I believe I started planning Grady's first birthday (in my head) at about 6 months old. Ridiculous I know, but I'm a major planner and this was going to be a huge milestone for us. I settled in on the Winter Onederland theme since he's a January baby. But, when I started looking over the guestlist I quickly realized there was no way we could fit everyone in our house. So, why not throw 2 parties? We planned for his family birthday to be on his actual birthday, January 26. It worked out perfect because it landed on a Saturday so my familiy could come from Raleigh. One problem - Raleigh decided to get a major ice storm prohibiting everyone from coming :( I was so bummed. I had worked so hard as did my mom with decorations. Oh well. To be honest the first birthday really is for the parents not the kids. They don't know what's going on. Either way we went forward and had Dave's family over. A part of me knew Grady was going to hate cake and icing, but I just had to try. So we all gathered around Grady's highchair and sang Happy Birthday. Once we finished we all clapped and said "woooo" and out came the tears! He absolutely hated it. We tried putting icing in his mouth and he cried through the whole thing. And then had to take a nap. Sigh.....
So even though the family party didn't turn out quite as planned, nothing was keeping my spirits down because his friend party was the very next weekend and in my head it was going to be nothing short of awesome. Sarah and Jonathan were coming in town for the friend party because Sarah was in the Middle East for his real birthday. This was great for me because I needed tons of help. They came in late Thursday and Friday morning Grady seemed a little off. In fact Thursday night he had a low grade fever but I figured he was teething and brushed it off. By mid Friday his fever was around 102. Shit. So I did the very adult thing and cancelled his party. I didn't think it was right to expose all the other babies and children if in fact Grady came down with something. Funny thing is that he acted fine. Slept through the night, eating, drinking, playing. You would have never guessed he was so sick. But every 3 - 4 hours, just as his meds wore off, his fever came right back. I felt so bad for Sarah and Jonathan! Come Saturday morning his fever registered 103. Now I was getting nervous because he's never had a high fever. I called the doctor and we decided to keep a watch on him, switch between Tylenol and Motrin every 4 hours, but as long as he was happy, eating and drinking there was no cause for concern.
I was feeding him dinner Saturday night and Sarah was sitting on the other side of his high chair when all of the sudden I noticed his sippy cup shaking. Weird. Then it happened again so I asked Sarah if she noticed he was shaking and she said yes. Freaking out now. Then I looked at his lips and said Sarah, are his lips turning blue, and she very reluctantly replied yes. Holy Shit! I grabbed him out of his high chair and ran to the back deck where the guys were steaming Oysters. I told Dave what happened and immediately decided to call 911. I wasn't sure if he was starting to have a seizure, which I knew could happen with a high fever. The 911 operator told me they needed to get him to the hospital via ambulance in case something was happening. So, I obviously became hysterical as I packed his diaper bag and probably walked around the house ranting about God knows what while we waited for the ambulance.
When the paramedics arrived they decided it was best to be safe and take him. So we loaded up into the ambulance and Dave followed behind us. I figured I could hold Grady but that was not the case - he needed to be stapped into a stretcher. I thought he was going to totally melt down. Instead, he yet again made a liar out of me, took both hands and held onto the sides of the stretcher and chatted up the paramedic. Not a single wimper or tear the whole 15 minute ride to the hospital - from Grady that is! The nice thing about arriving in style via ambulance is that you get the fast track straight into a room. They immediately took his temp which turned out to be 104.5. Cue the mommy heart failure. I was mystified because he wasn't even warm to the touch. They checked his pulse/ox and everything was perfect. They decided he had rigors because his internal temperature spiked so fast but his external didn't have time to catch up so his body started shaking. Dr. assured me this was perfectly normal and he would be just fine. They ran blood work but no signs of the flu or bacterial infection. He did however have a horrific double ear infection so we figured the fever came from that. He was such a little trooper and so brave. I was a hot mess though!
Everything ended up being just fine. We had several check ups with his pediatrician regarding the really bad ear infections, and we even thought he was going to have to see an ENT specialist for tubes. But, miraculously they cleared up within a week - oddly enough after we took him off antibiotics. Thank God - we all needed a break.
To break 2013 down for you, he had a bad cough, cold, ear infection for New Years. Then 2 weeks later he got the stomach flu, and so did Dave and I...at the exact same time...it was horrific. Dave's parents were in Arizona so I had to call my mom to come help take care of Grady. This sounds silly, but I swear I puked 70 times in 24 hours. It was so bad my mom convinced me to go to Urgent Care to get an antinausea pill so that I could eat something. Well wouldn't you know I was so dehydrated that they sent me straight to the ER. Awesome. Mind you, this was all going down at the same time that our sweet Porter because extremely ill. Presumably he had a tumor, but we're not exactly sure. He got sick and less than a week later we had to put him down. Then 2 weeks after that Grady got sick and ended up in the hospital. Then we dealt with 2 weeks of his really bad ear infection. So, to put it lightly 2013 started off horrible!
We finally had Grady's friend party the end of February. It was a great time with great friends and great kiddos. We also confirmed Grady still hates cake and icing. Sigh...
XOXO,
Court
XOXO,
Court
