Diarrhea, Worst Diaper Rash, No More Berries (Ever), Phone Jack Drama, Scared of Windows, Hives & "That's My Bum!"

Wes:  8 Months & 2 Weeks Old

Ty:  2 Years, 9 Months & 2 Weeks Old

And here I am again…2 ½ weeks behind in the blog.  I guess that is the price you pay for going away on vacation!  But I think I’ll take it.  I didn’t take many pictures the week before we left for Nova Scotia.  I guess I was too busy packing. 

The Friday before we left for Nova Scotia, July 26, was quite the day.  Unfortunately, for some strange reason, both my boys got diarrhea.  I know why Westin got it.  I gave him raspberries for the first time.  There is a baby food that has pears with raspberries, and I had given it to him that morning for breakfast.  He immediately developed diarrhea and not only that…a horrific diaper rash right away.  I have never seen anything like it.  I am not exaggerating when I tell you that it was the brightest red I have ever seen and he had blisters from the first post-raspberry poop.  I don’t just let him sit in poop either – I always change him right away.  I knew there was not anything different but the raspberries, so I googled “diaper rash and raspberries.”  There it was…on Mayoclinic.com.  The top 3 foods that cause diaper rash were #1) tomatoes #2) oranges and #3) berries.  They are so acidic and can really bother some babies.  Well, there was not any doubt that Westin was one of them.  Ty has always had berries without any problem, but you just never know.  Wes was in agony with every diaper change and it made me cry.  I busted out all my creams and went to town.  Bad day for Wes.  Tyson’s diarrhea came out of nowhere and I couldn’t pinpoint it to anything.  It was not as bad as the antibiotic diarrhea in Florida, but he still went about 8 times on Friday.  The poor guy.  He would get some cramping before he went and he would rub his belly saying, “My belly hurts me.”  I told him that they were gas pains and he started saying, “Gas pains hurts me.”  After he would poop (if you could call it that), he would say, “Gas pains gone!  Ty feels better!”  It was cute, but I couldn’t help but wonder why both my dogs and now my son have had diarrhea for no reason.  Tyson’s drama with the phone jack in his room continued and he actually said to me, “Sheep phone ring.”  I don’t understand the sheep part at all, clearly…but “phone ring” is scary to me.  How does he know that the phone jack makes a phone ring?  We have never had a home phone since Tyson has been born and to my knowledge he has never seen a phone plugged into a phone jack.  So weird.  At least I was able to get him to take a nap in his own crib that day, after covering the phone jack so he couldn’t see it.  Progress.  When Heath got home, Heath finished replacing the brakes on the Outback, we had a quick supper and booked it over to the Edwards.  We didn’t get there until 10:30 PM and the really sad part was that Ty never fell asleep on the way over.  That, unfortunately, led to a midnight bedtime.  Not good.

Even two binkies could not get this kid to sleep!

Sabbath morning we killed ourselves to get the boys to Sabbath School, just to find out that there was #1) no kids and #2) no teacher.  I decided to try to wing it myself, but Judy and Heather English came and rescued me!  After church, we went back to the Edwards and had lunch.  Westin took a 2 ½ hour nap, but Tyson would not nap at all - despite a valiant attempt by Grammy to lie down with him.  It just wasn’t going to happen.  On Saturday  night, we all headed over to Sandy’s house for a graduation party for Taylor (Heath’s cousin).  She finished her boot camp for the army and specialty training for the military police.  We are so proud of her!  She will be stationed in Missouri for the time being, but there is talk about deployment to Afghanistan.  I hope not!  Ty & Wes had a great time at the party.  Ty spent most of the time being chased and running from Uncle Danny, who would call out, “Tee-tee bug” and try to tickle Ty!  I’m not really sure what the “tee-tee bug” is about, but it must be an inside family joke.  At any rate, Ty loved it!  Wes had a good time, despite his diarrhea and diaper rash.  We killed ourselves to get to Walmart before it closed at 10 PM, to get more diaper rash creams for Wes (nothing was working yet) and contact solution that I had forgotten at home.  That is probably the first time I have ever done that.  I made it to the door at 9:55 PM and the greeter stopped me, saying, “Do you know we are closing in 5 minutes?”  I think I gave him a look like, “Are you kidding me?”  I told him that I was grabbing one thing (well, it was really two things ) and I ran right past him.  They weren’t closed yet!  Give me a break.  The boys fell asleep on the way back to the Edwards, but it was still a late 10:30 PM bedtime that night.

**  I can't believe I didn't take any pictures at the party!!!!  **

On Sunday I worked 7a-7p and I left the Edwards’ house at 4:50 AM.  It was a long day.  Heath went ATVing with his dad most of the day up in northern NH and Sonia watched the boys.  I was hoping that Westin’s diaper rash would be getting better, but no such luck.  Obviously the raspberries were out of his system by now, but this rash was unbelievable.  The Edwards went out to eat at the 99 in Conway and I took full advantage of some alone time after my shift.  I hit up all the pharmacies and went to Taco Bell for supper.  What a great time! 

On Monday, the boys and I spent the day unpacking from the weekend away.  I did some major research about diaper rashes that AM, determined to help my poor boy.  I just have never had to deal with one like this before.  I figured out that I was doing a few things wrong.  The diaper creams are really to put on to avoid getting a rash – but once you have a bad one…you should put NOTHING on it!  If you cream up the bum, then it becomes a moist environment for bacteria to grow and you are not airing and drying it out.  So I started rinsing out my wipes to only use water on the rash, dried it completely before rediapering, and put nothing on it.  I also did some “bare bum” time with Wes on the kitchen floor on a towel.  He did pee on it a few times, but who cares?  Anything to help the rash!  I didn’t put him down on the towel until he pooped, though, and I was paranoid that he wasn’t finished pooping.  I was getting Ty’s lunch ready when I thought I smelled poop. 

Me: “Ty, is Westin pooping?”

Ty:  “No, Mama!”

Me:  “Oh good!”

Ty:  “You funny Mama.  Ty eat Mama.”

Naked time!

What wasn’t funny was more hysterics from Tyson over being scared.  He came flying up the stairs (I had just put Westin down for a nap) and he was scared out of his mind.  He was rambling so much but he said, “Cop in window.  Cop going to get me.”  I had him show me where he had seen this “cop” and it was a window right where our electrical meter is.  I thought maybe the guy had been reading the meter, but I dismissed that because my dogs bark like crazy whenever the meter guy comes and they hadn’t made a peep.  But it didn’t just stop there!  As I was putting him down to nap in his crib, he started freaking out about the windows saying, “People come into the window and get me.”  Where in the world is he getting this?  Heath thinks he is watching something on the iPad, but I truly watch whatever he watches and there is nothing like this at all.  Hopefully this is a phase that will finish fast!  One funny thing happened with Wes in the afternoon.  He was really cuddly and I started to get pretty nostalgic about nursing.  I decided to give Wes a test.  I offered the boob to him (just to see what he would do) and waited.  To my surprise, Westin’s eyes got really big and he reached his little hands out!  It was a knife in my heart when he grabbed the spaghetti strap of my shirt instead of the boob!  One last funny exchange happened with Ty.  I have been trying to have him hold his winkie when he stands up and pees like a big boy, but he just refuses to do it.

Me:  “Why do I have to hold your winkie, Ty?”

Ty:  “Mama, you a big one.  Ty a little one.” 

On Tuesday AM, I saw a small improvement with the diaper rash and felt some hope.  It is such a helpless feeling!  I worked 3p-3a and Sonia babysat the boys.  I don’t remember any specific stories, but I’m sure they had a great day!

On Wednesday AM, first thing in the morning, Tyson started talking to me that his feet were itchy.  I didn’t pay much attention to it, but after breakfast…I was horrified to discover that Tyson was covered in hives.  They were on his feet, legs, bum, chest, and armpits.  There weren’t any on his face or arms.  I gave him Benadryl and called Sonia to see if there was anything new that he ate or if he had gotten stung by something.  She had made a vegan macaroni and cheese, but the only thing that he had not had before were pimentos.  The Benadryl would clear it up, but the hives would come back again after it wore off.  There are a ton of allergies on Heath’s side of the family, but Ty has never had anything like this… except for his reaction to Amoxicillin & Augmentin.  It is so scary to not know what your child is reacting to!!!!  Ty must have been feeling a bit needy because he did not want me to put Westin down for a nap that morning.  Ty said, “Mama, no Westy nap.  Ty miss Westy!”  Awww…  Then Ty said something amazing Wednesday afternoon.  He was (for some reason) inspecting his feet, when he got all excited.  He had noticed that the puncture wound he had gotten at my parent’s house had healed up.  I don’t know if I had mentioned it or not, but he had been “helping” Heath on the grill when one of the grill tools had fallen and stabbed Ty in the toe.  Anyways, he was overjoyed that it was better, but what he said just melted my heart.  He said, “Mama, boo-boo gone!  Knife at Noni’s house cut me.  All gone now.  Jesus helped Ty’s boo-boo go away.” 

Terrible picture...but some of his hives

  

On Thursday I was so disappointed to see that Tyson still had hives.  Like I said, the Benadryl would completely clear them up but then they would come right back.  I knew there wasn’t any reason to go to the Pediatrician, they would just tell me to continue Bendaryl…so we kept on it.  The unfortunate thing was that we were leaving for Nova Scotia the next day.  It’s was so unsettling!  If the hives continue, then he will have to see an allergist, but they won’t get us in for probably months…so there was really nothing to do but wait.  We spent the day packing for Nova Scotia and then went to the Thai restaurant with Sonia & Adam and then went shopping at Walmart.  I picked up Children’s Claritin at Sonia’s suggestion and gave it to Ty that night.  Anything to help with the hives!  Update on Westin’s diaper rash:  it was SO much better, but still not completely gone.  This rash was a killer rash that didn’t want to die.  Ty said two cute things on Thursday.  First of all, it was raining pretty hard when Ty looked out the window and said, “Oh no.  Garden wet.”  Of course I had to tell him that we want the garden to get wet!!!!  Then, the other thing is funny, but it is fresh too.  When I either threaten Ty with a spanking or when I actually spank him…he has this new catch phrase.  He says (with major attitude), “No, Mama!  That’s my bum!”  It is so hard not to laugh at this.  What will he come up with next?

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