Connor - 7 Months

Connor has had a rough month.  He was diagnosed with human metapneunovirus and spent about a week on a monitor, doing albuterol nebulizer treatments and on oxygen while sleeping.  It made for an interesting time, especially since all this happened two days before my brother's wedding.  I have to give a shout-out to Owlet sock monitors though.  I've been borrowing one from my brother- and sister-in-law and I'd had Connor on it after his Amoxicilin reaction and it went off once a night for a couple nights and then Monday night (leap day), it went off a ton.  I put Connor in bed with me so he could sleep and I could keep a sleepy eye on him and could hear him wheezing and he'd arch his back as if in pain every once in a while.  I called my mom in the morning then called the doc and told them my app had him in the 70-80 O2 range and they kind of freaked out.  My mom then shared with me that his back arching was probably because he was air-hungry.  Yikes! So I took him in and the doc was actually very attentive and had had a patient in there with the sock for a different reason and had found them quite accurate.  They monitored him for a while and his saturations stayed around 90 awake and upright so they knew they'd go below their threshold while asleep.  They had warned me on the phone that if he went below 90 they'd send me up to Primary's.

Luckily, after suctioning Connor's boogers out and giving him a breathing treatment, his saturations improved a little.  The doc said the hospital would probably keep us 12-24 hours then send us home with oxygen, a pulse oximeter and nebulizer so we'd just skip the hospital and go straight to home treatment.  Bless her!  I'm kind of glad our regular doctor wasn't there because I'm not so sure we would have been so lucky with him.  So I spent my time running between my Relief Society activity and home to meet IHC Home Health to learn how to use all the equipment.  Connor was on oxygen for almost a week and had nebulizer treatments every 4-ish hours for that same time period. 

There were quite a few sleepless nights as his saturation so would dip too low and I'd have to turn the oxygen up, then I'd wake up in a panic and notice his O2 was too high and I'd turn it down; it was exhausting.  Thursday night was pretty bad.  He didn't seem to be improving much and I had to turn him up to 1/2 liter (he'd been on about 1/4).  They told me to take him into the suction clinic and have them evaluate him but he improved throughout the day, especially after a few good coughs so I didn't end up taking him in.

It was so hard to see my little guys struggling so much.  It was a logistical nightmare to make sure we had everything packed up just to go to Sunday dinner.  I didn't realize my little guy was so sick and feel so blessed that he is getting better.  There's a little baby in our ward now in the ICU with RSV and now pneumonia and on a ventilator.  These sicknesses are nasty!  So that was our eventful couple of weeks this month with Mr. Connor.  Between the ear infections, Amoxicilin reaction and virus, our little guy needs to feel better.  At 7 months Connor:

Sister will never leave him be

- Loves his feet and is discovering his ears

- Is about 25 pounds and officially too big for his infant carrier but I haven't switched him yet, especially since he sleeps in it and the next size bigger carriers don't remove from the car.

- Wears 18 month clothes (some 12 month clothes barely fit)

- Eats 6-8 oz. bottles

- Loves rice cereal and eats it once a day because I haven't figured out how to do it twice yet

- Like squash - the only veggie he'll eat

- Likes water in a sippy but I think it's mainly to chew on the spout

- Wears size 4 diapers but after this first box I'll probably just move him to 5's - the same size Zoey wears

- Still smiles with his whole face

- Grabs my face and will give me a big, open-mouthed kiss if I ask for one

- Is working on waving "hi" and "bye bye" but isn't quite there yet

- Is bored and sick of being a baby - he wants to get up and GO but can't quite yet

- Loves phones

- Rolls like a crazy person

- Responds to his name

- Loves to splash in the bathtub and eat the bath cup

- Is doing pretty well sitting up but still has a little round bum.  He also likes to launch himself backward which isn't good on the head

- Still takes a morning and afternoon nap.  They vary in length and what time he goes down.

- Has had a rough go sleeping through the night and it's been ages since he has with all the sickness.  I did get a couple nights this week which was amazing.

- Has bad separation anxiety when left completely alone.  Also, does not like it when he can't see me.

- Usually wakes up a little earlier in the morning and wants to snuggle; which is strange since he's not super snugly.

- Puts EVERYTHING in his mouth - still.

- Started doing the excited shakies (when he saw a balloon bouncing around his head).  This freaked me out as he was sick but I'm glad Zoey did it so I didn't completely lose my mind in worry.

- Only two teeth still.

- Has started babbling more and more, making mama sounds and bo, bo, bo, ba, ba, ba

- Is really good at grabbing things - hair, food, books, arm fat (ouch!)

- Still LOVES to jump in his bouncer or Johnny Jump-up - it's hysterical to watch

He's still such a sweet, happy baby.  Even while sick, people couldn't believe how mild-mannered he was, he just didn't complain!  The home health guy commented that he didn't look that sick as Connor bounced in his bouncy chair.  But he didn't realize that he wasn't bouncing with the same gusto and energy and the smiles were virtually non-existent.  It's nice to have the smiles back and celebrate another month with our bouncing baby boy!