Sickness and BOYS!

So much for being a great blogger, huh?!

First of all, not long after the last post began the days of torturous migraines. Migraines have been a fairly new development for me in the last few years. I never had them before and then one day about 2 or 3 years ago I began getting these ridiculous headaches. They rose to a debilitating point last year and several have sent me to the hospital.

Being pregnant means there are limits to what I can take to manage the pain and side-effects. So all day on Thursday I just sat in our recliner, moving as little as possible. Trying to drink water. I took 3 steaming hot showers (steam helps), 2 baths, and finally some Excedrin Migraine. That evening we went out to dinner, and it did a world of good to get out of the house. I dealt with come-and-go headaches throughout the weekend but I was actually pretty proud of myself for managing through the pain without a lot of medication. Not that I am going to keep that up after baby is born or anything.

Sunday began the week-o-doctor trips. After a fairly typical Sunday morning, we picked Colt up from Bible class and he was suddenly very, very lethargic and snuggly. This is a boy who, no matter how tired he is, always has his head up checking people out and wants to be in-the-know. He's at a point now where he really doesn't nap anywhere except his bed (no more car, very rarely in Grandma or Mimi's arms at church, not even in bed with me). He's just busy and aware all the time. So my mama instinct began to tingle a little...something wasn't right.

My mom rocked him during church service because John and I were puppets in Children's Church. By the time she brought him to us an hour later, you could quite literally fry an egg off his body he was SO hot. It was astonishing how hot he was. Mama Instinct was now in overdrive and I hollered at John that we had to go right then. We raced to urgent care where his pediatrician is...only to find a major back up in a waiting room full of sick people (shocking, right?). The masks, the coughing, the piles of snotty kleenex, the feverish children...it was too much and Colt was beginning to be unresponsive, not able to keep his eyes open.

We went to another urgent care where our good friend, Kyle was working as a PA. We got right in and, as always, he took great care of us. Colt had a temp of 103! A little Motrin and Colt was feeling much better. He tested negative for all the flu (thank goodness) and negative for RSV. He got a breathing treatment and we went home. He's now been home all week, because the high fever lasted until Wednesday morning, then he broke out into a crazy rash. We saw his pediatrician on Wednesday who said it was a classic case of roseola. He's fine now, not even contagious, though still very polka-dotty! He also FINALLY has a tooth, and an ear infection so it's been a rough and painful week for the little man.

Tuesday was our BIG ultrasound! We were actually both pretty anxious about it, we both were up until about 1 a.m. the night before unable to sleep. We were excited, and part of me was very nervous because I knew it was about more than just the sex of the baby. They were checking to see if everything was working right, that the development was ok, and all major organs were there, and that there were no signs of birth defects at this point.

Once again, we had a friend in the medical field who took great care of us. Laura was our ultrasound tech and she found the baby right away and as soon as I could see the heart fluttering I started to relax. First sign that everything was ok. She said she usually looks at everything else and goes over the sex of the baby last. But, well, after about 5 seconds it was undeniable. Our little BOY was flashing his manhood all over the screen, proud as can be, and it was obvious he wanted us to know right away!

He was VERY active, moving all over the place, flipping and turning and kicking. The placenta is low-lying and forming a layer between my stomach and the baby so it will be a while before I can feel all that movement. He likes his hands up by his head, and likes to sit spread eagle as often as possible. We saw each and every beautiful, normal organ, a normal spine and head, all limbs accounted for.

We came home and told Colt he was going to have a baby brother, but he was much more interested in the cat. He's been practicing pulling up on the coffee table and pretty much that's what he wants to do all day, every day so baby news doesn't interest him much. He also is into clapping now and it is THE. CUTEST. THING. EVER.

So, Colt's going to have a baby brother. We're going to have two sons. We could not be more excited, it could not feel more perfect. Two little boys to fill our house with dirt and frogs and football helmets and sweaty clothes and cars and waterguns...what an adventure!