Stay-at-home mama enjoying every changing moment with our lil guy!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Some of Henry's firsts

The past two weeks have been weeks of firsts for Henry, well isn't everyday a day of something new?? Some have been good and some...well not so good. I guess we can say it all started December 26th, a day here in West Chester that it decided to snow heavily. We had just returned from Camp Hill where we were celebrating Christmas with both families. I had noticed a few red dots on Henry's ear, but didn't think too much of it. Well when we got back home on Sunday, I noticed that it had really spread so I decided to call the after hours nurse at our Pediatricians office. I knew from being a nurse that this wasn't a rash, but it was worse, it was petechiae (the red dots) and purpura (the dots that were more purple). I pretty much knew even before calling what my answerwould be, but I thought I'd call just to make sure. After I got off the phone I told daddy that we needed to pack up the baby and get to Paoli hospital. With the snow it took us almost 45 minutes to get there. Once there, the PA told me, "Babies get rashes, you're probably just overreacting!" Little did he know that I work in the worlds largest and best Children's Hospital here in Philly!! After trying to discharge us 3 times, I finally won and got the MD to come in and draw labs. My intuition was right and little Henry's platelets had dropped to 13,000 (a normal count is 150000-400000) This meant that he wasn't clotting his blood correctlyand all the dots were little spots under his skin where he was bleeding! We were then told it could be two things, he could be fighting an infection or he had leukemia and we neededto go to CHOP (the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) immediately. Who just sits there and tells parents this?? Leukemia...I almost vomited on the floor right there and then! We were then rushed to CHOP in an ambulance! Once there we were reassured that he most likely didn't have leukemia but the labs would tell us!! Henry was smiling and kicking with excitement from all the attention the entire time!! Well to make a long story longer :)...we ended finding out he didn't have leukemia, but probably ITP, which means he may have been fighting a bug and his platelets were attached by antibodies. We are getting followed by Hematology for the next 6months just to keep a close eye on him!!

Here's a pic of him thoroughly enjoying his hospital stay!



As for a few great things that have happened!! Henry turned 5 months old January 16th and we got to start rice cereal!! We got a video of it, however when daddy was shooting the video Henry was more interested in that than the cereal but we did get some great photos!!


In January mommy and daddy were able to go on an overnight date!! We went to the Lemon Ball with funds Alex's Lemonade Stand and Cancer Research!! A little background, when Alex was 4 she was diagnosed with leukemia and decided that she wanted to start selling lemonade to raise money for cancer research. The work spread and families and companies everywhere were hosting lemonade stands. Alex lost her battle at the age of 8, however the lemonade stands are still being held and it has become the largest Cancer Research fund in the US!!! She was treated at CHOP where I work so the story hits home with me! We stayed overnight in downtown Philly and were able to get all dressed up!



Another first, Henry has his first cold!! I think it hurts me more than it does him!! His cough sounds horrible, however he hasn't stopped smiling!! We've been using the cool mist vaporizer (we have the Vicks starry night which I highly recommend!!) and he seems to be improving each and every day!!

We've also been working on rolling from back to belly, and yesterday he did it all by himself!!!! It's amazing to see how much he's grown in the past 5 months...too fast if I have any say in it!!

Posts to come: I'm going to try and back track a little to catch everyone up on Henry!! Stay tuned for Henry's statistics related to growth and devolopment!

3 comments:

  1. Yippee!! I am so glad you started a blog - I can't wait to hear all about Henry as he grows (and of course about you and Henry too). I love that even though we are so far away we can still feel like our kiddos are growing up together.

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  2. I'm very glad you started a blog too!! I look forward to looking at Jen and Heather's so I have an idea of what is going on in their lives and now I can follow along with your family :)! Henry is SO adorable!! Can't wait to see how him and Lauren interact with eachother!

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  3. Ditto here! So excited you started a blog. My favorite part of the day is checking Jen's blog to see all the new developments little Lauren is making. I can't wait stay up to date on Baby Henry too! Blogs really help us stay close since there's so many miles between us :)

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