Where I've been, where I'm headed...

Life in Casa de Beasty has been rough the past two weeks. My plate is full to the point of overflowing right now. For me, at least.

Two weeks ago found us with a sick household. It started out with Carter starting to act sick on Friday, right as company was showing up. That's right...two weeks ago I not only met internet strangers, I opened my house up to them. And it was every bit as awesome as I thought it would be. Jess & Marissa, I hope you'll come back soon!

By Monday, Claire was sniffling & coughing all over the place, Carter was acting even more run down, & Chase woke up whining. I spent the next few nights on the couch in an effort to make sure I didn't catch anything. Throw in Carter waking up every hour Tuesday night, me carrying him in the Moby wrap & pacing the street in front of our house for an hour & a barking cough & we were at the doctor the next day. Poor guy had a pretty severe ear infection.

My big guy, baby man, fatty thighs, Roo-Diddy, will be ONE on Friday. Wasn't it just a few weeks ago I was blogging about colic & how it was hitting us late in the game? I've been trying to get everything put together for his party on Saturday. It's not going so well. My house is a disaster from the two weeks I wasn't able to do much. I got my stitches taken out a week ago & I've had a lot of pain & still haven't been able to use my hand much.

And then, last week, the nightmares started. In any piece of parenting advice you read, "they" all say that 11 months old is too young to be having nightmares {night terrors if you want to get technical}. Yet for the past 2 weeks, Carter has had all the classic signs of nightmares. Initially, I didn't worry about it, just comforted him & followed all of "their" advice-don't try to wake him up, don't change his surroundings, etc. They were fairly short, 2-3 minutes, & as long as I would hold him, rock him, pat his back, he'd calm down quickly. He had two during naptime but I didn't think much of it.

That all changed on Monday. Halfway through naptime, I heard the screaming. The "I'm in pain, something is VERY wrong, I need you NOW" screaming. Moms, you know that scream. The one you hope to never hear. I went into their bedroom, expecting to find his fatty thigh stuck in the slats or to see that he was holding his head after hitting it on the side, which happens all too often. Instead, I walked in to sweet boy sitting up in bed, screaming & sobbing, eyes open but totally unfocused. I tried the usual lay him down, cover him with his blue {both kids have their silky blankets, which are oh-so imaginatively named "blue" & "pink"} & give him his pacifier. He threw my hands away & sat right back up.

I got him out of bed & we moved to the rocker. Carter continued to moan & sob & his little arms just couldn't stay still. After a few minutes of rubbing his back & whispering to him, he started to settle down but was still doing those deep, gasping sobs. After he finally quieted down, I tried to put him back in bed but it immediately started all over again. That started up another close to 5 minute stretch of the sobbing & flailing about. The hardest part for me were the times his eyes would be wide open but completely unfocused or rolling back in his head.

By this point in time, his fit had lasted for close to 10 minutes. Claire had nightmares when she was about 16-17 months old but they never lasted for more than a few minutes & she seemed to move past that stage fairly quickly, so the length alone of Carter's fit was enough to have me concerned. And then what was quite possibly the scariest moment I've had with either child happened. Carter would inhale, exhale quickly, & then 10-15 seconds would go by before he would inhale again. And when he did finally inhale, it would be huge, gasping, gulping breaths. The kind you take when you can't get enough air. He continued to do this 5 or 6 more times over a 10 minute period, on top of the sobbing, flailing & moaning before he finally settled down & fell back into a peaceful sleep.

To say I was scared is an understatement. I left the room long enough to call Chase & tell him what happened & then spent the rest of naptime sitting in the kids' room, listening to them breath. Wednesday brought another nightmare during naptime but like all previous ones, it only lasted a few minutes & he was easily calmed.

So that wraps up where I've been. When we went in for Roo's follow-up appointment on Thursday, I brought all of this up to his doctor. Which leads to where I'm headed. Carter's doctor agreed that it does sound like he's gotten an {albeit unfortunate} headstart on the nightmares. In his 27 years of practice, he's never had a baby that has had nightmares of this scale during naptime. Or one that lasted close to 20 minutes. He felt that his breathing issues were simply a matter of exhaustion from the length of the fit & wasn't overall concerned about them, in regards to the possibility of it having happened in the past or the likelihood of any recurrence.

Our doctor ended up consulting with a pediatric neurologist, whom we are headed to see on Tuesday. He has always been incredibly proactive & is one of those doctors where, if he doesn't know the answer, he doesn't hesitate to call someone who he thinks will. Based on a phone call only, the neurologist seems to think that Carter may have had an atypical seizure while he was sleeping. Chase & I wholeheartedly DISAGREE with the neurologist at this time. One perk of Chase holding a doctorate degree & spending 7 years in college? We have a wealth of medical textbooks stacked up in the basement & Chase knows which websites are the best & easiest to navigate. Chase showed me description after description of seizures, what I would have seen, other indicating factors, etc. & Carter displays NONE of those characteristics.

It is absolutely possible that Chase & I are completely wrong. Seeing as how neither one of us is a neurologist & all. So Tuesday, we are meeting with the neurologist & they are doing an EEG on Carter. The fun starts on Monday night at approximately 8:00pm. Bedtime around here is normally 8-8:30 but we've been instructed to keep Carter awake until midnight & then wake him up at 5:00am. And then keep him awake until we arrive in Wichita around 8:00am, which should be all kinds of fun since he almost always falls asleep in the car. He'll be sedated so that they can place the leads on his head & then testing should last approximately an hour.

But oh no, our fun does not end there! As soon as his appointment is finished, we'll head across town for Claire's appointment with the ENT. We didn't receive the call about Carter's EEG until 5:15 Friday afternoon, so it was too late to call & reschedule Claire's appointment. Then either Thursday or Friday, we have Carter's appointment with the orthopedist for his 1 year checkup on his hips. Friday is his "Happy Birthday Day" as Claire calls it & Saturday is his party. Monday will find us back in Wichita for his follow up evaluation with the neurologist & the reading of the EEG, which will take 2-3 hours & to round out a fun-filled week, Tuesday will be his 1 year checkup & shots.

That kid? Will hate me by the time the next week is over.

Like I said before, Chase & I completely disagree with the seizure possibility. But again, we're not neurologists. We can only hope & pray that the doctor is absolutely wrong & approaching this from a worst-case scenario standpoint & that the EEG is just a matter of playing it safe. Having to wait the week for results will be tough.

So if I'm not around much the next week, you'll know why. But then again, I might be blogging away about random crazy stuff just as a means of distraction from everything that I've got coming at me.