Well, the weekend got off to a good START...

Friday went pretty well...

First, Aiden had an appointment with a new dermatologist, who was absolutely great with him. She played with him for the longest time and looked over him, kneeling on the floor so he could continue to play with his cars the whole time. We've been dealing with some bad eczema flare-ups for a while now, and he's got a bit of a yeast/fungal infection, as well. And we're concerned about an infection from him scratching the eczema every chance he gets...which is more often since he is sitting on the potty some now. He uses that as an opportunity to scratch, even if we're there to stop him (you can't catch it all the time!). So, we left with FOUR prescriptions, one promising to be rather expensive. Well, actually, she gave us enough samples for one of them, so that helps. The expensive one is a prescription lotion, and the pharmacy had to order that, so we'll get it Monday. Some of his spots are already looking worlds better.

Then there was a soc hop at Camden's school. Lots of fun. He even joined in on some dances with his friends. Apparently they learn some of the line dances in gym (as in the cool ones...). They had a big raffle event, as well. Tons of HUGE baskets filled with things based on themes. AND Camden won one! We put tickets into a bunch, some that he wanted, some that would be nice for all of us. Of course, he didn't win the one any of us REALLY wanted, but it's always exciting to win! It was a basket of school supplies...we now have enough crayons, glue, paper, pencils, erasers, etc to last for QUITE a while, plus plenty more items, some pretty nice! He was actually pretty pleased, and, get this - it's the basket from HIS class!

We ended the night by putting Aiden to bed and watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution with Camden. If you haven't seen this show...you so need to! It actually takes place in the city Ryan grew up and where his family still lives. There's a lot of focus on school lunches. Camden no longer eats school lunches, but we still think he can learn a lot from watching about them. Great show. We're hoping it helps to lead to some big changes in the school lunch program. Click here to see more about the Food Revolution. And while you're at it, sign the petition to get some healthier lunches in our schools! (Whether or not you have a child in school... It should be that important.)

So, the weekend got off to a pretty good start... Then Saturday happened. I think, and I'm totally serious, that this was the worst day of poor Aiden's little life. He woke up early throwing up. And he never really stopped. He never had a fever, which is odd, I think. He couldn't keep anything down, though. We talked to the on-call dr around 10:30 Saturday morning, and he said not to give Aiden anything to eat or drink for the next 4-5 hours to let his stomach settle. The kid was begging to have water or nurse. I did break down and nurse him before his nap because he just would not accept going to sleep without that, and he hadn't thrown up for two hours by then - the longest stretch he had all day at that point. He took a good nap, but as soon as I had him out of the crib, he threw up again.

He threw up at least 20 times during the day, if not more; we lost count after a while. He was literally begging to have water to drink or to nurse all day long, and it's been breaking our hearts not to give him anything. I know it's what he needs, but I feel like we're starving him! He had a couple sips of water earlier in the day and threw it up. Ryan got some electrolyte mix to give him (like Pedialyte but without any sugar or anything artificial - it actually tastes really good!! We got the kids version at Whole Foods, though it's only showing the main version on the website, which is supposed to be fine for kids, too)...even just having a teaspoon of that resulted in him throwing up. With so little in his belly, he was dry heaving pretty much all day. I've experienced a lot of dry heaving during my pregnancies, and I think it is one of the worst feelings ever. He was at the point where he couldn't breathe when he was trying to throw up and you could tell it really hurt him...and scared him. It scared us plenty, and we weren't the ones doing it! Aiden has had some stomach bugs before, but he usually only throws up a couple times and then just doesn't feel good the rest of the day. He's never had anything this extreme. Luckily, he's not been showing signs of dehydration, but we've been watching closely because of how much he's throwing up. He was pretty lethargic most of the day...getting up to play for a few minutes here and there earlier on but then getting worn out easily, and spending most of the day just lying in my arms and asking me to sing to him.

The night wasn't great but not as bad as we were anticipating, maybe it felt that way because we were prepared for the worst. He got sick regularly after going to sleep, until about 1 or so. He actually had asked to go to bed, so you know he was tired! He went down without nursing...but he still woke up regularly for a few hours to throw up, until about 1am or so. Each time he got up and got sick, he would then reach for his crib and say "bed," because he just wanted to go back to sleep. (He was incredibly pitiful.) After that, he slept until 4, woke up without getting sick, and then slept again until almost 6. Since he had went so long without getting sick and was really insistent on nursing, we let him. He threw it up about 30 minutes later. We noticed this morning he has some red spots under his bottom lip and on his chin, probably from the acid from throwing up so much.

BUT...he hasn't thrown up since. Yet, at least. In the morning, we let him have a few pieces of dry cereal here and there, along with a teaspoon or so of the electrolyte drink. By 10, he was begging to nurse, and since he had kept the other down so far, we let him nurse, but just a little. He was pretty mad about that but still took a nap. Woke up after an hour, was up for a little while, insisting again on nursing. He must be feeling a bit better because he's getting really mad when we tell him no about nursing or tell him he has to wait. Yesterday, he would keep asking but not throw a fit. He didn't have the energy! So, I just nursed him some more, and he's actually back in bed about to go to sleep again. We were going to speak with the on-call doctor more today if he kept throwing up, but he hasn't gotten sick since 6:30, and it's almost noon at this point. That's pretty big for him, so hopefully he's on the mend!

I realize this might not seem that big of a deal...a stomach bug and all. But it has been for him and for the rest of us. He's not at the point where he can understand he can't eat or drink because he'll get sick from it. Having to see him beg for water or milk and having to tell him no has been so difficult for us. Seeing him throw up in the way he has, seeing how painful it is for him and how scary...it's been painful and scary for us. We've been really worried about dehydration or needing to go to the emergency room, but thankfully it did not come to that point. We're all exhausted, and Aiden still isn't feeling well, but he does seem a bit better than yesterday. And he's certainly not throwing up as much, which we're thrilled about. But we're still taking it very, very easy and slow with the liquids and a bit of dry cereal.

Hopefully he's fine by tomorrow! Camden is out of school for a while, and we're hoping to be able to get some things done and be able to get outside and play soon. And hopefully nobody else catches whatever it is he has. I'm not sure where this came from, but...every stomach bug he has ever had has come one day after being in some doctor's office. I don't think that's a coincidence. Even our regular doctor's waiting room doesn't have toys for the kids (which we are thankful for!), but Aiden still walks all around, touching the chairs and trying to share his toys with just about anybody sitting down in the room. The office we were at Friday did have a play table, and even though he was there for maybe two minutes (and shared his toy with two different men sitting and waiting), it's really impossible to keep him from playing and interacting with others. We can take all the toys in the world and try to distract him, but there's no way with him. We can wash his hands as soon as we get into the exam room. But he still seems to constantly get sick after going to the doctor...