Emerson 3 Months Old

Emerson was 3 months old on Sunday. It was a BIG day as we dedicated her to the Lord that day. I will post on that separately. Emerson is still my sweet, laid back baby. She loves to be talked to and smiles all the time. The only time she cries is when she is very sleepy. If I miss the window to get her down for a nap she will pitch a fit before finally going to sleep. I try to hit getting her down prior to her getting overtired but it can be difficult because I don't have her on a tight schedule like I did Holt and Ellington at this point. She usually naps 3 times a day. She likes sleep much more than Holt and Ellington ever did and can't stay awake for the longer than 2 hours at a time before hitting her wall.

I tried to dedicate this month to perfecting her bottle taking but she still isn't great at it. I can't get her to take more than 3 oz at a time. She starts school in April (she was supposed to start in March and that is a whole different story that still makes me mad to talk about) so I have a few weeks to figure out a good bottle schedule and how much to send. She just seems to be a snacker so I might have to send a million bottles with just a few ounces each.

I was hoping her sleeping patterns would start to get more consistent this month and that we would be down to only one night feeding but we had an eventful month that I think has kept us from achieving our goal.

Emerson had to go into the hospital at the end of February. To say is was a scary moment is an understatement. She spiked a fever of 100.4 on Friday afternoon after our pediatrician had already closed. I called the after hours nurse and because Emerson was only 2 months old she said we had to go to the ER. I gave her some Tylenol and by the time we were seen by the doctors her temperature was down to 99. She didn't have any other symptoms and was acting rather fine at the ER so they decided to just test her urine. A nurse tried to cath her twice with no success. I was getting madder by the minute because I don't think the nurse was very experienced because every time she pulled the cath out Emerson would tinkle all over the bed. I realize I'm not a medical person but I do know that if you have cathed someone correctly and they have a full bladder that you will get urine! Finally a different nurse tried and because Emerson had gone tinkle twice already she was only able to get a small drop. It was enough to send off for culture but not to test while we were in the ER to get immediate results. Therefore, they sent us home and told us they would call us as soon as the culture came back.

As the weekend progressed, Emerson got worse and worse. She was okay during the day on Saturday but spiked a fever of 100.8 in the middle of the night. I called the after hours again and she called the on call doctor who told me to just wait until Monday to see our pediatrician if she wasn't better. When Emerson woke up on Sunday morning her fever was 102.6 and she was extremely lethargic. I called again and the nurse called the on call doctor again. This time she recommended that I get an appointment at the after hours clinic on Acton Rd which didn't open until noon. When they called to give us our appointment time it wasn't until 2! By this time is was only 10 AM and I was really worried about how Emerson was acting that Chad and I were gearing up to just go to the ER instead of waiting. At this time, the nurse from the ER called to tell us that Emerson's cultures had come back and she did have a UTI. I told her how sick Emerson was and she said to come in immediately. When we got there, the staff wasted no time and got to work by collecting blood, performing a spinal tap, and started an IV to administer antibiotics. Because of Emerson's age and the type of bacterial infection she had they kept her for 2 nights administering two types of antibiotics around the clock. Thankfully all her cultures came back negative by Tuesday and we were able to go home on oral antibiotics. We had to administer Amoxicillin 3x/day for 12 days so we were on the schedule of 7, 3, 11. This is one of the reasons I think Emerson's sleep pattern is a little messed up right now. She got in the habit of us waking her at 11 each night and me nursing her back to sleep. She has woken up every night between 11-12 since we finished the antibiotic. She has been waking up once and sometimes twice after that so exhausted doesn't even begin to explain how I feel. Oh well...I'm just thankful that Emerson is healthy and back to her happy, sweet self!

She still sleeps in her miracle blanket swaddle but I think we are nearing the end of that. I have tried the Magic Merlin suit but she doesn't do as well in it as she does in the swaddle. We will see how magical it is once she can no longer use the miracle blanket!

Emerson, we love you so much and feel so blessed to call you ours. Happy 3 months sweet girl!