8 months old

Noah's 8 month owl picture

Wow, it's been a rough couple of months with health crap with bear. Seriously. I had a lengthy post about this, but I can't find it so forget it and here's the super short version.

Noah got a cold around Thanksgiving and it went into his lungs and caused bronchiolitis. That put him on steroids and breathing treatments in an effort (successful fortunately) to keep him out of the hospital. It also turned into an ear infection which they treated with antibiotics. I love antibiotics, especially since our ped doesn't give them out liberally. I understand it but sometimes you just want your kid to get a script so you feel like something is being done to make them better. I'd love a placebo Rx. Can I get that?

Anyway, he'd be in bad shape due to the breathing and wheezing and then the horrible side effects of the antibiotics - poor Noah. Those oral antibiotics really rip up their stomachs and cause ugly diaper issues so then there's another prescription to deal with that. I am not exaggerating at all when I saw we've filled about a dozen Rx and had about 10 doctor appointments in two months - not to mention the two specialists we've now been to in the last 3 weeks. sigh.

Remember how I said this was the short version? Sorry. Anyway, after a couple weeks he'd be better so we'd stop the treatments and let the antibiotics run out. Then we'd have a week of health and it would go to crap again in a few days. We'd start all over and they'd determine he had an ear infection...it's possible that it was just one ear infection which is not great. They gave him steroids to help with the respiratory issues and had us come in three days in a row for antibiotic injections to try and overcome the ear infection. When we went back the doctors were sure that the infections would be gone and they weren't which meant that his ear infections were really resistent to the meds. Super. They told us we really needed to go to an ENT to discuss tubes. I'd dreaded this but took an official, on facebook, poll of friends in similar situations and heard amazing, supportive, rave reviews of the procedure, results and our surgeon. We were also referred to a pulmonologist to have a chest xray done and discuss whether his persistent respiratory issues were a result of viruses or something chronic like asthma or allergies. I'm really hoping for the virus outcome...that really makes sense to me too. It started when it got cold and before that he'd never had any issues so that's what I'm hoping for. They had him get some blood drawn and we should have those results in the next few days. Fingers crossed that nothing points to asthma :(

So the main point of this story is that tomorrow morning, at 7am...in 8 hours from now...Noah will be having surgery to get tubes in his ears. Everything I've heard raves about the results and about how life changing it is for the child. I feel so horrible that he's been so sick for two months of his little life. As much as I hate the idea of him being put under, I am told that the entire procedure from start to finish is about 10 minutes long. Ugh I really hate that he'll be put under, boo.

Well in other news Noah seems to be following in Connor's footsteps with being really physical. He's started cruising, which means he'll stand up and hold onto furniture or something and walk around the furniture while holding on. He doesn't share the bit of fear that Connor had about getting back down once he's standing up...he just throws his body down and either laughs or cries.

He's still loving food but the sickness did slow him down a bit. I'd say he lost a pound or something. He's weighing in at about 19.5 lbs right now so he's not hurting for chubs :) His chunky legs barely fit into the little leg holes in the bumbo, lol - it's adorbs.

Well, since I have to be up redic early to take bear to the surgical center I'd better log off and get to bed. I don't know if I'll be able to get any sleep thinking about tomorrow but I'm going to do my best to try! Keep him in your thoughts please.

Thank you!! :)