Walter comes to work with me at a daycare. Being a working parent is both good and bad.
My laundry and housework are neglected, my to do list never ends. I miss out on community events I could take Walter to if we were home in the day. (Twinkle babies at the library, anyone?) I don't have many mom friends because most of my friends at work are younger college aged girls, and by the time we arrive home it's bath and bed time- not play date time! But in reality, it really is good! I'm happy there because I get benefits, a free gym membership, and adult interaction with some really good people. I have a reason to start my day early. I can go and eat lunch uninterrupted. And Walter is always there! I've not had to miss any milestones like rolling over or crawling.
And then there is Walter's experience!
He benefits from the social interaction. He has girlfriends I'm pretty sure ;) People can see his cute outfits cause we actually leave the house. And he has a million toys at his disposal. But..... He is also more prone to illness. Which I guess can be good to build up his immune system. But the last week of January, it got bad. And it stunk. A lot.
When adults have RSV it is sometimes expressed as a cough, a runny nose or mucous, coughs, etc. Well when babies like Walter get it, their little narrow cavities and lungs can't handle it so well. And they don't know how to sneeze or cough it up.
January 27th Walter had been fighting a fever that we were treating with ibuprofen. But he wasn't kicking it. He was irritable, coughing and starred to wheeze and whistle when he breathed. He got so bad that at 3:00 am the next morning we took him to an urgent care at the local children's hospital where he was admitted immediately they suctioned out his nose and a huge amount of mucous came out. They did it every few hours! Even though he was cleared out, the oxygen they were giving him wasn't working. He needed to be transferred to the Aurora main branch of the children's hospital network where a better machine could pressurise the air for him.
So we went by ambulance and arrived there. They sucked out more mucous and put him on a cpap. Still not enough improvement. Poor Walter was exhausted. They moved him to the ICU and put him on a bi-pap which is a pretty significant amount of breathing support. While there, they did a chest xray and added to his diagnosis of bronchiolitis (caused by RSV and corona virus) pneumonia! Poor baby!
He couldn't eat for a couple days and eventually Ulises and I chose to give him a feeding tube. Hard decisions. It was rough seeing our baby cry at every nose suction. Heel prick, tube insertion and iv. But after 3 days in the ICU we were upgraded to a regular room.. In all, he went from bi-pap to cpap to heated high flow air and then a nasal cannula and finally room air! Then we went home day 5!
He was pretty sick and it was hard to miss work, school, worry about those things, all while little Walter baby was suffering. But our church congregation took really good care of us. We feel really blessed for having health insurance, a skilled medical staff who helped us so much, and our church family who supported us when our own family, far away, couldn't come.
Now Walter is back to normal and has now started crawling everywhere! He certainly got his energy back!
Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers! We really felt your love!
Now for some hospital pictures and pictures of him at home
