5:10 am and exhausted

Well I figured since in the last 24 hours nothing exciting has happened I will tell the story of how my night went last night and seemed to continue the same manner throughout the next day...

SO It started out like any other regular week night. Get home from work, pick up kids from sitter, who happens to live right next to us which makes it wonderful, and start routine:

-Make dinner, eat dinner(speaking of which mine is always cold by the time I get to it, not sure why, probably because I have to help Slade eat and keep getting up to get the " Mom I need this, Mom I need that" requests, and yes they also come from my husband not just the kids)

-clean up, IE. put away dinner, do dishes, start some laundry, vacuum, clean toy room and kids rooms all while my husband "works in the garage"(which I think really means "play with his tools" or "hide out in garage so he can escape helping" and possibly even "run to the neighbors and chat with buddies") He probably knows I will never come check on him to ever find out what he is really doing because I am in to much of hurry to get all these tasks done to move to the next

-put kids in bath, and somehow have to pick up a few things again from kids dragging toys out after I have already cleaned it all up. I swear once I get done with one area they secretly follow behind me and mess it up again just to keep me running around like a chicken with my head cut off( It is entertaining to them I guess)

-Once the kids are out of the bath, I go gather their pajamas, diapers, lotion, underwear, blah blah blah, while doing this, they seem to love to find a hiding place to put their naked bodies so it makes it even more difficult for me to get them BED! Oh ya, they know exactly what they are doing. Very smart, trying to postpone the inevitable. But not smart enough to out smart mommy just yet. Catch them, dress them and get their teeth brushed. Crazy kids, I LOVE MY BEDTIME! What is wrong with kids; to hate going to bed?

-Its usually between 8 and 9 for story time, depending on how long the chaos lasts. Parker and I read a couple books in his bed, Slade tries to join but the attention span...not so good sometimes! Once I am done reading with Parker, he is very good at going to sleep and not getting out of bed for anything. He is so easy compared to Slade. I always take Slade right to his crib, never without his taggies blanket, and... it is not quite as simple as getting Parker to sleep. Slade will throw a little fit and cry in his crib for a little while but eventually fall asleep. Last night he fell asleep around 9:30.

My thoughts at that moment I heard the last cry come from him? "YES! Yes, yes! Now its just me time" for about 30 minutes before the husband comes in and I have to do steps 3 thru 5 for him again! No not really, that was a joke! Although I do feel like that some nights!... 30 minutes were up to quick, it was more like 15 since he came in a little sooner than I expected but that was just fine. We were allowed about 20 minutes of alone time, which started off nice and quiet, enjoying each other, AND... here we go again. Slade wakes up, he is screaming(not crying, whining or fussy) straight up a screaming cry! I am not quite sure what to think of this reverberation coming from him since it is very unusual to hear him cry like that. Neither one of us really wanted to be abruptly interupted during our time alone, but did not have a choice really. We could both tell something was just not right with Slade to be acting like that. I went in and got him from his crib, which when I usually do he stops almost immediately. Not this time. I could tell he was in real bad pain. I checked everything I could think of. It just wasn't making sense. Neither one of us could get him to lighten up. I gave him kids pepto, tylenol, numbing creme for his gums, rubbed his belly, held him tight. NOTHING WAS WORKING! It just seemed to make him more irritable. This lasted for about 3 hours straight, with Slade not stopping for even a second while he laid in bed with us. I felt so bad for him. It was after 1 in the morning and no change, Chris and I both had to work in the morning. I, being the nice and supportive wife that I am, took Slade to the living room and laid on couch with Slade, trying get some sleep and settle him down. I was real worried and wondered if I should take him to the ER, since all insta cares were closed and ER was only option if I were to do it. On the other hand, I wondered if maybe he was just really tired and pissed off cause he couldn't sleep and there was nothing serious going on... I hate being in that situation with little kids who are too small to tell you know what is wrong. Slade and I were out on the couch, still with him screaming, until 5 am!! I was beyond tired and was giving him 10 more minutes and I was going to take him in. 5:10 am hit and WOW WOW WOW! He was OUT! from exhaustion of course. I held him for about 5 more minutes and then took him to his crib, creeping down the halls, into his room and, more smoothly than ever, I laid him down into his crib praying that he would stay in his sleep mode and not feel me let go of him. Fearfully, I crept out of the room as slow as I could hoping he didn't wake from the sound of the door shutting.
Being weak and exhausted myself, I crawled into bed and expected to just pass out. NOPE! The wheels just started a turning..."Did I do the right thing? Should I have taken him to be seen? What if something worse happens from not taking him? Oh I am a horrible mother to not know what is wrong with my baby. Should I go wake him up and go? AAAHHHHGGG!!
Then the next thing I know it is light outside and its almost 9 am and I am not even anywhere near rested enough to want to get out of bed and go to work, which I am late for already! Just a half hour more sleep and then I will get up and go about my day and get to work, late, but they will understand, right? Did I get that extra 30 minutes I asked for? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Bet you can guess why... Yep that's right, you guessed it. SLADE! screaming again. "Please no! Not again," I thought. This time Chris went to get him from his room and right then we knew, from they manner in which he was crying(screaming), that we had no choice. He had to be seen by a Doctor. I, looking like death, pulled up my flying in every which way hair, put one a little bronzer to cover up the big black bags under my eyes and off we went in our pajamas, and might i add no underwear for me, (don't give me those judging facial expressions, I was in a hurry and well underwear were the last thing on my mind OK I forgot!) Giving recent experience with the insta-care closest to us, I took him to the next closest place. American Fork Hospital ER. To my astonishment, ha not, when we were checking in, Mr Slade acted as though he was the happiest baby in the world, flirting with the nursed with his big blue, long lashed, eyes. Therefor, guess who they thought was in need of emergency care? ME! OK ya I know I probably looked like I was in sever pain and in need of medical attention and did I mention in severe pain, but come on people have some courtesy and at least ask before you assume and ruin some lady's day! I will admit the thought did cross my mind, only for a split second, to let them continue to assume and just got hooked up to some IV pumping an immense amount of morphine into my blood stream and just take advantage of the chance to get some good quality SLEEP. But I had to put my baby first and get him the care he seemed to have needed up to the moment we walked into the hospital. Don't worry about 20 minutes of being there, it all started to come out again and they witnessed the immense amount of pain that would take over his body. They ordered an ultrasound but the results were inconclusive because Slade was so out of control it was impossible to hold him down to keep him still for them to be able to get the pictures they needed. after that, the decided to do x-ray of his abdomen. After waiting for about 3 hours, the DR came in and said they were not able to find why he was in so much pain, but they could tell it was severe for him. all they could see from the ultrasound was he had gassy belly, and the x-ray showed that his bowels were not punctured but just really blocked up. All they could tell me was they were just not sure of the real source. he did have a little fluid in his right ear but that would not cause that amount of pain. i was advised to take him to his pediatrician the next day, they discharged him with drops for his ear and liquid lortab to help with the pain.
My frustration, which is probably a result of the "complaining" in the first part of the post, is what are doctors for? I felt like there was more they could have done. Not that I wanted to be there any longer and I definitely didn't want to put Slade through any more, but I feel they didn't do their job to the best of their capabilities. Blood test should have been run, they should not have given up on the ultrasound. There are ways to get through one with small children who are too active. they slightly sedate them and are able to get conclusive results. It is just not worth the risk to not do everything you can to identify the problem. Whether they find something serious or not, it is better to be safe than sorry, right?
Needless to say, Slade is still in the situation he was in the beginning. The pain meds they gave him are just a temporary feel better and I am not sure how I feel about giving a 2 year old lortab! I am sure there are other mothers out there who feel my frustration and have experienced some type of visit to ER or Insta-care and feel like you had DR who helped you, and were told you were being an over-reacting mother and there is nothing wrong with your kid. Mothers know their kids better than anyone which makes us know if there is really something wrong with them. We may not know what it is, but that is where the Doctors are supposed to come in and figure that part out. That doesn't seem to be happening very often. I say, Dr's, do your part, as we do ours, and use your training and experience and find out what the problem is and not give up when you think you know what the source is and you end up wrong. Try try again. Don't make little kids suffer from Dr's egos!

OK! I think I have vented enough about my frustration!