You Did What with Your 4 Day Old?

We took him to the ER. Being a new parent is tough. Understatement of the century, right?

Night 1at home was tough enough. Ayden was waking up every hour wanting to eat. Oh, but before then, I had been trying to breast feed before bedtime and the little guy was a little over aggressive and made my nipple bleed, like, a lot. Christ. 

So then after that, we were up every hour either using formula or the non bloody side of the boob buffet. So I was a little tired. 

During the day, that little turkey went a minimum of two hours between feedings. I had a feeling we were on the upswing. Sunday night, early Monday morning, every time Ayden woke me up for a feeding, he was wet, like sweaty, like wet enough to make a wet mark on the sheets and need a new outfit and blanket. Naturally, thinking he was overheating, we kept trying different kinds of outfits and different layers trying to get his temperature right. At around 4 am, it was the same story and when I took his little socks off, his feet were ice cold. So, I called the after hours line for the pediatrician and she asked what his temperature was. After telling me that our baby ear thermometer was not an accurate way to measure a baby's temperature (thanks for making this product and enticing me to buy it, by the way), we had to bust out our regular digital thermometer and stick it in the little guy's bum. And then our batteries must have been low because I swear it took a good 3-4 minutes for it to read. And sticking the thermometer in his butt made him start pooping. Quite the comedy at 4 am. 

We finally get a reading of 96.4 and she tells us that we need to go ahead and go to the ER.  Tells us to tell them that we have a newborn with a low temperature to make sure they don't put him around other kids. Long story short, they bundled him all up and ran a bunch of tests and everything came back normal.  I think by the time we got there, his temperature was already on the upswing and was tested again before we left and all was well with the world. Even with getting his little baby IV, I cried more than he did. He was a trooper. 

We had our first visit with Ayden's new pediatrician the next day (or I suppose it was the same day) and he was finally able to tell us what all he should be wearing to sleep and that babies sometimes sweat and not to worry, which would have been much more helpful to hear when we called the first time. 

Oh well, better safe than sorry!  I'm sure I would do the same thing all over again if given the opportunity and it seems as though he is getting better and better every day - at everything - eating, sleeping, and we've already had multiple projectile poos. 

This new job I have may have some pretty rotten hours but I'd say the payout makes it all worth it.