Whew. It's been a while. And a whirlwind.
Biggest excitement since I've last posted: a trip to the emergency room, and a gorgeous new baby carrier.
A couple of weeks ago, a friend got a new woven wrap. I was already thinking I was ready for a new carrier, as Haydon's getting too heavy to carry on one shoulder in my slings, and our stretchy wrap was too, well, stretchy, for his weight. I was thinking about a soft-structured carrier like an Ergo or a Beco, but when she started talking about how comfy and versatile her wrap was, I started to think I needed one. Then I started reading about them on
TheBabyWearer.com and I knew I needed one. Then I spent endless hours on for-sale-or-trade forums looking at beautiful pieces of cloth and trying to figure out what I wanted. Then someone told me about a sale at
NovaNatural.com , so I was able to get a new one in a colour I liked for a decent price. I ordered a BB Slen passion fruit woven wrap.
And did a happy dance.
And then waited....
All last week, Haydon had frequent funny-looking green poops. I wasn't too concerned about it, as we had started new cereal and he didn't seem to be uncomfortable, I thought he was just adjusting to the new food. Saturday he came down with a fever, and was harder to settle to sleep than usual. This was the first time he has ever been unwell (we have been so blessed thus far!). I have always had a wild imagination, that takes me to worse case scenarios when the slightest thing happens. As St. James and I were taking Haydon's temperature on Saturday night, in my head it was no time before we were in the hospital with him hooked up to endless wires and monitors for weeks on end.
I've been made aware of a couple of families recently who have young children undergoing chemo, which is probably why my mind went there when Haydon started to get sick. I can't imagine what these families are going through - my heart goes out to them! When I think about the amount of agonizing I did about a mere fever - do we give him Tylenol now? Do we wait? Do we go to the hospital? Do we wait until Monday and call the doctor? - I cannot even conceive of the decisions faced by parents of children who are struggling with long-term illness.
Anyway, Sunday morning, Haydon was still feverish. And then he stopped peeing...After three dry diapers to which we responded with a "well, we'll see what the next one's like..." I called telehealth, around 10:00pm. I knew that they would likely recommend that we head to the ER, and, sure enough, they did. So, at 11:00pm, we made our first parental emergency room trip.
We are SO blessed to live in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. As we got into the car, I said to James how lucky we were to be in Canada, as there was no way we would've been heading to the hospital over a happy baby who hadn't peed in a while if we had to pay big money for it. TeleHealth Ontario was also really helpful. Although there was a wait of 15-20 minutes to talk to a nurse, and they called us back, rather than having to wait on the line all that time. When she suggested we got to the hospital, she asked where we'd be going, and sent Haydon's chart with all the info she'd taken over the phone, so we didn't have to go through all of the questions again at the hospital. Having Hamilton's McMaster Children's Hospital a 10 minute drive away is a huge blessing. There was a separate waiting room for little ones, and the nurses were great. The doctor was FANTASTIC!(I wish I had got her name!), and we were home by 1:30am. If trips to the ER can be great, this one was.
We got there, headed in to see the triage nurse, took Haydon's diaper off for her to take his temperature...and it was wet. This was a relief, but my "wait and see how things are in the morning" side was chastising my "err on the side of caution" side. The doctor said that often happens, and she affirmed our choice to bring him in, so that was good.
Chillin' with our friend Sophie in the waiting room
So was being in bed when we got home. I had gotten maybe 5.5 hours of interrupted sleep the night before, and was exhausted. Haydon was up early, as usual, and as St. James had to go to work in the afternoon, I got up with Haydon and we just chilled out watching some TV (all I had energy for). St. James got up at 11 and I showered and stuff. Then came upstairs and laid down for a nap as Haydon was sleeping...then my wonderful husband said he thought he should stay home from work as I hadn't gotten much sleep in the past couple of nights and could probably use an extra set of hands. I didn't say no.
Just as I was drifting off to sleep, there was a BANG BANG BANG on the door. I knew what it was...
St. James answered the door, chatted for awhile with the delivery guy, who happened to be the dad of someone he went to cadets with as a kid. Then he brought up the box and set it on the bed beside me.
"Are you excited!?!"
"I'm trying to decide if I should be excited or asleep...."
He put the box in the corner and suggested sleep was probably the good idea.
I tried.
And then I thought about what was in the box.
And then I thought about the friend who I'd ordered one for who would want to know that the box was here.
And then I got up and dressed and sent her a message.
And then...
It's so comfy! I love it. Haydon does too.
This was my first attempt at putting him in it, and it felt pretty good!
It's also so easy to get stuff done with him in it. Way comfier than my other carriers.
Now I have time at home with my two favorite guys (one which is currently sleeping, the other cleaning the basement - I told you they're both awesome), and a new toy to play with.
Life is good!
