The Daily Hailey

Dekker woke up at 12:30 this afternoon. He was crying in his crib when I went to get him, laying flat on his back. He just reached and reached for me, desperate to be held but not wanting to stand. I really wanted him to stand on his own, mostly to make sure he could. So I bent all the way down and peeked at him through the bars of his crib. He stopped crying right away and rolled over to get to me. When I stood up, so did he. I changed his diaper and brought him out for breakfast. I observed his ear infection symptoms as not-so-infection-ish. He was fussy, and he was obviously tired enough to sleep past noon, but those are also pretty common teething things. No fever, no ear-pulling, no nothing. So I took some advice from you lovely people with information and decided we’d stay home.

Dekker finished his breakfast and I let him out to play while I had a banana and chatted with my mom on the phone on speaker so Dekker could talk to grandma as well. Randomly, towards the end of our phone call, I started to feel very faint. You know that faint feeling that you get in your head, where you have to close your eyes and its almost like your head hurts but not like a headache? Its such a weird feeling to describe, but I had it. I tried to rest my head on the table, to no avail. I very abruptly got off the phone (sorry mom) and bolted out of the dining room to my living room couch. I actually jumped for the couch. Luckily I made it, but I don’t remember hitting it. I came back to reality very quickly I think because Dekker was still in the dining room, crying. I’m sure he was surprised and scared by my moving away from him so fast. Now normally, if I leave him while he’s crying or upset, he sits down like a lump and just wails. He will not move. From the couch, I just called to him, and he came right over. He dried up right away, and I called my mom to explain what had happened and apologize for basically hanging up on her. Then I called Brady to let him know and ask him to check on me once in a while throughout the day in case it happened again. And then I decided to call Health Line, just for feedback. It informed me I needed to hold for a nurse. As I was holding, Dekker came up to the couch and started climbing. Dekker isn’t much of a climber yet at all. He’s gotten up on our ottoman maybe twice, but he’s not too interested in it yet (thank goodness!) But he came over and climbed up on the couch by himself. He crawled on top of me and lay down with his head on my chest. He stayed put. He stayed the entire hold time of about ten minutes, he stayed while the nurse couldn’t hear me and hung up, he stayed while I held for another twenty minutes, and while I spoke to a nurse finally. He didn’t move. During all the holding, we took some pictures 🙂 They may all look the same to you but they are all super beautiful to me!

I have no phone to my ear because I was on hold on the phone I’m taking pictures with, in case you were wondering.

I have maintained through my whole pregnancy that Dekker knows I’m pregnant. He may not understand that there’s a baby in my belly, but he knows somethings up. As soon as we conceived, he started walking. He got much more cuddly, and he is more gentle with me. He has grown more obedient as well. He knows. He is an older brother. Today, more than ever, I know that he knows. My son is like every little boy in the way that his attention span may as well not exist. But he spend likely about 45 minutes hugging me this afternoon. He took care of me the way a son should take care of his mother when she’s old and sick and weak. He knows.

I felt so blessed by him today. After our long cuddle, he was actually completely bushed. If I hadn’t moved, he would have slept on me. Which would have thrilled me, had he not pooped. With his little bum being red already, I didn’t have the nerve to leave him in it, but it was terribly hard for me to move him when he was being so sweet to me. I put him to bed after his diaper change and he stayed asleep until Brady got home.

He reported that the highways were good so we decided to head to a walk-in. And tonight was the night to do it! There was no wait. Not one person in the waiting room or even the parking lot! The doctor was lovely to us. He listened to everything we said, and agreed to check me, Dekker, and the baby out.

Dekker’s ears still have fluid in them, but he says they actually could for up to a month! However, everything I described to him determined that Dekker really doesn’t have an ear infection. He gave us some tips of how to keep it away and how to help him drain well, and basically said not to worry unless we get more fevers. He listened to my heart and said it was perfect. My blood pressure was actually high today, but I was pretty anxious from before. He suspects that my blood pressure will actually be low like it was when I was pregnant with Dekker and he encouraged me to not shy away from salt. I made a joke that I was craving chips pretty seriously and he said likely that was because my body knows it needs salt! No, I’m not going to gorge myself on chips, but its nice to know I don’t need to avoid them either. Best of all, we listened to the baby. I’m pretty confident the baby was sleeping, since it didn’t move at all and it has in the past. I don’t know what its heart rate was at, but it sounded a bit slower, another thing that leads me to think it was sleeping. But it was strong and loud and much heartier than last time when baby was so much smaller. I felt amazing. I was so happy with the appointment. I sailed out of there feeling healthy and relieved.

We hit up Costco really quick on our drive home for hot dogs, and now Dekker’s in bed and we’re about to hit the tub. I just want to thank everyone for being concerned and caring about my family and our wellbeing. We are in good hands, and for tonight, we’re all in great health and will hold onto that as long as its offered to us!

Sleep tight.