August started out with Nana Jules coming to visit for a long weekend to visit with Rohan (of course) and to look for a seasonal rental. We are thrilled and looking forward to my parents staying in Fort Myers for a few months during the winter season. Rohan will be one when they come down (crazy to think about!) and he will be up for all the new adventures with Poppa John and Nana Jules. Rohan will continue to go to daycare (he loves it - and it wears him out). They will just be here to enjoy their retirement and spend time with Rohan (and Aaron and I) as they please. Don't get me wrong I'm sure there will be times we would love for them to spend alone time with Rohan so Aaron and I can see more of each other or get things done, that's what four extra hands are for, right?
Rohan was just getting over a viral rash (most likely from daycare) when my mom came to stay. But that didn't stop him from having a raspberry war with Nana Jules. They were both covered in spit but with big smiles on their faces. Unfortunately he continued to do this after she left especially when he was eating and Aaron and I needed raincoats when feeding him! Rohan showed Nana Jules how he crawls everywhere and pulls himself up on anything he can get his hands on.
Rohan's started to eat chunkier baby food but if it's too chunky he pockets it in his cheeks and he spits it out. So we've pulled back from the real chunky food (which really isn't REALLY chunky). They go at their own pace I hear, and he's showing us that is true. He is eating puffs like a mad man and got the hang of the cheddar puffs (they look sort of like puffed up Cheetos). When we first gave him these he was coughing on them but now with his two top teeth and two bottom teeth he can bite down on them. His facial expressions are priceless when we first starts eating. It is like you can tell he's thinking about it. "Do I like this or not?"
Getting ready for Rohan's second plane ride to Michigan seemed like another great feat. But I took some tips from other traveling moms and I put all of his outfits in Ziploc bags! I got more than enough travel items for him - I even found disposable bibs! I thought these would be easier than bringing our waterproof/washable bibs for eating meals. (And it was!) The night before we took off I went to check in and noticed our flight was delayed already. There was a mechanical problem and Delta was using a new aircraft that was coming in from Detroit. So we took it as we had longer to sleep! Rohan slept 10 hours that night. He usually sleeps a good 8 hours sometimes 8.5-9 hours . We figured wow that's great. But we found him waking up whining unlike he usually does he was just laying in his crib not moving. We got him up and gave him a bottle and he just sat there. Rohan is a wiggle worm and squirms out of almost everything. As soon as you put him on the floor he's off and crawling and into something. I thought it was unusual he was SO chill. Every time we put him on the floor he whined and cried. We thought he was just waking up - taking forever too. I told Aaron he wasn't even trying to crawl. We tried over and over again to get him to crawl and he would either just plop down on the ground or get frustrated. After multiple tries we both got worried because we knew something was wrong we just didn't know what. We had taken his temperature when I was feeding him because he felt warm but it was 98.9. Fever or infection was the last thing on my mind. We called the nurse line and after her triage she said he needed to be seen within four hours. We had 45 minutes until the pediatrician office was open and that didn't guarantee he'd be seen. After talking with my parents they suggested to take him to the ER. Being a nurse I wouldn't bring him to the ER if I wasn't concerned enough because I know that ER's are usually packed and can be full of people who could go to their doctor if needed.
We live less than a mile from the children's hospital so we headed that way. Surprisingly the waiting room was basically empty. Our ER trip lasted about 1 hour. Started with vitals taken: 24 lbs, 99.9 temp rectally, 135 pulse (normal), 100% oxygen saturation, and a crying baby. The nurse in triage looked at me like I was crazy. (Side note: Children's ER triage wasn't open on Fridays for some reason so the techs weren't used to infants) Rohan's reason to be seen: Weakness. I felt as though a big explanation needed to come along with it because it is completely out of his normal. (Our pediatrician always tells us if he isn't acting his normal to call) We were finally brought back into a room and when the doctor came in he was playing hide and seek with Rohan (of course now Rohan perks up). He listens to his lungs, he puts him on the bed to see if he holds himself up (he did this time but didn't crawl), and the doctor tells me he is fine and we are expecting too much out of him. He said at his age I shouldn't expect him to be crawling some babies don't crawl till later and Rohan is appropriate for his age and that he knows that because he saw him playing with me before he came into the room (I was singing Old MacDonald to him to keep him distracted and happy) - my fault. I explained to him this wasn't his normal behavior. He replied we can't jump on everything, just because he sneezes does not mean he has pneumonia. I couldn't believe he didn't do any blood work - nothing. Treated us like we were ridiculous for bringing him in.
Meanwhile we had made an appointment at the pediatricians office in the afternoon. Oh and we've missed our flight by this time - rightfully so. The nurse at the office was shocked the ER didn't do any blood work - and nothing to make us feel OK with his behavior. Finally the Pediatrician we saw explained that when babies feel so icky and tired from a virus they become so weak. Just like adults do but we can express that in words. Babies become floppy. Blood work was done and results were normal-viral with an O.K. to fly from the doctor. We kept him hydrated with only bottles all day, he wasn't in the mood for anything else. Rohan slept, took a bottle and went back to sleep, it felt like we had a newborn that day. It also felt like we had gone backwards. Bright spot among all this - at the doctors office Rohan was looking at himself in the mirror and started clapping! I'm thinking you start clapping the day you stop crawling??? How does this work - what a RIDE!
We were not sure what to do about vacation - stay or go - but we decided to go for it and we were happy that we did. We got out on another flight the next morning. We had a few rough nights, but by the end of the vacation Rohan was back to his normal happy self. Rohan was back to crawling Saturday afternoon at Nana Jules house and it was like the first time we saw him crawl all over again. We would have kicked ourselves for staying in Florida.
Rohan gave us a scare, thankfully it was not a big deal, but he sure did get our emotions running.
