Putting the frighteners on your parents

It's been in the news about the meningicoccal vaccine (or rather, the extra shot the Health Dept now say very young'uns need) and the various pros and cons and the proponents thereof.

Okay so ten kids who were vaccinated still got it.. but they all survived, apparently. Would they have if they hadn't been vaccinated? We'll never know, but it's likely the vaccinations helped in some small way at least.

Anyhoo, yesterday afternoon Braeden decided to scare the living daylights out of his parents.

The day went well enough - considering he'd woken early that morning with a horrible scratchy cry and a slight temperature. In the day, he was his usual greedy, full-on self; enjoying his playtimes, napping at regular intervals, generally being adorable kidlet.

The day got hot and windy, so I did what I usually do - I stripped baby off down to his nappy, lay down on the bed with him, and we played then napped together after a bit of a booby top-up to make sure he was fully hydrated in the nasty heat. (I have no idea why my child HAS to be in full skin contact with me when we're both hot and sweaty, but as he clearly enjoys/needs it, who am I to argue?)

Anyway, he slept an hour and a half like that, which is not unusual as he sleeps well when he's close to me.

Wayne got home, we lay chatting for a bit, baby woke up so it was time to get up and feed him properly.

And then we discovered the awful cry was back, and our child refused to consider bottle or breast, and was indeed a very unhappy wee man.

We rang the after hours number for our doc, and were told to go straight into hospital, take no chances.

You don't have to tell us twice. Wayne did the hour+ trip in 40 minutes, including traffic lights.

Luckily A&E put babies on the high priority so we didn't have to wait the four hours the sign advised, and Braeden was being checked out within ten minutes after we got through the slow registration process. Initially he seemed fine again - wriggling on the bed, looking at this and that, happy and quite content.

Except he'd missed an entire big feed and thus **should** be going ballistic by now.

They tested his blood sugar, which hurt, and this started him crying.. and there it was, that awful scratchy weak cry that just sounded damn WRONG.

Further checks ensued, and we were reassured it wasn't meningitus or anything like that. Baby's got an inflamed throat and a bit of a temperature, hence the diagnosis of an upper respiratory ouchie that should ease off in a day or two, and no doubt is why he's off his feed and sounds so terrible. (You try getting up a good howl when you've got razor blades in your throat)

So it's baby paracetemol four times a day (timed cleverly so that he gets his major feeds in afterwards when his throat is numbed, but carefully so that he doesn't aspirate his food ie go down the wrong tube!)

He's cranky and fussy, poor wee darling, but he's had more than 500 mls since last night, so there's no danger he'll dehydrate now we know what's going on.

Luckily I started keeping "The Book of Braeden" a week earlier, where I was recording his feeds, sleeps, and activities so that I could pinpoint patterns within patterns and improve the evening bedtime battles. It was very reassuring for me, and helpful to the docs, to be able to answer **exactly** when he last fed, how much, any behavioural differences throughout the day, and so on. No guess work in a time of stress, just the facts Ma'am.

He's just finished another 250ml in his dad's arms, and is quietly watching "Alien Ressurection" (!!!) with Wayne.

But last night, with a limp weak baby with an awful cry and refusing to feed, it was a very different picture. You just don't take the chance with a wee one.

When we got home again and baby fed then fell asleep in my arms, I popped him on to his dad claiming I'd make the coffee and start dinner, but what I really needed was to stand outside and shake for a bit. Relief, adrenalin aftershocks.. call it what you will, but I made the willows look steady in comparison ;-) Turns out I've got what Braeden's got (such a generous child I've got, shares everything with his Mum), so I'd better get on to making those antibodies for him ;-)