A blog of poop

Over the past week there's been a lot going on. We've begun introducing milk into Duke's bottles so we can switch him off his formula when he turns one in a week. Plus, he's had a cold and to help with the runny nose and cough, we've been giving him a tsp of benadryl in the morning. Well, both can lead to constipation. Sunday morning was his last poop. Monday - no poop, Tuesday - no poop. While I was working and didn't get to see much of his behavior during the day, I did know that when I got home, he strained a lot and was a bit more fussy. Tuesday, my sister said he was pretty lethargic and when Jack got home, he agreed. Jack said he did not eat much in the afternoon for him and he decided he wanted to take him to the ER. I left work and went home to feed the dogs thinking that at the ER, they would give him a stool softener and send them home. The baby was constipated. But in the time that I went home, fed the dogs and made it to the ER, they extracted some poop and found a little blood. So they wanted to do a sonogram to rule some other things out. They couldn't do the "procedure" there so they said he had to be taken to CHOP in and AMBULANCE!!! They hooked him up to and IV (torture) and away we went to Philadelphia.

I thought he looked so fragile with his hospital gown on.

At CHOP he gets x-rayed, sonogrammed and poked and prodded all night. The intussesception was ruled out (thank goodness). All they found was A TON of poop. It was midnight and at this point they wanted to keep our baby overnight to monitor him. I was devastated because I knew I had to leave and go to work. Jack was going to stay with him so I could work but being a new mom and leaving your baby at the hospital is the worst thing in the world.

On a side note, I am the worlds ugliest crier. My sister Annie is a close second. We are just not cute criers. Our face contorts to horror movie status and it's just not pretty. I have to look like a freak show the whole way to the car. Three people ask me if I am ok on the way out of the hospital and I didn't think the security guard was going to allow me to leave.

On Wednesday, he FINALLY took a nap. Very little sleep for him.

Okay, so after I get home at about 1 AM, Jack texts me and says that Duke pooped!!! But they want more to come out. So they are at the hospital all day on Wednesday. They do an enema and give Duke some miralax and now he is pooping like a champ and he is diagnosed with CONSTIPATION and home they arrive at 7:15 PM!!!!!

Mom and Dad Horgan went down and spent the day with them, thank goodness to help Jack and to bring them home safe and sound. It was over 24 hours of hell. I don't know how the parents of sick children do it. My heart broke for all of the long term patients there at CHOP. I hope that I never have to go back there with my son again.

Waving bye - he was ready to come home.

Yesterday he did great! He is pretty much back to normal. He was pretty exhausted and it is good to have him home and running around like always.

This was the day after he got home. He was a happy camper.

Moral of the story: Always call your pediatrician first!!!!!