Thanksgiving break started Tuesday afternoon for Eli and I when we stared to pack for our big trip to North Carolina. Tuesday night was a rough night for E when he had maybe 4 hours of sleep and a 102.7 fever at 4:45 am. Scheduled to leave for the airport around 8:30, we had the hard decision to make as to whether it was a good idea to go or not. When we woke E up in the morning, his temp was down to 100.7, so the right decision was to go and assume what we had experienced the night before was just a symptom of teething or a growth spurt. Flying appeared to be no problem and he was totally fine in the car on the 3 hour drive to Surf City, NC. The only indication of anything being wrong was the fact that he refused to eat. When we finally arrived to Andi and Ed's, he was acting petrified to go in, but we assumed it was just a long day and a new environment with people he isn't used to seeing. It wasn't until we tried to give E a bath that we realized a big problem. Taking his temp and seeing it rise to 104.7 sent me straight to a place of self blame, blame for bring him and not recognizing he was getting sick. I should have started this out by saying that Eli has never been sick to the point of taking him to the ER, but that was the night. Andi and Ed, thankfully, led us to the ER about 45 minutes away with an unhappy Eli and a sobbing me. Again, the guilt for not knowing what was wrong and not being able to do anything to make this all go away. The hospital we went to was amazing, they saw us right away and started helping us with Tylenol and Motrin. Within three hours they diagnosis E with a raging ear infection in one ear and the other not far behind. One quick shot, antibiotics and tons of love and we were on our way out with a 101 temp.
Around midnight, we got back to Andi and Ed's and all 3 of us crashed. 8 hours later we were back at fighting the fever and making Eli as comfortable as possible in these strange and new surroundings. It wasn't until Saturday when he decided it was time to start eating, so his first Thanksgiving eating solid foods ended in two bites of corn bread souffle:(. This was a stressful few days for me, feeling so helpless, but I am so thankful for having an amazing family surrounding us and being there to help us through.
The rest of the trip was great! Eli loved playing with Ada and Mae and even picked up a few new words!
Eli's current words/letters: all done, more, milk, down, mama, dada, nana, may, door, window, light, meow,eat, water, ball, vroom, bed, baby, park, hoot, bah, glass, bowl, water, bubble
I am sure there are more, but my sleep-deprived mind can't think.
