What a night!

Lastnight was awful. Ben has been sick with a temp for about 2-3days now. I was hoping that with Tylenol and Motrin, he would get over it in a few days. Lastnight, I found out that it wasn't happening.



Aaron left for duty at 4:30pm and by 5:30pm I was doing 85mph on 95S.



Right after Aaron left, Benji woke up from his nap. He wasn't moving much, just laying there, eyes half open, snot everywhere and coughing. I thought I should probably take his temprature. I did and it was 104.1! I panicked, called Aaron.. he said that I'd better take him to the ER. So, I agree, and pack the boys up.. (Noah hadnt even eaten any supper so I threw in a banana, a fruit cup, and some raisins.) So I get out ounto Oviille rd, (which is the main road from TBS to Rt610) and all the Marines are getting of of work. Yep - 5:30 rush hour! I make it into line and am crazy. Ben's eyes are shut and he's not responding when I scream his name. I call my house and get my Dad. I tell him what his temp is and he kinda gets worried (which is so unlike him, being a calm, cop guy) and that in turn made me worried. So I start crying.. I'm telling him that traffic is awful and that I'm still sitting at the light at the end of our road. He tells me to turn around and go home,and to throw Benji in the cold tub water. I told him Id rather try and make it to the ER if I could.



The hospital is about 30 minutes away in this kind of traffic so once I get on 95, I'm FLYING! I finally get there and there are no parking spaces. It's freezing out and I have two little boys. I needed to find a close spot. So I circled around and around until someone came out and was leaving. I got a nice up front spot in under 2 minutes!



So I load the boys into the double stroller and throw my massive, filled to the brim diaper bag in the bottom. I walk into the ER and there are a million people.. not even enough chairs for everyone. Cops all over the place and security guards... I go up to the counter and they ask me to fill out some paper work and bring it back. I do and they tell me to find a spot to sit and that it should only be about a half hour. I'm thinking, 'yeah right.. a half hour with all of these other people that were here before me) So I find a spot big enough for my huge stroller and park it.



I packed pretty smart for being in such a rush and panick. Right before we left the house, I threw in the portable dvd player and Madagascar 2 for Noah who I knew was going to be a pain in the butt.



Sure enough, after 5 minutes of sitting there he's screaming, "Mommy! OUT! GO HOME! MOMMY!!!!!" I'm dying, trying to hold Benjamin, wiping his nose and just trying to keep him cool.. So I whip out the dvd player and pop in the movie. Noah watches it for 10 minutes and starts screaming, "No MOMMY, watch CARS!" Ughh.. sorry Noah, Mommy didn't bring the movie, CARS! You're going to have to watch Madagascar!



This went on for about 30 minutes until I could get a free hand to grab him that banana. He ate that whole things and I gave him some raisins. Then he wanted his pacifier.. (yeah he's 2 and still uses it when he's tired) He calles it his "Suckie". SO he's screaming, "Mommy! SUCKIE!" I grab that and put it in his mouth and I knew what was coming next.. "Mommy! HAIR PULL!!!" ( his security thing when he's tired is pulling my hair. It has been since he was born and it's an awful habbit and I hate it. A whole other story) I say, "No Noah, you can't pull my hair, Benji's sick and needs Mommy right now" So this hair pull nonsense goes on for another 15 minutes.. and it's back and forth, "Mommy, watch Cars, Mommy, hairpull!" I try distracting him by asking where the lights were and if he saw any trees inside which worked for about another 15 minutes.



The whole time, Ben's cuddled up in my arms and my jackets covered in snot.. It was awful.. I felt so helpless and at the same time so annoyed because Noah was making me insane..



We waited in the ER for 2 hours before they called our name. Then they took us in (massive stroller and all) to get his temprature. The took it and it was 103.4 . The nurse gave him some more Tylenol and told us to go back behind the doors and wait to get blood drawn. She said that because he was so little and that his temp was so high, there was tons of tests that they needed to do as proceedure..



The blood test would be the first. So, I bring him in and roll up his sleeve. They wrap a rubber band around him arm and start taking blood. This seemed like it took forever and Ben was screaming bloodymurder the whole time. When they were finally finished, they threw a cotton ball and some take over the spot and sent us to another waiting room for X-rays.

We sit there for about 15 minutes and they call us in. I have to park the stroller behind the glass so Noah wont be exposed to the x-ray and I thought for sure he would freakout because he couldn't see me. I was so surprized when he didn't. So I put Ben p on the table and throw on my x-ray protective vest. The doc says to hold him a certain way and to restrain his arms. Ben didn't like that too much though and kept squiggling loose. But we finally got that over with. They said that as far as they could tell, his chest looked fine and that the next stop was another waiting room.

I put the boys in the stroller and head down the hall to sit some more. Noah is being awesome now - I had just given him an orange and he was slopping it all down his face. - So we sit at this waiting room for about a half hour and someone calls Ben's name. So we follow the nurse to the hospital room. She tells me that they're going to put a urine bag on him for a urine test. That I needed to strip him to his diaper. So I did. Meanwhile, the doctor comes in and says that they're going to need to put in a cathider. I was like, "are you serious? He's 9 months old!" They tell me that it's th only way and that it'll be quick. So I look at poor Ben (whos still so upset from everything before) and just say, "okay Buddy, one more time.. Mommy's got ya" and the nurse lady proceeded to make my childs life a living hell. Ugh.. I hate that.. I hate that he had t o go through it..

After all that was done, they check him ove like a routine check up and find out that he has a real bad ear infection in his left ear! Really? And you had to do al of those awful tests BEFORE you checked his ears?! They say that because his temp was so high, they had to because it was the hospitals proceedures! Ugh.. So all they did as prescribe some Amoxycillion and sent us home.

By the time we were discharged, both boys were screaming. Both so ready to go home. It was 9:00. We made th half hour trip back home. I got them into their pajamas, cooked Noah up a hot dog and made Benny a bottle (which he only ate 2oz of before falling asleep) and threw in Cars for Noah.

It took me a while before I could put Ben down without him waking up. So by 11:30, when Cars ended, I was so ready for be. And so was Noah. I bring them both upstairs and lay ben down on our bed. He cries, I let him while I go wash my face and throw on my pj's. So Ben's crying, which makes Noah cry because he's exhausted. And now Noah's screaming, "MOMMY HAIR PULL!!!"over and over.. which in turn, inrages me! I finish washing my face and just scream at him. (I felt awful afterwards because I know he was so tired and after all night at the ER watching his brother get poked and prodded, he's probably terrified..) I tell him to lay down and go to sleep. NO HAIR PULLING tonight! He kept trying to crawl up me and pull it but I couldn't let him. I had Ben on my chest. The only way Benji would sleep was on his belly on my chest.. so Noah finally went to sleep and I put him in his bed. That woke Benji up. It seemed to never end lastnight.. over and over, they woke eachother up..

But we made it. Ben seems to be feeling a little better this morning. He's still hot but I havent checked to se how hot yet. He ate some baby food and Aaron gave him some yogurt.I tried giving him some formula but he only ate an ounce before falling alseep.

Now he and Aaron are snoozing on the couch. (Aaron didn't get any sleep lastnight either because work was so busy - guess they had alot of fires or something) Noahs sitting next to me, pulling me hair and watching... you guessed it, Cars.