Quick trip to hospital

Sound asleep on the hospital bed

Felix has never really cried in the whole 21 months since he was born. As a brand new baby, he didn't cry at all. He made a grunting sound when he woke up for a feed. It was so quiet we were thankful we had the baby monitor turned up to it's highest volume so we could actually hear him. Sure, there's been the 30 second grizzle if he's hurt himself; quickly fixed by a kiss and a cuddle. There was one night when he was about 7 months old that I had to rock him for about 20 minutes because he had croup and was not feeling well. Then, of course, there's the occasional 'I don't want to go to bed' cry for a few minutes. Usually if Felix is feeling sad or sick, he just lays down and buries his face on the floor. I think that's what made today so hard.

Sleeping on Daddy

Yesterday Felix seemed to be quite a bit better. He ate a little bit and had some more to drink, so I thought our little man was getting back to his old self. This morning he didn't wake up at his usual time. I was wide awake, listening out for him but he kept sleeping. When he finally woke up an hour later I could tell by his cry that there was something not right. When I picked him up he was dripping with sweat again and could barely keep his eyes open. He immediately fell back to sleep on me for a while. When he woke up he refused to drink anything and was really floppy and listless, so I decided to take him up to the hospital. A fever of 38-40 degrees (celcius) shouldn't still be there after 5 days.

The Nurse who checked Felix at the hospital was lovely with him. His temperature was over 39 degrees so we stripped him down to try and make him a bit more comfortable (it was hot in the hospital anyway). She checked his throat which was a bit red.  I asked if she had ever checked the ears of a child with Down Syndrome and she said 'No' so I told her about his narrow canals and how Felix's Doctor recommended pulling down his earlobe a little bit and shining the light in a slightly different direction than you usually would. She did that and was able to see a tiny bit of his left eardrum (better than most other Doctors we've encountered) which was a bit red. She wasn't able to see the other eardrum at all. While we waited for the Doctor to see Felix, he fell asleep.

Hate seeing him sick

The Doctor arrived about 20 minutes later. She came in and saw that Felix was asleep so she said she didn't want to wake him. She then asked if I wanted antibiotics for him (usually I would say no, but he has been so unwell I figured it was worth a try). I was frustrated that he wasn't even examined by the Doctor but, sadly, we have become accustomed to Doctors at the hospital who don't check Felix thoroughly. I had mentioned that he has had minimal urine output and that he wasn't drinking, but nothing was said about what I could do to get him rehydrated. At least the Doctor was nice this time and wasn't rude to us like our last hospital visit.

After hours of screaming, a high fever
and a pouring nose, here's the smile
we love!

When I got Felix home, he was still completely flat. Then the crying started. He sobbed and thrashed about for a couple of hours. He didn't want to be laid down, but he didn't want to be picked up. He still wouldn't drink. He has never been like that before. It was horrible to watch him so upset and unwell and yet not be able to soothe him. After a very long time I managed to rock him to sleep in my arms. He slept for an hour but when he woke he was the same; crying and tossing and turning. He was like that for another hour until he finally settled again.

Thankfully, at around dinner time tonight, Felix picked up quite a bit. He ate a little bit and had something to drink (about 5 mouthfuls of liquid; nowhere near as much as I would like). We even got a couple of big, cheeky grins. We tucked him into bed tonight with the vaporiser pumping and with Eucky Bear Rub smeared all over the front of his pajamas. Hopefully the antibiotics will work on whatever infection he has that is preventing him from getting better. He's always so tolerant of pain and discomfort when he's sick so there's obviously something that is making him feel really unwell, poor little guy :(