ADR

Everything started to make more sense when Paxton woke Susanne up at 2:00am sounding mildly congested. She thought that maybe this was why he had shown evidence of labored breathing yesterday evening at the end of the therapy session. Also, she had noticed that he had started sneezing more than usual and seemed unable to breathe well through his nose. He typically breathed a lot through his mouth anyway, but there was an obvious increase in this behavior. He just couldn't seem to get comfortable. It was hard for him to breathe in any position but upright. It took him two hours to finally get settled down. By the end of it all, Susanne was convinced that she may be up watching the sun rise with him.

Susanne made some careful observations while she held him tight in her arms. She first noted that he didn't have any visible discharge from his eyes or nose. Also, he wasn't coughing, however, he did seem stuffy. Susanne had recently been feeling the effects of the season change. Her allergies sinuses were not thrilled with it being Spring. She thought that maybe all of this could be allergy related. It appeared to be very similar to what he dealt with a couple of weeks ago.

The poor little bug woke up again around 7:30am. This time he was going through his morning ritual of gagging, coughing, and ending with a fountain of spit up. It was a much rougher episode this time. Susanne noticed that what eventually came up and out of his mouth was thick mucus mixed in with his saliva. It was so viscous that Susanne had a hard time clearing it out of his mouth. It just didn't want to come loose. As he would catch his breath from crying, he would suck it all right back in making matters worse. She could tell that he was struggling even more with swallowing because of the consistency of the secretions. Susanne liked to think that there was a positive to every situation. In this case, she was going with the fact that at least the mucus wasn't green. This gave her peace of mind that there was not likely any secondary bacterial infection.

One of Paxton's nurses came over to watch him while Susanne ran over to the rental property. Unfortunately, Susanne and Scott were still dealing with the repairs needed after the water heater malfunctioned and flooded the first and second floors. The actual incident had happened well over two months ago. Susanne was shocked that the repairs took as long as they had. There had been a total of three companies that had to deal with the situation. The first company replaced the water heater, the second company dried out the house, and the third company fixed all of the damage to the flooring, ceiling, and walls. At the end of all of the repairs, the carpets were supposed to be steamed cleaned. Somehow, this got missed. Susanne was meeting a manager out there to assess the situation. The time window that she was given was between 9:00am and 10:00am. They were made aware of her unique circumstance with Paxton and informed of an appointment he had at 11:30am. It was critical for the manager to show up on time because Susanne needed to leave with enough time to make it for his therapy session. Susanne waited five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes, and still no sign of the manager. Finally, after waiting fourty minutes she called to see where he was at. He was across town and running late. He said that he wouldn't be able to be there any earlier than 10:15am. Susanne was livid. She would have just rescheduled if she would have known that the window of time meant nothing. Once he was there, he made the process as quick as possible. Susanne headed back home the second he was finished.

Susanne pulled up to the house right on time. Paxton's therapist had just pulled up, so they walked in the front door together. Paxton was still sleeping pretty heavily when they arrived. It took Susanne multiple attempts to get him to open his precious little eyes. She hated waking him up from a deep sleep and then asking him to work on the spot. She was frustrated that she wasn't able to prep him for the session.

Today, the occupational therapist taught the nurse some basic techniques. Susanne was hoping that the nurse could get comfortable enough with some of the therapy skills to be able to work on them with Paxton. This was so she wouldn't feel like she was neglecting him if she left the house to run a few errands or meet up with friends in the future. She hated the thought of Paxton laying around doing nothing if she wasn't there to work with him. Thankfully, the nurse seemed to catch on rather quickly. He felt confident in placing Paxton in sitting and working on tummy time. This actually seemed like it might work.

The second half of therapy today was supposed to be oral feeding. Paxton was pretty tired and irritable for some reason so it didn't work out so well. He kept crying when Susanne would try to offer him anything. He was even resistant to the facial massage, which he had grown to enjoy. It was really sad how stubborn he was being. He was half interested in the oral swab. After a couple of times of suckling on it, he was finished. He pushed Susanne away when she offered him pears and even peaches. She eventually got a spoonful or two in his mouth, but he was holding his tongue back and refusing to swallow. They could all see that his saliva was pooling at the back of his mouth. He ended up drooling it all out including the food that had been offered. They decided to call it a day. Susanne thought that maybe he was tired because he wasn't feeling 100%. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she was certain it would reveal itself within the next 24 hours.

The nurse set up Paxton in his bed for a nap and his next feeding. Susanne thought he would go right down because of the signs she observed at the end of the therapy session. She was wrong! For some reason, he got his second wind. He was kicking around in his crib talking and laughing at himself. Susanne left him alone hoping he would get the clue. She wanted him to rest up before his vaccination appointment scheduled for this afternoon.

Right before they had to leave, Susanne sat Paxton in his bouncer to keep him entertained while she got things ready for his appointment. When they walked out the door, Susanne was bummed to see that the weather had taken a turn for the worse. It was raining heavily, which was not ideal. YUCK!

Paxton weighed 20lb 11oz. He was growing like a weed. For once, Paxton had a straight forward appointment. He just needed to get his last Synagis vaccine and nothing else. Even though it was just one vaccine, it was given in two separate doses. Paxton cried for both injections, but it was short lived. Susanne had her soothing technique down.

Paxton was required to wait in the room at least twenty minutes after the shots were given before he could leave. The nurse wanted to make sure that he wouldn't have an allergic reaction. During that time, Paxton managed to have two dirty diapers. Susanne always hated that she had to carry them home with her since they didn't have a specific trashcan for diapers available. She had thought about just tossing them in the room trashcan many times, but she knew that just wouldn't be nice of her to leave Paxton's scent for others to enjoy.

Once they were home, Paxton fell asleep right away. He napped for a good few hours before he woke himself up sneezing and coughing. He had started to sound congested again. Luckily, he was not febrile. Susanne tried to clear his airway by suctioning out his nose and mouth, but she got nothing. After he would fatigue, he would nap for a short time and then start the process all over. He was absolutely restless and nothing seemed to help other than Susanne holding him in her arms. If she had to, she would hold him all night.