Rota Virus

2-27-06

Jack,

You poor little sweetheart! It turns out you didn't have the flu at all recently, but the Rota Virus which is a nasty little virus that gives babies nausea with vomitting and diarrhea. It's been really rough on you!

There was a day last week when we almost had to take you to the hospital for dehydration. You were moderately dehydrated, but we were able to persist with giving you Pedialyte and Lactose free formula in order to get you through that rough period. As of today, you are still struggling with frequent diarrhea and you have a horrible diaper rash, but we think it's slowing down a little.

Everyone has been so supportive. Your Aunt Kelly came by and helped me one evening with the dogs and ran to the store to pick up some more Pedialyte for you and your Aunt Erin has brought us countless items that we have used to get us through this period - wipes, chicken noodle soup, Tylenol, Gatorade, and homemade Butternut Squash lasagna which may be the best lasagna I have ever eaten in my life! Also - a couple of beers to take the sting out of the late nights ;)

On Saturday night, your belly button which has been kind of red and swollen - looked infected so we called your Aunt Kelly who looked at it and thought we might need to bring you to the hospital to have it checked out. We called your Grandpa Dougherty ("Poppa") and he came by at midnight to have a look himself.

After he looked at it, he concluded you had an infection in your belly button that had walled itself off and become it's own entity and needed to be drained. Instead of taking you to the hospital where you could have been exposed to other things and potentially get something else. Also, it would have been so stressful for you, so - instead, Poppa Dougherty and your Aunt Kelly drove with us over to Grandpa Dougherty's doctors office and they opened up the infection after putting on a numbing agent and put in a stint so it could drain for you.

Your belly button already looks SO much better today and I can tell that you feel relief from the pressure that was there before when it was swollen and bothersome.

Your Daddy is now sick with the flu - he threw up yesterday - so we have been trying to give him some time to sleep so he can get better fast. Long story short - we've all been kind of under the weather for more than a couple of weeks now (we had colds before the Rota Virus), but I'm aiming for us all to be recovered by this weekend and we'll have a nice weekend together - appreciating feeling good!

Nothing makes you appreciate being healthy more than immediately after feeling awful!

I have had the comfort through this period of getting a lot of snuggle time with you and THAT part of this period has been nice. We took about 3 long walks this weekend which I refer to as snuggle walks because we just snuggled the whole walk - but being outside allowed us to get some fresh air and sun while we snuggled. It's good for my heart to have those moments of closeness with you. I love them so much!

You are the best little boy ever, J - J!!! Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

Love,

Mommy