Well it was my first full weekend off since getting back to work. We had a great morning as a family of 4. I got to go to the gym then met Brad and Craw at the farmer's market downtown. We had breakfast, got coffee, and strolled through the streets of downtown. We couldn't believe Sutton had been awake for 4 hours and was actually content and happy. We headed home to do a deep cleaning of the house before a fun football Saturday. We had plans to head to Nana and Papa's house to watch UGA take on the Gamecocks and celebrate Bobby's birthday. Sutton had one bad diaper for me and I kept looking at it like "hmm is that blood in there?" and just decided to monitor her for the day. She was behaving so well. We as the afternoon wore on she ate and slept like normal. Nana said "Sutton just had the worse diaper I've ever seen." then Brad said "She had a terrible one for me a little while ago." I still didn't think much about this. We started watching the game and people started arriving for Bobby's birthday pizza night. Craw was being his wild self and then Sutton had woken up to eat. She was a little fussier when eating this time. We took turns holding her while watching the nail biter of a football game. When an hour had passed and it was time to lay her down for her last nap of the day I continued to hear her scream from the back room. She cried for about 30 minutes (not normal for her around nap time.) Brad was so sweet and kept offering to hold her while I went and ate. Her cry just seemed much more intense than normal. It made me feel like something was off. She will normally take her paci and fall asleep within 10 minutes max (especially if she is crying). She didn't seem to want to settle still. I decided to feed her again as she had seemed fussier than normal at the last feeding. (I never do this). She wouldn't latch at all. She continued to wail. I told Brad we had probably reached our limit and needed to go home. I walked her outside and she still cried. Well about 10 minutes later I head her let out a loud bowel movement. I immediately went to change her (thinking oh she must just have an upset stomach). Well there was just a lot of blood. I sort of set it aside and thought hmm I need to show this to Brad it just doesn't seem right. She continued to fuss as I tried to google "blood in diaper" My initial gut told me just to put in a call to the doctor's on call nurse. Well when my google results told me to do the same I decided to call. She listened to Sutton's symptoms all the while listened to her fuss in the background. She pretty quickly told me I needed to take her to the ER. My heart sank. I immediately got chocked up. I couldn't imagine going to the emergency room on a Saturday night and possibly hearing the words that something was wrong with my baby. I thought oh this is silly she will be fine. However, Brad said we needed to go. Everyone jumped into action packing our car up all the while Sutton continued to scream. I stopped at home to get a bottle just in case I couldn't feed her.
Well we arrived to the ER and our fears were confirmed this was the scariest place ever. There were sick people everywhere. Throwing up, screaming in pain -it was just awful. The receptionist said my doctor had called to let them know we were on our way. I was thinking yes we won't have to wait long. WRONG. We watched as people slowly got called back. Well she was getting increasingly fussy. We were approaching her feeding time and they told us the only place I could nurse her was in the public bathroom. I took her to the car. I nursed her for about 10 min then Brad called and said they were ready for us. Well they have a nurse just get some vitals. He took her temperature and wrote down her symptoms. He was kind and told us we had at best another 4 hours to go. WHAT?!?! We went back to the waiting room where kids continued to moan before we changed another diaper that was all blood. My heart sank because I worried but I felt better about our decision to go in to the ER. About 1.5 hours after arriving we finally got called back to a room. She was so hungry and tired and was pretty inconsolable. A resident came in and did a quick symptom check. Sutton was screaming so loud she was bright red and would not settle down. The resident was giggling at her. Literally LAUGHING. She would be like aw little baby giggle giggle. It was the most bizarre thing ever. She didn't say a word about her condition except she told me not to feed her until the doctor came in. Then 2 nurses came in to try and draw blood. They couldn't find her tiny veins. They took a vein light and looked some more and then marked her hand with a pen for what the vein light told them was her vein. Well the first nurse couldn't get the needle in her vein. Meanwhile Brad and I are holding her down because she is screaming so loud. They think they have it in her vein but then no blood comes out. So the next nurse tries the other hand and again can't get the vein. It was terrible to watch this all go down. They were literally trying to squeeze blood out of her to fill up these vials. It was just awful. Finally a doctor comes in and does a quick exam and says they are doing blood work and she thinks it may be a bacterial infection. She also wants to rule out intussusception (which is when the intestines telescope around each other and can perforate the intestines). She tells me I can feed her. We had a bottle and poor girl gulped it down. We finallllly got her semi calm around 9:00. Then they come get us for x-rays. They put x-ray covers on Brad and I and we have to hold her in two different positions while they take images. We finally get her semi calm and almost asleep when the doctor comes in again. She tells us the imaging looks clear (just full of air-which she says is probably from crying so much). She is still waiting on the labs but is getting more confident that it is not intussusception (which could have required surgery). She says she had already ordered an ultrasound and wants to go through with it just to be sure that it is not intussusception. Sweet girl sleeps for 30 minutes then they come in to get her rectal temperature and pulse ox. really?! my baby is sleeping and we wake her now. So then she is wide awake and looks hungry again (now it's after 11 pm) so I nurse her and they come and get her for x-ray. She literally screamed the whole way there, through the ultrasound, and all the way back (it was a little walk to get to ultrasound room). We felt so bad and I think Brad and I were just so ready for her to be able to rest peacefully without being woken up. The nurse comes back in and tells us stuff still looking good and doctor was waiting on labs and ultrasound. The doctor came and spoke to us around midnight and said the labs came back clear. She doesn't know how to explain the blood stool but that it doesn't look like anything serious. She tells us she doesn't want to admit us to the hospital with such a little baby (we are relieved). It takes almost another hour until the nurse prints off the discharge paperwork. She said she needs to take her vitals again (thank goodness she forgot). At this time Sutton had finally been sleeping an hour or so and we didn't want to have to wake her again. Around 12:40 we get the discharge paperwork and we are so happy our baby girl is okay. Of course I didn't sleep a wink because I watched the monitor all night to make sure she was breathing. However, I can't express how grateful I am that baby girl is okay. On Tuesday, I took her to the pediatrician. He thinks it's a milk protein allergy. The doctor thought this back in July. I tried cutting dairy out of my diet but when her fussiness didn't improve I resumed eating dairy. (however at that time there was no visible blood in her stool it's just that her stool culture showed the presence of blood). Anyways, he didn't seem to think it was anything other than a milk protein allergy that she should outgrow by one year of age. For now, I have stocked the house full of dairy alternatives and am hoping for a happier and more comfortable baby girl in the coming weeks. I think I have thanked God for my sweet girl every few minutes and prayed that we never have to take her to the ER again.
This is Sutton after she had been fed...she was a much happier baby. In the ER
This is sweet girl Sunday Monday after the ER visit. She has two battle wounds on her hands from where they blew her veins and she has little bruises.
This is us all before the UGA vs. South Carolina game on Saturday before Sutton took a turn for the worst. Imagine the Redds in the ER in our UGA gear in South Carolina after losing to South Carolina.
This was when she was up past her bedtime hungry in the ER.
Sweet girl we love you so much. We will never forget how scared we were this night. We love you so much and are so happy that you are okay!
