round of steroids to help him breath, but besides his nebulizer medicine - there wasn't much else to do. He has allergies and asthma and we live in South Louisiana.

Fast forward to last week. Jackson was no better, no worse. Just totally irritable and throwing fits left and right. I tried to remind myself that I'd be cranky too if I couldn't breath. We counted to 10 a lot and drank lots of wine after bedtime.

Thursday night was unbearable. Jackson cried from the time I picked him up from school until he finally passed out around 9. During his bath the cries turned in to screams and shaking from pain. I could not figure out what was causing him so much pain. He wouldn't even let me wash the shampoo out of his hair...and that's when I saw it.

Jackson had a marble sized lump behind his left ear and it was red and tender to the touch.

right after Jackson's bath, when I first noticed the lump

I took this pictures and sent it to my mom and mother-in-law, who were both as dumbfound as I was. We couldn't tell if it was a bite or a bruise - certainly the farthest thing from what he was diagnosed with!

Around midnight, Jackson was sleeping but momma was up worrying...

Of course, the timing of this lump couldn't have been any worse. We were flying to St. Louis Friday afternoon and Mr. went up for work the day before us. I had an out of town meeting all day on Friday, that I would have canceled had I known what was about to happen...

I called Jackson's pediatrician first thing Friday morning and arranged for my mom to take Jackson to have his lump looked at. I went on with my boss to Baton Rouge and met with a client all morning. We took a quick break at noon and I had numerous missed call from not only my mom, but two doctor's offices as well.

Thank God my mom is so well connected with the medical community where we live, she took him to a few doctors Friday morning to address the multiple issues with Jackson.

The mysterious lump behind Jackson's ear was diagnosed as mastoiditis, which means that he has such a bad ear infection, the infection went into the bone behind his ear and the lump was his bone. The link has much more information about what it actually is.  Serious shit.

Jackson never ran fever or tugged at his ears, and never had drainage.  We've had no trouble with his ears since he got tubes last December.  Jackson was given an antibiotic shot, another round of steroids, and two additional antibiotics that he takes orally for 10 days...we're averaging at least one massive diaper blow out a day.  Oh and if you've lost count, that would be his third round of steroids this month!!!

On top of the mastoiditis, Jackson has an ear infection, server sinus infection, and tonsillitis.  So that nasty eye drainage and "allergy eyes" were because his sinus were so infected, not because his allergies were acting up - thanks Mr. Allergist for missing the boat on that one! And now his ENT wants to talk about taking out his tonsils...it's always something...

If you're still reading this post, our day doesn't get much better after this.  This all happened before noon.

After excusing myself from my meeting to call everyone back, my boss agreed that we needed to end our meeting early so that I could see about Jackson.  So nice right?!? Well it's a darn good thing we left when we did.  Our hour ride home took nearly three hours because of road construction!

Did I mention that we had a 5 o'clock flight to catch - yep, we came dangerously close to missing our flight...until it got canceled! So between seeing about my sick baby, picking up all of his medications, now I had to call the airline to see what the heck we were supposed to do!

Since our flight was canceled due to mechanic issues, they were able to put me on another flight with a different airline.  Great news, I had an extra hour to get to the airport and I'd get in to St. Louis a little earlier!  In theory, this was great news.  The reality was that our connecting flight in Houston was delayed almost 5 hours.

Does he remind you of Dennis the Menace - he should!

If you've never spent 5 hours in an airport with a severely sick child, totally jacked up on steroids, running wild - all while trying to keep you bags in tow and not lose your shit - well then consider yourself blessed!

Thankfully, Jackson was so worn out that he slept the whole way to St. Louis and I was able to recharge as well.

We finally made it to my sister's house in St. Louis around 1AM...more on that next!

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7 month check-up

Tuesday morning I took Jackson for his 7 month check-up and vaccinations. As we were driving to the appointment I started to think about our first trip to the pediatrician. I vividly remember this day. I think it was our first day out of the house. Jackson was just days old and we needed to have his Bilirubin level checked.

My mom came to pick us up because Mr. was back at work and I wasn't supposed to drive. Of course I was running late, I am always late. I had the diaper bag packed, and I mean packed! You'd think we were leaving for a week. As we were walking out the door I noticed I had leaked all over my dress. I had to run back in my house and find something to wear, again. Did I mention that it was 100+ degrees out with 100% humidity? When we finally made it to the doctor's office we were at least 20 minutes late. Everyone was kind and didn't make an issue of our tardiness. That was when I knew I was going to like this practice.

Big shock I know, but we were late Tuesday as well. You would think that I would be better at this by now! I am truly spoiled by having a nanny in our home. Waking Jackson up in the morning and getting us both ready always takes longer than I anticipate.

Just as Jackson hardly whimpered during the agonizing blood pricks of the Bilirubin test at his first visit. He smiled at the nurse while she gave him his shots on Tuesday. Jackson makes shots so easy. It makes me wonder if I'm doomed for a toddler that has to be pinned down by five nurses to give an oral vaccine when he's older:)

7 month stats:
20lbs. 14oz.
28" length
17 1/4" head circumference
75% for all
Still no signs of teething!

Look how tiny he was for his first shots compared to his sweet little fat legs now!

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3 month Checkup

Jackson had his 3 month check up this morning and according to the doctor "he's very advanced for his age". He's in the 75th percentile for his height, weight and head circumference - 14.09lbs., 24", 16" - one chunky monkey with lots of rolls to squeeze and love on! Dr. N was amazed with how strong he is and how interactive he was with me. Jackson pushes up to scoot when he's on his tummy and will stand if you hold his hands. Mr. Wilson thinks he's a linebacker in the making for sure:) Dr. N also said he wouldn't be surprised if Jackson starts to crawl very soon, I don't think I'm quite ready for a mobile baby yet!

Jackson was vaccinated for pneumonia today and hardly cried at all. He let out a little scream when the nurse was putting his band aide on, but within seconds he was all smiles and laughs.

So doctors orders are to keep doing everything that we're doing!

14 week pics:

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Two Months

Where has the time gone? How is my newborn now a two month old?!? Jackson has been such a dream come true, I am so so sad that my maternity leave is coming to an end. I have no idea how I am going to leave my little guy.

To catch you up on life since my last post, we had a great visit with Aunt Megan. I am bummed that we don't live closer to each other because it is so neat to watch her and Chris with Jackson. We took a trip to the beach with my family and it was a very needed vacation for Mr. Wilson and I. Jackson did really well, we had a couple of long nights - but considering we had a six week old at the beach, everything went great. It was also nice to have Mr. Wilson around for the week. He really feels like he misses out on a lot when he's at work.

My best friend and her twin girls also came to meet Jackson and stay with us for a few days. Stephanie and I have been friends since childhood. There was a minute that I had to catch my breath, I couldn't believe that we have real babies and aren't just playing house like we did when we were little girls.

Jackson's two month check up went great. He handled his shots much better than I anticipated. He cries harder during a diaper change then he did for his two shots. We will go back at three months for another shot. Jackson weighed 11.2 and was 23 inches long. That puts him in the 50% percentile for his height, weight and head circumference. I am still breast feeding and plan to pump when I go back to work. Jackson is still eating every 3-4 hours on average and has yet to sleep through the night. He is my son, he's a night owl and doesn't wake up for the day until 10-11 am!

I am going to try and soak up every minute with Jackson this week, my last week of maternity leave. I'm sure I'll start blogging more regularly again once I'm back at work and on a schedule.

Here are some recent pictures for you:

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3 Weeks

I cannot believe that it has been three weeks since Jackson was born. It is hard to remember life without him, and its equally hard to believe that he isn't even supposed to be born yet! With the heat that we have been having, I don't know what I would do if I was still pregnant.

Jackson and I have been trying to stay as cool as possible, without losing our mind staying in the house all day. I was a little nervous taking him shopping, but Stephanie talked me through the placement of the car seat on a shopping cart and we are good to go! I was amazed with the special attention we got at the grocery store. Jackson loves to be pushed in his stroller, or a shopping cart and loves to ride in he car. If we're on the move he'll even go an extra hour in between feedings which is really nice because its hard to get a lot done on his three hour schedule.

Jackson eats every three hours and I am still nursing, its going really well. The nights are hard because he wakes up screaming and ready to eat about every 2.5 hours. The pediatrician said I should really wait to feed him every three hours, so getting him to that point at night is hard. This week I am trying to break him of sleeping on me, I think he cries at night because he's in his craddle and not on my chest.

We had our newborn pictures taken last Friday, check out marlenetouchet.com, password is jackson. We're so happy with the pictures and really glad that we had them done. Jackson gets bigger everyday so it will be nice to have these pictures to look back on.

I'll leave you with some pictures from last week. Jackson went swimming and loved it, he is a water baby!

Jackson loves his puppy from his Aunt Megan and Uncle Chris


Loving the pool


Napping after a long day


Sleeping angel in mommy and daddy's bed


Napping in his crib for the first time today


Jackson is three weeks old!

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