December is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bekah-Viral meningitis is pretty common and you can only treat the symptoms and because he's under 6 months they wont give him motrin...if he has bacterial then anyone hes come into contact with for a certain length of time has to be treated...It sucks...

I just want to hold my little man when he cries and not worry about moving iv wires or electrodes...All I want for Christmas is a healthy baby...

I hope and pray you get your christmas wish shannon!!

Shannon! My heart goes out to your little guy! I'm praying it's viral and he will kick it quick! If you need anything...anything at all....let us know! -Michelle

Oh shannon it never ends for you does it! your poor little guy i will vbe praying for him adn you as well!

Shannon- oh my...poor Lucas...and poor Mommy, I am hoping that he recovers quickly and the rest of your family stays well.

THanks ladies for all your support...After the 24 hour mark Luc's cultures are showing no bacteria..WOOHOO!!!His fever has been down for a few short hours and this morning he's smiling and kicking...I don't remember who asked if we were still EBF but yes we are and the docs have all said that that's probably helped alot.Also because we are EBF the hospital will provide breakfast, lunch and dinner for me and I can have anything else I want to eat that they keep in the little kitchenette.If I was EFF then meals would be my own responsibility and I couldn't have anything from the little kitchenette.He's slept right on the bed next to me and we slept quite well, only waking up to eat a few times.It'll be a quiet Xmas for us if we get out soon because we've been told he can't travel and shouldn't go out until after cold& flu season is over...They actually had to put this little wrap around cast type of thing on his right arm to keep him from bending it and pulling the iv out of his head...He HATES it but other than that is content today...Will post more as we know more...Luckily I can use my computer here...

Yeah for Lucas!! Glad he's doing better and you're being taken care of too!!

Glad to hear that it appears to be viral and not bacterial. I am glad that you are being taken care of too...kind of nice that you have an excuse to stay home this winter...I just hope you don't get cabin fever.

Oh Shannon I am so happy its looking viral! I am also glad he seems to be feeling better. You poor thing. Here is hoping for happy healthier holidays.

Wow! Shannon I'm so sorry. I'm so thankful that he's feeling better and glad the hospital is taking care of you too. How scary. I'll keep you in my thoughts and prayers..

Actually I was just reading you orginal post about the illness and a co-worker came in and was like oh my.. what's wrong? Are you ok.. and I looked a little shocked like yeah, of course I'm ok.. but realized that I must have looked scared or upset and was like.. well actually one of our October babies had Menigitis.. and had to go through the whole explination for her to realize why I seemed so upset.. Mildly funny.. trying to explain that to someone. ( I hope that makes sense and didn't come out all wacky)

oh no, Michelle, I was the same way. I was so worried i freaked out and when my cousin called me I had to explain to her why I was so out of it. I just kept thinking of baby lucas and hoping he would be okay. I was so mad that he got meningitis because i was pretty sure that HiB vaccine was supposed to prevent it. I was praying so hard that it was viral and it is! yay! I'm so glad he's better Shannon. I'd like to think all of our good wishes and prayers towards you guys really helped out. Keep us posted. and woohoo on the free meals. ^_~

WE'RE HOME!!!!! They let us go at 2pm today...His fevers were gone for 24hours...I've never been so happy to be home!!!It's weird for me to have been in the hospital for so long without it being me that's been sick!We were told he can have headaches/body aches and grumpiness for several weeks and to just give him tylenol as needed.A resident came in and told me that it wouldn't be until tomorrow that we were getting released and I about choked her...Luc got taken off of iv meds yesterday so other than monitoring to see if the fevers came back there was nothing that the hospital was doing anymore at that point...Anyway, thank you ladies for your suppor-I know that all the prayers and thoughts had to have helped Lucas get through this so quickly...Merry Christmas ladies.I got my Christmas wish already

Shannon - I am so glad to hear you are home with little Luc safe and sound! What a wonderful Christmas gift.

Well its a crazy Saturday before Christmas in my area. We had a couple of errands to run and traffic is crazy. We went to World Market looking for a few things and a lady was there and knocked over some glasses (they didnt break) while she was talking on her cell phone and she just left them there while she shopped some more. I told DH I was going to go and knock over her basket and walk away.... He said I shouldnt because we had the baby with us and he didnt want to take Nate to bail mommy out of jail.

We are finally done with the shopping and 98% of the wrapping now all I have to do is the cooking and baking. I also found out that my brother somehow forgot about Christmas dinner and wont be able to make it for that. He has to drive home (to Austin) after we have Christmas at my step moms because he has to work on the 26th at 8:00 PM. Whatever - we only have Christmas dinner every year at my house. Other than that it looks like a Christmas wrapping station and a baby depot exploded in my house. That and my DH is putting together some chairs for our dining table and that is all over the place too. I cant wait until he is done so I can clean up this stuff.

Well I guess that is about all for now I hope you ladies are having a good weekend.

Take Care,

Shannon - How did you guys even know he was sick? Other than a high fever obviously. Since none of our babies got the HiB vaccine which is supposed to help prevent meningitis, I thought we could all use a symptom guide from someone who's actually been through it and what you saw in him that wasn't right. I can't tell you how glad I am that you are back home and safe and sound. I agree with the other girls that said it is probably a relief not to travel all over or anything for christmas. maybe it will be nice and quite in your house for once lol. BTW, I am still so mad about him getting meningitis. Maybe if he'd have gotten that HiB vaccine he wouldn't have gotten it. Of course the dang thing won't be back out until spring of 09 i think. Jerks.... they should have tried to save enough for the babies!!!! GRRR!! Well hope all is well and lucas is a lot better. gotta run. tootles!

Bekah-When he woke up he was HOT to the touch, not even just warm. His fever was 103.1 which is dangerously high for a baby of 3 months...I called his doctor right away and they didn't call back.I gave him tylenol at 7:15am and by 8:30am it was still 101.8.SHould've been gone by then with tylenol...he also always eats after DH takes ODS to school but he kind of nibbled and drifted to sleep...Thats not his style...When he's hungry he wants to eat and eat now!!! When we got to the doctors office he just kept sleeping in his carseat even when we weren't moving...He usually wakes up once we stop moving for more than 5 minutes...I took him out of his carseat and he was still hot and just miserable...Usually he smiles at the docs but he just screamed when they touched him and his fever was still at 101 there...They couldn't find anything specific so they(the docs office)sent us to the ER.My mom works there at the adult side which is right next door to the kids side.She happened to be there that day for a class so she kept checking in on us during her breaks...The hospital knew we were coming in and when I got there we were brought right back and put in a room.He was given tylenol again at 11:30 and we got to the hospital and his fever was 101.8.Through the course of the day they poked and prodded at poor Luc.He has such teeny veins that they had a hard time getting blood for tests and I held him through everything.Now the only way to diagnose meningitis is to do a spinal tap.I refused to leave him while they did it.Poor guy...In between all of that he refused to eat.He last ate around 4am and didn't eat again until around 3pm.He just wanted to sleep...By that time his fever was back up to 103.1 even with regular dosing of tylenol.He's too young for motrin so that was the only thing they could do...By 9pm he was started on iv antibiotics because it takes 48 hours to get the cultures back to tell what type of meningitis it is.They can tell at 24 hours if bacteria is growing though.Lucky for us there was no bacterial growth so he had iv antibiotics for 48 hours(which just wrecked his poor little belly)and iv fluids as well...If it was bacterial, we would still be there...By 2am friday morning his fevers went away and we were able to put pj's on him for the first time since wednesday.He couldn't wear them because it kept his temp going higher...The highest his fever got was up to 104.1 even with tylenol every 4 hours...It was a scary time.He was very quiet and miserable and limp...He didn't move alot.You could tell that bright lights and loud noises just hurt his entire body...Once the fevers were gone he showed a HUGE improvement...He can still have the headaches and body aches and be grumpy for several weeks but tylenol should help that alot.So basically, when I notice something is way off like a drastic fever like that, I call the doc...Now if it was one of my older kids, I might not react as fast.But my ODS without a doubt had the viral meningitis as well...He had the fever that wouldn't go away and the light sensitivity and the horrible headache, but basically we didn't want to take him to the hospital and test him for the meningitis because if it was viral(which we now know it was)then theres nothing you can treat it with.You can just treat the headache and fevers.He;s fine now and had it been bacterial that wasn't treated, he would've steadily gone downhill...Moral of my story...Just trust your instincts mommas...If it seems off, get it checked out.It could save your LO's lives...While Luc's illness wasn't life threatening, we didn't know that for 2 full days and thats a scary time watching fevers steadily creep up and your LO just lay there when he should be laughing and smiling and cooing...He's much better but still sleeping alot.He's very clingy with me right now and I'm very ok with that...So that's the basic story....BTW, even getting vaccinated doesn't unfortunately guarantee that they won't get sick, it just means that they usually will have a milder case of whatever it is...Ok am off to go xmas shopping....

Shannon - so glad you're home and everything seems to be okay now.

Shannon I am so glad Lucas is home! It really is scary when no matter what you do their fever just won't break! Ya'll will have one of the best Christmas' ever....thanking God every minute that everyone is home, safe, and healthy! :-)

AFM - we are leaving tomorrow for Oklahoma for Christmas celebrations with our respective families. We normally stay at a hotel that has wireless internet so I'd be able to keep up with the boards but I got a call at the last minute that one of the cabins on the river has come available! :-)))) I'm so happy! Now we'll have a 1 bedroom cabin with a fireplace, kitchen, bon fire pit, ect to spend most of our holiday vacation! We'll be in Tulsa over the weekend and I'll have access there so I'll check in then! I hope ya'll have a wonderful wonderful wonderful Christmas! And for all of you 1st time mommy's....you're in for one of the best experiences of your life! There's nothing like celebrating Christmas with your own children! Much love to all of you! Please know how dear ya'll are to my heart! -Michelle

Shannon- So glad that you guys are home and that Lucas is on the mend, what a wonderful Christmas blessing indeed.

Michelle- I am jealous, it sounds like your Holiday will be wonderful...what a cozy time it sounds like.

Jessi-unfortunately vaccines dont guarantee that they wont get it.it was horrible seeing him with an iv in especially because they had to put it in his head and he had to wear a brace on his right arm to prevent him from bending it and grabbing at the iv.But I just wanted him to be ok and that was all that mattered.That was the only thing that mattered to me so if it meant strapping him to a bed or whatever I would do it all over again.KWIM? The nurses were all so great there and one of them calls him a gerber baby.she wanted me to contact a modeling agency and have him get pics taken...LOL..so there were some lighter parts to the whole ordeal...Glad to hear that you're working on things with your DH...A good marriage is never easy.

Jessi - glad that things seem to be taking a turn for the better between you and your DH. as much as i complain about mine, he is one of the best people I know and is truely by best friend who i know would do anything for me. i hope you and your DH get to that point (if you're not there already).

Shannon - i am so glad things are better for you. i was really nervous and of course, Logan had a slight cold this weekend, so i was constantly checking his temp to make sure that he wasn't running a fever 'cause in the back of my mind was Lucas....but, Logan has not had a temp, so therefore, just a cold.

AFM: i finally created a myspace page and a facebook page this weekend. DH did a facebook one too. It's so weird - i have rediscovered all these people i went to high school with. it's kinda cool too. not much else happened. ODS didn't have school on Friday and DH came home early before the snow (thankfully) so we stayed home until Saturday afternoon when we went over to my parents house to clean their driveway (they're in Hawaii on vacation right now) and then we went out to dinner and picked up a few things just to get out of the house. Yesterday, we put up the Hannukah decorations and I made ODS's b-day cake (his b-day is today) and just had a lazy day. At least the snow has stopped and it's supposed to be decent weather until this weekend, when it's gonna rain oh well. time to go have some breakfast before Logan wants to eat!

Elise-Glad to hear it turned out to be just a cold.I hope none of the babies on here get what Lucas has...Thanks for thinking of us