First Sign

Sign language that is. I may get a little carried away with the details, so bear with me.

Jacob finally was struck with his first illness. Actually, he's been throwing up periodically for about a month now and all the sudden, it started getting more frequent. On top of that, he caught this cold/sore throat bug I probably brought home to all of us (thanks to the runny nosed kids at Head Start). We do have to be very thankful that he hasn't gotten sick before now though.

Anyway, Marcia and I took him to the dr. yesterday morning to see what may be going on and why he's on strike with solids. He does have a viral infection, a runny nose, sneezing and raw looking throat. He also has some more pronounced reflux going on. Can't do anything about the viral infection - has to run its course. He got some new meds to try for reflux that speeds foods through his stomach and on into his intestines. The dr. didn't seem to think it was an allergy like milk, lactose or soy.

Last night got much worse. He threw up twice in a short time frame. He was even considerate enough to wait until after I had just given him a bath before the 2nd one. :) He proceeded to scream for about 30 min. straight and was snotting everywhere and gurgling with all the stuff in his throat from the cold. We couldn't even get him dressed again, so just wrapped him up in blankets.

I ended up bringing him to bed with me while Bill slept in the spare bed - he had to work this weekend. The after hours nurse said to keep him propped up and to only give him clear liquids like Pedialyte. I was rocking him around 3a.m. and had given him a sip of the juice, which he's not keen on large amounts of, and he pulled off and looked at it like "that's not what I want." He seemed to concentrate for a second and gave me the sign for milk! He wasn't crying or protesting. He was able to tell me what he wanted at a time when he was feeling his worst! How wonderful! I got up and carried him to the kitchen and made just a little bit, not wanting to give him too much. He took it and went back to sleep.

Thanks Leslie! And to everyone else in our class, be patient, because this works and they'll get better at it as they get older. It was a great feeling. I just wanted to pick him up and squeeze him for communicating.

As for Halloween, we took a rain check. We may go to our trick-or-treating destinations next weekend. Poor fellow, sick on his first Halloween. He's doing better today.