Baby Paige--1 month old (Sept)

Paige has been a very easy baby so far. In fact, out of all four babies we've had--she's the easiest as far as I can remember. I think that's partially because I feel more comfortable and knowledgeable about caring for babies than in years past. But, it is definitely her personality too.

Six weeks old at the Provo Temple

Paige started smiling in her second month of life. She slept really great too--about 6 hours in a row at night starting at 7pm.

Paige started not liking her car seat, she would cry as soon as I slipped her into it. So I started to put her into her car seat when she was at her happiest moments and then drive around the block for 5 minutes each day, just to try to get her more used to it and hopefully have some "pleasant" memories of being in it.

We'd go on walks every day. We'd walk to the playground or just around the neighborhood.

At the end of September I put Paige down for an afternoon nap. She slept for about two hours. When I picked her up from that nap I noticed she was hot. I took her temperature and it was 100.5 degrees. I called the doctor's office and left a message for the nurse. The phone almost immediately rang after I left the message and the nurse said to bring her to the office right away.

I still wasn't concerned at this point, and luckily, the kids had just walked in from the bus. I sent the older two kids to the neighbor's house so they could make it to choir on time (our neighbor and I carpool our children to the Mapleton Children's Choir on Thursdays). Clay, Paige, and I went to the doctor.

I was shocked to learn that Dr. Bennett (Dr. Paxton was gone) was concerned enough to start ordering blood tests, a urine sample, and a spinal tap. It broke my heart to see them poke Paige and insert a catheter (for the urine sample). In fact I started to feel like all this was 'overkill' and wishing I had not called in the first place. Dr. Bennett came back into the room and informed me that Paige's white blood count was way too high and he would need to do a spinal tap right away. Luckily, Joey came to the doctor's office by then and the nurses suggested that I wait in the waiting room while Joey stayed with Paige for that procedure. I don't know which is worse, being next to my child and hearing her cry in pain, or waiting in the waiting room and wondering.

After the spinal tap I was informed Paige would need to go to the hospital right away. Paige and I arrived at the hospital around 9:30pm. It was a LONG night for Paige and me. The nurses had to administer another blood test as well as find a vein to insert an IV. Paige's veins were so tiny that the first time they got the IV in and started to drip fluids it "blew her vein" as they called it. My heart broke for Paige as they inserted needle after needle and I wondered if she wondered why I was allowing her to feel so much physical pain.

We spent 5 days in the hospital as Paige received IV antibiotics for what was found to be a bacterial infection in her blood. It was 5 long days for us. Paige slept horribly at the hospital, every time the monitor beeped or the nurse entered the room she would wake up and cry. She didn't nurse well either so I had some clogged milk ducts that were painful. Children under the age of 14 were not allowed to visit so Joey could only visit twice and for only about 1-2 hours each time. Since Paige was hooked up to an IV she couldn't be moved from her crib more than 3 feet (as far as the IV cord would reach) so the only things I could do with Paige when she was awake was hold her or put her down in her crib or on my bed and I felt sad to leave her in her crib when she was awake and alert so I would stand by her crib and talk to her or most often hold her. By the end of 5 days my arms and back ached.

Paige got well. I'm truly grateful for medical knowledge so that something that I guess could be serious if not treated at all just turns into a few days in the hospital and back home.

At first Paige had an IV in her arm, however she moved her arm a lot and the IV eventually fell out. As you can see she had to have her arm taped up to try to prevent the IV from moving when she would wiggle.

Later on her IV had to be inserted into her head! That was better because it was not as hard for me to nurse her, but it looked so painful and she definitely did not feel comfortable with it there. The nurses put on this little hat so I wouldn't have to look at it. When Paige would cry her IV line would fill with blood from her head (that's normal, nothing to worry about) but I did everything I could do to keep her from crying!