DYKSTERHOUSE NEWS: May 2013

I know that I've been catching up, and I will get a post to show all of the fun things that we've had going on in May, but I wanted to go ahead and post about our last few days while they're fresh on my mind.

On Wednesday, I started Potty Training Boot Camp (PTBC) with Langdon. It was going really well.

Ready to start PTBC!

Supportive big sis/Cinderella reading to him while he's trying to go

And sure to show him all of the pictures

PTBC Day 1 was a success!

Day 1 went great. He had two accidents in the morning, and that was it! He didn't have any accidents after his nap and really seemed to be getting the hang of it.

Throughout the day, Langdon had been complaining of an upset stomach. But everytime that he said he had a stomach ache, he would immediately go potty, so I thought that he was just confusing the feeling of needing to go with a "stomachache". Right before bed, he threw up, so I quickly realized that my little trouper really hadn't been feeling well all day. He got up in the night to throw up again, so I thought that I would just cancel PTBC.

I put him in a diaper on Thursday morning, and he was pretty pitiful. He was running a low-grade fever (about 101), and was fussy and a little lethargic. But, after a good afternoon nap, he seemed to be back to himself again. He asked if he could go back to potty training, which I thought was a great sign. We switched his reward from jelly beans to pennies for his "froggy-bank", and that seemed to suit him just fine. And he didn't have a single accident all afternoon!

Mary Laine had gone to spend the night with my mom, so I got some quality time alone with the patient to play and focus on our potty-training.

Although he was still playing happily, he felt a little warm to me. I checked his temp around 6pm and it was 101.5. I decided to wait about an hour to give him more motrin so that it would last throughout the night. In hindsight, that seems to have been a big mistake. I gave him motrin at 6:45 and then took him to bed at 7.

Gary and I were eating dinner, when we heard Langdon cry out at 7:15. We commented at the time that it was a sound he had never made before - it sounded a little like the cry that a doll makes. I thought he may have thrown up again, so I went in to check on him. Unfortunately, I think the image that I saw when I turned the light on will forever be etched on my brain. My baby was completely pale, his lips were blue, he was not breathing, his eyes were rolled back into his head, and he was completely limp and lifeless. I am so so so thankful that Gary was home and that Mary Laine was not. Gary was the peace in my storm. He calmly told me to put Deacon (the dog) outside and get the keys. While I was doing that, he held Langdon upright and was able to get him to take a few shallow breaths. Gary drove us to the ER and the nurses at GLH were fabulous! They got us back right away and Langdon slowly regained consciousness. They told us that it sounded like a febrile seizure. A CT scan, chest x-ray, and blood work confirmed that there was nothing more serious going on, and we were very relieved to know that these seizures are fairly common and harmless.

Langdon handled all of the sticks and tests like a champ. He even started acting a little silly after his chest x-ray. The tech gave him a sticker and he decided that he wanted to put it on his nose.

This morning, he seems 100% back to normal. His fever is gone and he is still accident-free in PTBC. (And, on a side note, I think that the fact that he is actually accident-free after all that he has been through during PTBC is a ringing endorcement for this method. If anyone is interested in knowing what I'm doing, you can read about it on this blog.)

I'm not sure how long it will be before I will be able to sleep through the night without getting up to check on Langdon, but I am so thankful that he seems to be A-OK. Right now, I feel like I'm walking a fine-line between loving-on and appreciating the time that I have with my son, responsibly caring about his well-being, and idolizing him and detrimentally walking through all of the "what-ifs". But I do know that I am a little more thankful for my kids this morning and soaking up the snuggles that I am getting from Langdon right now.

Gary got a very sweet video of him singing Jesus Loves Me while we were in the ER last night. Once I get it from Gary, I'll be sure to post it.

And I was hoping that I would never be more afraid for my children's well-being than I was when Mary Laine had her tick-scare last summer, but, unfortunately, Langdon just topped her. Our children come from a long-line of fierce competitors on both sides of their family. I hope that they don't decide to make a contest out of this!!