Tons of you have been asking for an update on Blake – since not everyone has Facebook, we decided to post it here. First, thank you so much for your prayers, support, and love for our family.
Second, a short update on how we got here. Blake and Kinsley both started with a nasty cold/virus Sunday morning. They had fevers (sometimes even as high as 104 for Kinsley), coughing, runny nose, and congestion. Monday, I took both of them to the pediatrician and they ruled out of the flu. They said it was just a nasty virus and it had to run its course. They said that Blake could have RSV (Emerson had a very mild version of this when she was an infant so we were familiar with it), but that we would just have to watch his breathing to make sure he wasn’t struggling. They also warned us that Day 4 and Day 5 could be the worse for him. Man, were they right!
Kinsley finally kicked her fever on Day 4 and started feeling better. Blake, however, kept getting worse as the week went on. Not only did his fever go up and down, he also started having trouble eating and even vomiting some. Wednesday night, he was super duper restless and wouldn’t eat hardly at all. Though he was having wet diapers (which they told us to watch for), they were getting consistently less and we knew he was getting dehydrated. We gave him medicine about 5:30 that morning (Day 5) in hopes of making him more comfortable. Then came the straw that broke the camel’s back. By 7:45, he felt really warm and when I took his temperature, it was 100.4 (which is the point in infants where they say they need to go to the ER) and we noticed he was struggling to breathe. By the time we made it to the pediatricians office, he was 100.8. When they measured his breathes per minute and realized how high they were, they told us to go straight to the ER. His heart condition was just another thing that complicated matters as they considered him high-risk.
The ER swooped us in, started doing tests, giving him air, started giving him fluids, and braced us that it would be a long day. Indeed, it was! Watching them put an IV in a infant who is majorly dehydrated was heartbreaking. They had to poke him many, many times because his veins were too flat and kept compressing. To make a long story short, they confirmed it was RSV and they moved him to Pediatric ICU where they could monitor him better and provide support as he needed it. They noticed that he was struggling to breathe more when he was eating, so they told me to stop nursing him and let him have some time off. If I didn’t, they were worried the extra air he was getting while eating, along with the milk, could go in his lungs and cause a lung collapse. This was probably the worst part for me. Even worse than all the cords and IVs, or worse than trying to find his vein, or worse than putting him in this weird contraption to get a chest xray – hearing your baby cry cause he is hungry and not being allowed to feed him was the ultimate worst.
So, where are we now? The doctor said he did much better breathing last night and they will spend today weaning him off the oxygen, if he allows, and letting me try to nurse him. If he nurses well and isn’t struggling to breathe more while nursing, we will have crossed a huge hurdle and they may consider letting us step down to the pediatric floor. If he still struggles while nursing, they will try a bottle or possibly a feeding tube, which would be another worst for me. So, please pray that he transitions well to nursing again, that his breathing continues improving, and his fever continues to stay low (it spike at 100.5 again last night).
Thank you so much for all your concern, love, and support. I cannot imagine what it would be like to not have family close by nor have the support of the body of Christ. Our friends and church family have been the hands and feet of Christ as they have prayed, picked Kinsley up from school, watched our girls during the day and night, provided food, listened as we shared our concerns and worries, and spoke the truth of God’s Word shining light in a dark place. I cry just thinking about how thankful I am for all ya’ll are doing and how you reflect Christ to us!