Month 13 - A Whirlwind of bodily fluids.

Zachary only had one bout of illness in the entire first year of his life - he caught RSV with Bronchiolitis when he was 4 months old, which was a couple weeks of coughing until he threw up, but in retrospect, it wasn't that bad.

Month 13 caught up with all the cold/flu/random baby illnesses that he missed!  It started with the one year well child visit and vaccinations, where they discovered his first ear infection.  The doctor started him on his first antibiotics, and we watched anxiously for any sign of adverse reaction.  The first night, I was asleep when I heard the sounds of a cat coughing up a hairball.  I reached for Bouncer, who was asleep at the foot of the bed, and it wasn't the cat.  Then the smell of bile hit me, and Z gave a little whimper.  Turns out, he had urped up mucous and bile in his sleep.  We got him up, got him cleaned up and changed,  changed the sheet on his crib and put him back down to sleep.  He hairballed two more times in the night, so I called the consulting nurse.

She walked me through all the typical questions, no rash, no fever, no indication of injection site irritation or tenderness.  The consulting nurses at Children's Hospital are 1000 times better than the consulting nurses at Group Health.  At Group Health, they read through a script, and there will be no deviation in the conversation from that script (I remember one call for a bump on the head where the nurse asked if Z was "bleeding from his ears?" Seriously, lady.  I would have mentioned that FIRST, while calling from a car speeding to the nearest emergency room.)  The nurse at Children's gave me the information I needed, while stroking my insecure mommy side at the same time.  She told me, by the sound of it, I was doing all the right things, and to try giving him his antibiotics with yogurt at the same time to get the probiotic benefit.

Yogurt seemed to help, he only threw up two more times over the next 36 hours, and I thought "OK, cool, I've got this antibiotic thing down!"

Then the stomach flu hit me on Monday morning.  Like a fool, I went to work, thinking it was just GI upset related to my methotrexate injection on Sunday night.  By noon it turned into full on fever-with-the-shakes-can't hold-anything-down sickness, and I headed home to rest.  Mark was at home, working from home, so I isolated myself on the futon on Z's room, conveniently located next to a bathroom, and tried not too moan too loudly with each new bout of sickness.

We agreed Mark would pick up the baby, and take care of him that night so I didn't infect either of them, which didn't go so well.  The minute they came in the door, Z was at my side, patting me and saying "Mama, Mama, Mama....."you can't really tell your one year old "Go away, Mama's sick", so I did the best I could to comfort him without breathing on him.  Around 9:00, the stomach flu hit Mark with diarrhea, and it was back to the Mama & Zackie show.

The next morning, I felt 70% better so I decided to go ahead and go to work (idiot).  Z was still Mr. Happy and Perky, so he went to daycare as normal.  Mark stayed home sick, and again, by 2 pm I was back home and in bed with a fever.  By Thursday, the adults were back to normal, Zac had finished his antibiotic course, and Z's Thursday/Friday daycare provider mentioned one of the other little ones had the stomach flu last week, and that she hoped Z didn't catch it.  We revised our thoughts about antibiotics and decided that the puking had been stomach flu, which we both then caught.  Urgh.

Now it's Friday, and we're all healthy, just in time for the weekend.  Healthy until Saturday morning, when we woke up to a feverish, cranky baby.  By the end of the day, splotches started blooming on Z's face and Sunday they moved to his torso as well. He ran fevers all weekend that were only mildly controlled with Tylenol, and was sluggish with no appetite.   Another round of phone calls to the consulting nurses, and a frantic search for the documentation that came with the vaccinations.  The nurse said it sounded like a strong anti-body reaction to one of the vaccinations.

Proof positive that Z is the best natured little guy ever.  Splotchy and smiley!

I freaked out, thinking Zac had caught chicken pox - except the incubation time was wrong, based on the documentation.  We were at the pediatrician for walk in hours first thing Monday morning, where the doctor said "It's not chicken pox, it's a reaction to the attenuated MMR vaccine, and it will look worse tomorrow before it gets better." 

He was right!

The doctor also told us he wasn't contagious, but a rash like this meant we should keep him out of daycare.  I took one day off to stay home, Mark took one day off, and his part time provider picked up an extra day, since no other kids were there with her that day. 

It makes me want to scratch just looking at it!

OK!  Healthy again for the weekend, right?  WRONG! Massive drooling and coughing with runny BM's.  Off we went to the pediatrician again!  Z had a slight cold that was causing him to cough, and post nasal drip (plus gobs of saliva) were causing the upset tummy.  To add insult to injury, it looked like he was cutting 5 teeth, and his other ear was now sporting an ear infection.  I left with a prescription for a different antibiotic, a hearty wish for good luck with the teething, and we were off for the PopCap holiday family party.

We weathered Christmas with a lot of drool, two teeth made appearances, Zac started walking, and no one threw up.  I'm very much ready to enter month 14!