Month 1:
Jonny went to his first week checkup and 1st month checkup. He was born at 7'11 and 21 inch and in the first week was at 8lbs and 21.5 inches! What a fast grower! He was on Enfamil Newborn formula and was taking in a whopping 32 ounces some days! He slept around the clock and was fed every three hours. He cried at his first bath, and once before bed. I had a feeling by the outburst that it was pain and I immediately opened his diaper. The moment I pulled it back he stopped and breathed in deeply like "AHHH".. I think something was hurting his poor little circumcision. Both episodes lasted about 30 seconds. Hes never again cried during a bath, but we had to make the water very hot. It seems the hotter, the better. He is his daddy's son!
He had no problems with spitting up, eating, sleeping, gas. Anything. He was the quietest little mouse I had ever met! And when I looked back in my baby book, the main comment about me as a newborn "Quiet as a mouse!" How fun to be able to see something like that.
We took him at 6 days old to get his photos taken at SEARS. He didn't object in the least. He was totally cooperative and did so well through multiple outfit changes. At almost two weeks old, his Shaw family came into town, including his grandfather, 2 aunts and great-grandfather. Everyone adored him and was so excited at his arrival. His aunties were especially thrilled and extremely in awe. He was baptized on the second Sunday of his life at Shepherd of the City Lutheran Church by his grandfather Jonathan Shaw, with Pastor Jeffrey Pulse assisting. Also that Sunday, his mommy, me, was confirmed into the LCMS Lutheran church. We went to dinner and he peed all over me in the bathroom the second I took his diaper off. He peed on many people, including all over his aunt Cayleigh's arm and hair. Within about 20 seconds of that happening I heard the shower upstairs running. :) The constant waking in the night was not wearing me out much, yet and although I was healing from birth and tired from all the work of a new baby, the emotions and Jonny's refusal to breastfeed were all very taxing on me mentally. All in all, though, it was a wonderful first month and I enjoyed most every minute!
At the doctor's office, during one of his early checkups, a heart murmur was heard and we were referred to a cardiologist for an echocardiogram to make sure everything looked ok.
All family left and I was relieved to not have to share Jonny and be able to really spend time getting to know him alone, with just my husband. NO regrets having them around I just needed space to spend time with this new little person.
Month 2:
This month was when Jonny first began showing signs of eczema and symptoms that something was not quite right. At 6 weeks old he had still not cried, save for the bath and the 30 second pain cry. When I told the doctor she was concerned and called me to next day saying that she had spoken to some of her pediatrician friends and they didn't think that was normal. They hadn't heard of such a thing. Being that he never cried for food, though he would make little squeaking and panting noises (thus, still communicating), they considered that cause for some alarm. After she called me, and I agreed to be referred to a neurologist for him, he had actually started crying about something about 30 minutes later. What a little smarty! Around the end of this month he began to drink 1-2 ounces of formula at the 3 hour mark and then he would start screaming and crying. On my first Mother's Day with a baby, I finally decided that regardless of whatever was going on with him and despite the fact that I thought something was actually wrong, I was going to go shopping after church. We slept a little during church and at the mall and then when he was burping after, in his little bit of spit up, was blood. I became really panicked and immediately called the clinic at Parkview hospital. The lady was extremely concerned and helpful and got us right in.
The experience was the worst I ever had, regarding disrespect. Its very hard to explain to anyone, especially a foreigner, that even though one of your main reasons of being concerned is that your baby CRIES, you know something else is wrong. I gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him talk me out of it. He said 2 ounces was normal at that age, even though I said it was not normal. I was told "that's what babies do, they cry," even when I said, but this baby DOESN'T. And I was told "yes, it could be teething." "Give him some Tylenol" was his advice and he dismissed me after checking his body minimally and seeing nothing. I said he had eczema and that was met with "give him fewer baths and lotion him."- All of which I had been doing.
Over the course of the next week, Jonny did not get better. He had bouts of time when he would eat well, and then he would start to scream again. Reflux? The formula? Gas? I had no clue what it could be. All the research in the world did not turn up anything I could go on. Everyone assured me he was probably fine. And I couldn't seem to get any support. It was a very hard time cause I didn't want to cry wolf but I also didn't want to let my son suffer. Naturally you also don't want to find out some terrible news like Finally I made an appointment for him to see his pediatrician, after insisting that something was wrong. She was gracious and was "concerned" as well. She took one look at him and pried his mouth open and said "Well, there's the problem." I can't tell you the relief I felt as KNOWING she knew! And that I wasn't wrong! Every mom needs that confidence! She discovered a canker sore on his soft palate that was the size of 3/4 of a dime! There was blood all over it and on his tongue. She said that he had Herpes and prescribed Tylenol and Acyclovir. He got seemingly better over the next few days. But then it flared up again right before a trip to Florida to visit my family.
He couldn't eat, he was sleeping poorly, his eczema was now on his face and his mouth was bleeding again. A lot. He cried a lot and so did I. We took him into a pediatric place in FL and the lady confirmed the diagnosis of Herpes (where did he get that from?) but swabbed his cankers (new ones and old ones) and changed the "eczema" diagnosis to atopic dermatitis (from cradle cap flaking onto his face- except that he didn't really have any). She upped his dose of Acyclovir. Everyone seemed to be dismissing everything as something minor. The next afternoon he was drooling on his arm and his sleeve was drenched in drool and some blood. That was the last straw for Jonathan. He called the pediatrician we had just seen and she recommended that we take him to the E.R in West Palm- St Mary's because they had a Children's Emergency room. We took him there.
It took a couple hours to get in. By 11pm they had attempted to start an I.V in him in multiple locations- finally getting one in his big toe. They had given him a spinal tap and we had met with a doctor that said it was imperative they start an IV on him in case it was Herpes, because it could go to his brain- being that he was so young, only 8 weeks old. They would give him fluids and Acyclovir intravenously and wait for the swab and blood results to come back. We stayed up all night until in the wee hours of the morning, a bassinet was available and a private room, in the ER was given to us. Most people just had to sit in the halls or on stretchers in corners. It was such a terrible few days. I was SO scared for my baby and I felt so terrible for all the things he had to go through.
A wonderful doctor, Chad Sanborn, an Infectious Disease Specialist told us, off the record, that he did not know what it was, but that he wasn't convinced it was herpetic lesions. He said it did not look like it and the results that came back so far, suggested no rise in WBC count, thus indicating his body was not fighting anything- bacterial or viral. That second night that we were there a nurse had to keep changing out his medications in his IV and in a moment of rushing knocked his precious IV out. I was asleep when this happened and they took Jonny out of the room with Jonathan to try to restart it somewhere else. They tried his scalp, his neck, and multiple other places. I woke to him screaming FAR AWAY and when I opened my eyes and he was gone I ran out of the room. He had about 5 nurses holding him down while they tried pushing a needle into his skull. I was SO upset. But I just had to stand there and let them do it, realizing that if it was Herpes and it was advancing, this could save his life. It was probably the hardest thing I have ever gone through. Watching my baby be literally tortured and having to stand there and watch it and not do anything about it. If I think about it today I still cry.
We left the hospital after being there for two and a half days, after another series of failed attempts to get an IV in. I finally said, NO MORE. Realizing that the likelihood of his having Herpes and having contracted it from no one, was so rare. They released us saying there was no reason to stay if he wasn't getting fluids and meds from them. They called us a few days later and confirmed that all results for anything they tested for were negative. Although that was a relief, it was hard to hear to because now he still had cankers and there was supposed "nothing wrong" with him. Recurrent Aphthous Stomatitis is a "disease" where someone just gets canker sores for no apparent reason, often and there's really nothing that can be done about it.
A friend of my sisters, wrote on my sister's status how she was praying for Jonny and how her daughter had also dealt with canker sores as a baby. It didn't click in my head til one day, when I was driving that her daughter had multiple food allergies. Something in my head was telling me from day one of the canker sores diagnosis that it had something to do with his formula. But I could offer no reason for thinking that. Just, intuition. He was on Gerber GoodStart at this point and I wondered if it was the sugar content or if he was vitamin B deficient- all some speculations for reasons for cankers. I didn't change his formula but while driving that day, I suddenly thought- her daughter had a milk allergy, and she had canker sores. I literally turned my car around and drove home. I jumped online and started researching cankers and eczema and found some IMMEDIATE links to allergies. I didn't believe it could be this simple. I got my friends number and called her right then. She told me all about her daughter's allergy to milk and symptoms and she encouraged me to try this. She believed it was the same thing and practically cried with me over how upsetting it is, and how little support she got. I called his pediatrician and told her that this is what I thought it was after trying Gentlease and Zantac, in case it was acid reflux eroding his throat. He had begun spitting up LARGE amount of his formula at every bottle around this time. Overall he had had 7 canker sores in 5 weeks. From 8-13 weeks. She promptly said I could try a hypoallergenic formula like Enfamil Nutramigen or Similac Alimentum but she was pretty sure it was not an allergy. "He has no blood in his stool." Not only was this infuriating because she never asked if he did, never offered a test- hemocult- to check for blood, but also because she was dismissing a solution/idea for a baby who was otherwise COMPLETELY healthy but had these terrible canker sores and was hospitalized over it. This made me angry but so did the fact that she never did a test to see If a baby who had no reason for having HERPES did have it, and thus we ended up in the ER, 30,000 dollars and some terrible emotional distress later. My husband was even madder than I was. I had to focus al my energy on my son though.
I switched him to Alimentum and he never had a canker sore after that. He healed right up, all his eczema went away, which even prescription lotion and ointment, oatmeal baths or other treatments could not clear up and he has never had a single issue since.
That month Jonny had his 2 month vaccines and he cried his poor little heart out. Poor guy. Also his auntie B came to visit him from Kenya and they were in love with eachother. Jonny smiled more for her than anyone else thus far. Still, to this day, he smiles at her like crazy, every time he sees her! She's his favorite I think!
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