A week in the life

This might get long but I think it's necessary. Let's start with last Tuesday around 5:30 pm. Chera and Owen had just left after a little impromptu playdate and the boys had been running around like crazy with their trucks. I put the oven on for Ashton's dinner when I noticed he was having an extremely difficult time breathing. Short gasps and wheezing. He had had a bad cold but I have never heard him struggle for air like this. I sat on the floor next to him and my stomach dropped - I just knew we were headed for the emergency room (because doesn't stuff like this always happen on nights and weekends when the pediatrician is closed?!). I paged the doctor on call and put the phone up so she could hear Ashton' breathing. Long story short, off we went to the pediatric ER at Newton Wellesley. We have been there twice before, once for croup and once for the gash Tate left on Ashton's face when he bit him.

The rest of the story plays out like your typical emergency room visit. Forms, co-pays, a packed waiting room, check-in, and finally, a room where we waited and waited. A room filled with gadgets and buttons and wires that I had to keep Ashton from playing with, pushing and pulling. The medical treatment for his wheezing was a nebulizer - a little machine that you put liquid meds into, it shoots out a mist and the patient is supposed to breath in the white fog for as long as it takes to empty (ideally with a mask on). Ashton was petrified, screamed and I was sweating from holding his flailing body for five solid minutes (I was by myself - Jason was working). Afterwards, "We'd like to monitor him for the next couple of hours to make sure his lungs don't close back up." Excuse me? The next COUPLE of hours? "Yes, and we should mention, the medicine we just gave him can act as a stimulant for some children." So he is going to be even more hyper than he is now, not having had dinner and past his bedtime by 2 hours? N.o.t. p.o.s.s.i.b.l.e.

It was a blur. Ashton was up, down, on the floor, on the ceiling, rolling around and basically a pinball in a pinball machine. They brought toys in, a little DVD player to watch Mickey, snacks and books and it was a very long 2 hours. They give him a liquid steroid, monitored him for another hour, and he finally crashed after crying his head off for a solid ten minutes. We left at 12 am. Once I got him in his crib I sat and gave him another 20 minute nebulizer treatment, snaking the tube next to his nose and mouth and he breathed it peacefully, fast asleep. I did this again at 4:30 am.

I had to take Wednesday off from work to continue to try to give him nebulizer treatments (even with Jason's help, yeah right. He won't sit still for anything for 20 minutes, let alone a machine that blows white mist into his face), go fill his prescriptions and get him to the pediatrician for a followup visit. He did not want to take a nap in the afternoon so I spent about 90 minutes off and on rocking him and trying to get him in his crib despite his wailing. I tried to squeeze some actual work in somewhere. Wednesday night I was so, so tired.

Thursday was ok.

Friday morning Jason had to be at work at 7 am so he was out the door by 6:30. I was on my own. I had to be at work at 8:30 and get Ashton to Chera's by 8:15 so I  rolled him out of bed at 7:30 am and straight into his highchair with breakfast waiting. He did not like this one bit. Usually Jason is home and they play and watch a little bit of cartoons before he eats. Perhaps he was not hungry but he whined and screamed and eventually I just threw in the towel and packed it all up to take to Chera's. 5 minutes later, he is pointing to his high chair. Oh, NOW you want breakfast?? I put him back in, unpack his food, and re-serve him. It's 8 am.

Nope. Ashton starts to pick things up one by one and fling them in every direction. Isn't this fun? He laughs. I  want to scream. Back out of the high chair, repack breakfast, get his lunch, get my lunch, change him, change me (because a piece of jelly toast had hit my white shirt, of course), and we're off to Chera's. 8:15 am. I unload him and the car and realize his milk sippy has leaked all over the place. My passenger seat and my bag are sopping. When this happens with water, fine. Milk, not fine, and it's ALWAYS milk on mornings like this. I stomp into Chera's and apologize for him not having had breakfast and am off to work in my sticky car with my sticky stuff.

11 am. Back at Chera's to pick Ashton up to head to VT for the weekend. Jason is going to a bachelor party and Kathleen and Woody (10 weeks old) and Ashton and I had planned on going home for about two months. But, considering Ashton's ER visit and breathing problems and cold (he is not quite better and is coughing) we had decided Woody and Ashton should not share a backseat for a 3.5 hour car ride. So that was a real bummer for me - me and Ashton went alone.

The drive up was ok even though Ashton only slept for 30 minutes. There was no real additional trouble until Saturday. He was up at 6:15 am and then his nap was a mere 12 pm - 1:15 pm. Yikes. But off we went to Shelburne Farms to see the baby lambs - me, Ashton, my mom and our dear family friend Patti. Shelburne Farms is such a special place, incredibly beautiful, and I snapped a couple of cute pics.

Afterwards, we went to a cute toy store, filled to the brim with everything you can imagine, and Ashton just started to puke everywhere. Totally out of the blue. Fab. My mom took Ashton outside and Patti and I mopped it all up. Met back at the car, Ashton had a dirty diaper but seemed as good as new. We all commented that it seemed he just had a sour tummy and felt better after getting sick. So we went off to a furniture store to check out their outdoor clearance stuff (I need a set for our deck). Welllll Ashton got sick there too. Another mop-up session while I took Ashton outside. At this point, he was stripped down to his diaper and long sleeve tee, that's it. His other clothes and shoes were filthy and my poor mom - she was too. Back in the car on the way home ... sick again. Pull over, more mopping, more stripping. At home - sick AGAIN. But he seemed to feel better each time and leading up to each incident there was no warning at all - we were all beside ourselves. I ended up calling the pediatrician ("Um, yes hi, this is Ashton's mom... yes I know we just saw you but this isn't about his breathing, it's something else..") Oy. I put him to bed with no milk and no dinner, poor baby.

Sunday (yesterday) Ashton woke up at the glorious time of 8:30 am, had a big breakfast, and was generally fine except super clingy. He was like a little barnacle all weekend in general and I feel like he never had his paci out of his mouth (which he is getting too old for, but that's another story for another day). We drove back to Boston, got home around 3 pm, and I just wanted to collapse. Jason had just rolled in from his bachelor party in Sunday River and between the two of us we had the energy of a snail. But no rest for the weary! We had cars and suitcases to unpack, laundry to do, chores chores chores blah blah blah. Ashton was asleep by 7, we were in bed at 10, and I don't think Ashton, Jason or I moved a muscle until 7 am.

Monday (today) was not an ordinary morning either. Jason had to work at 9 am (and me at 8:30 am) and Chera couldn't take Ashton until 10:30 am so Uncle Berg, Ashton's hero, took the bus out to babysit. But we no longer live on the bus line so after carefully coordinating our getting ready schedules, Jason took Ashton for a quick car ride to pick Berg up while I got breakfast ready. (Incidentally, it was Berg who put the "bachelor" in "bachelor party" this past weekend - his wedding is this summer and Ashton is the ring bearer :) ) Luckily, Ashton was in a happy mood and I landed safely at work on time, in unstained clothes.

And a new week is upon us. You see why I feel like I get nothing done! When I do have a free moment, I like to spend it writing ridiculously long blog posts about why I never have free moments.  If you've made it this far, I hope this illustration was as long and drawn out to read as it was to write (and to live!) because then I will have made my point :) I love Ashton but boy am I tired!!

p.s. Ashton's breathing was much improved by Wednesday evening but the pediatrician said if this kind of wheezing episode happens again in the absence of a cold, it is likely asthma. Unfortunately, considering he has allergies and eczema, this could be the case- these conditions are usually a package deal. If he has it, he may or may not grow out of it. To be continued...