Oscar's Two Month Update & Meningitis Scare

Thursday 2nd March 2017 - Oscar is 2 months!  Wow, how has that happened?! It's so strange looking at him as a 2 month old baby when he should have only just been born.  February went by super quickly, we've had visits from both my Mum and Brett's mum, which meant 2 weeks were automatically filled.  It's always lovely to see people, but it goes so quickly and you end up feeling a bit crappy for the couple of days after they leave.

It's quite difficult for me to write these posts at the moment, although Oscar is 2  months old, technically he is actually only just classed as term, which means his development is likely to be a bit delayed, although he should level out with other children his age when he gets to a year.  We have been seeing some smiles though which is amazing!  Oscar has been pretty well in terms of his health this month, he had a sticky eye, which is common in babies but his turned out to be an infection, which cleared up within a week after having antibiotics.  On Wednesday (1st March) he weighed 7lbs 13oz, he's certainly putting on weight well despite not feeding particularly well the last week or so.  He's reverted to taking about 30ml of milk at a time, which is a third of what he was having.  He has also vomited quite a lot, so we are monitoring him as we think it could be a bit of reflux, as long as he continues putting on weight well I'm not panicking too much!  I have so many lovely outfits lined up for him, I bought a lot of rompers and outfits that would be perfect for the summer time, because he was measuring big throughout my pregnancy I bought most of them in 3-6 months, now I'm having to look at buying some in 0-3 as he's only just gone into his newborn sleepsuits, and depending on the brand he's still in some tiny baby.  I actually prefer him in sleepsuits, I think babies look cute and cosy in them and they're so easy to whip on and off!  I think for summer he will live in the romper versions as they'll be equally as comfortable and cool for him, especially in the August heat!  

As most/if not all babies are, we give Oscar vitamins everyday, he also has pretty low iron so we have to give him a supplement in his milk (or straight into his mouth), we have been doing this for about 6 weeks now and have started to see an improvement in him, he's definitely starting to be awake more and seems to be looking around and focusing on things.  Emelia likes to get right in his face, fussing and chatting to him, he loves it and just fixates on her, I can't wait for their bond to develop as he gets older and interacts with her more. 

Yesterday, 2nd March I took him to the Med Centre to have his 8 week immunisations, when we got there I noticed a rash around his neck (which he didn't have when I dressed him half an hour before) and once I'd undressed him we realised it was everywhere, his skin was also really mottled.  He has had mottling before but it hadn't ever been this bad.  The health visitor wanted us to see the duty doctor before giving him his imms, so we went back to the waiting room.  Brett took Emelia off to the shop and park while I waited.  We were with the doctor for over half an hour while he observed him and how he fed.  I explained that despite being more alert most days, he had slept pretty much all of the day on Wednesday and wasn't really interested in his milk.  Anyway, he didn't have a temperature or seem particularly unwell other than that.  The doctor checked his heart rate which was up over 200bpm, he also said he was showing signs of dehydration, so made the decision to send us into the Polyclinic for assessment.  I went to see the Health Visitor and explained where we were going.  I was so upset, actually mortified, I felt as though they must all think I wasn't feeding him properly, how can a baby be dehydrated?!  There's no excuse, but on the other hand if he's physically not taking his milk/throwing it up what more could I do?  The Health Visitor reassured me that I had been doing everything right and told me they won't take chances with him because he was premature.  She poked his rash and said it was blanching, which was a good thing.  A sigh of relief and I said 'oh good it's not a meningitis type of rash then!'  At which point she looked at me and I knew instantly from her face what was about to come out of her mouth, 'he is displaying symptoms of meningitis, that's why the doctor is sending you in.'  Well that was it, we will blame the hormones but I was a blubbering mess, terrified of what was going to happen and that somehow I had failed him.  

To cut a long story short, he had various tests (watching him being held down by 3 nurses and have blood taken was horrendous by the way) which all showed he has a virus but it was nothing sinister, his iron levels are still low but not enough for them to change the dosage that he's having, so we were able to take him home.  The whole experience got me thinking about meningitis and how scary it is, we all know about it and we all know about the symptoms.  But do we?  I knew a rash was one of them and other things like a temperature.  I found out yesterday babies under 3 months don't necessarily have to have a high temperature, it could be low or normal.  The other symptoms are clear symptoms of a child being unwell, but without a rash meningitis may not have sprung to my mind.  Luckily he is fine, but it's definitely scared me and probably made me even more paranoid than I already am.  If you're not overly familiar with the signs and symptoms of meningitis, please go and read up on it here.

So all in all it's been a pretty good month for Oscar, without wishing his life away I can't help but wonder what his 3 month update will bring - Here's hoping we make it a month without a single hospital visit! :)