Home Again

I was so excited to see my Jack Jack that the car ride home didn't go fast enough for me! We pulled into the driveway and the front door opened and Jack came out and immediately I knew that he wasn't feeling well. I asked my mom if he was sick and she said that he wasn't, but I knew that there was just something off about him. I chalked it up to the excitement, but now that I know how sick he was it breaks my heart to look back on it and remember how he was acting! He gave me the biggest hug (and lifted his feet off the ground so that I was forced to pick up all 40 lbs of him- which I wasn't supposed to be doing but I missed him so much I just couldn't help it!), and then he led me into the house and very frantically tried to show me everything that they had done for the Welcome Home party. He very adorably explained to me that "Samuel came out of mommy's tummy and he turned into a people!" He helped Dave, Samuel and me open our gifts, and then showed Samuel his new room, and then was very excited when I asked him if he wanted to hold his baby brother.

He was thrilled by Samuel!


"He has tiny tiny little fingers!"


Luke wasn't quite sure what to make of his new little cousin, but he found him very interesting

He only held Sam for a few minutes and then he wanted to cuddle with me. I wasn't going to say no to that! As I was holding him, though, my mom mentioned that he hadn't eaten much for lunch and he kept saying that he didn't want to eat his dinner, either. I mentioned that I thought he sounded like he had a swollen throat, but no one else thought that. Suddenly, though, I felt this wave of heat radiating up through him and he started running a fever! He was acting weirder and weirder, and then he did something that he never does. He fell asleep! Right there as I was holding him! An hour before bedtime!

And he stayed asleep as I laid him on the couch so that I could get up to feed Sam!

I was so sad to know that he had been sick that whole time and felt so guilty that I hadn't been there to realize it earlier and comfort him! Dave and I were also worried that we had let him hold Sam- what if Sam got sick?! I should have trusted my initial instinct that he was sick!

While I fed Sam, Dave and I discussed what we should do. Usually when Jack is sick, he sleeps in the bed with me and Dave, if he is home, sleeps on the couch. I had to be available for Sam in the middle of the night, though, and I couldn't have sick germs all over me when I was with him! So, when Jack woke up, we put him in our bed and I laid with him until he fell asleep, and then Dave and I switched places. I changed my clothes and scrubbed my arms, face and neck so that I wouldn't transfer anything to Sam, and Sam and I stayed in the nursery that night. I also brought an extra shirt with me so that I could change my shirt any time I went in or out of the nursery!

The next morning, I called my mom and had her come watch Sam while Dave and I took Jack to the doctor. His fever had come down with Motrin, but because we had an not-even-48-hours-old baby in the house, we weren't taking any chances! The receptionist, when I told her about Sam, took pity on us and booked us a hard-to-get same day appointment with Jack's allergist, who just happened to be there, and he confirmed what I had thought- Jack had a throat infection. Apparently the stomach infection that he had the weekend before hadn't gone away, but rather moved up into his throat when he was puking, and our hospital stay must have coincided with the incubation period. The doctor said that it didn't look like he had strep, which would be good for Sam... according to him, Sam would have had my antibodies to fight it if it were a virus, but not if it were bacterial. I would have thought that it would be the other way around! He did a throat culture to be sure, but said that we should keep the boys separate until we got the results, just in case. That made me so sad! Here we had built up the fact that Jack was going to be a big brother, and that little Samuel was coming home, and now Jack couldn't even be anywhere near him?! And how in the world were we going to avoid creating feelings of resentment towards Sam if Jack needed me, but I had to be with Samuel?! I was going to have to get really good at juggling the boys really fast, and really diligent about germ control, too!

As we drove home we talked to Jack about the "sick rules". We couldn't very well confine Jack to his room, so we confined Samuel to his and told Jack that he couldn't go in Sam's room until the doctor told us that he was all better. It was really hard for me to sit in Sam's room and nurse him while Jack stood in the doorway asking me to play with him! I couldn't wait until he was better so we could all sit together and play! Jack couldn't either, I knew that he was so curious about Samuel and that he was so anxious to love on him... he kept trying to convince me that he wasn't sick anymore because he wanted to come in and see his brother! And unfortunately, Jack's fever kept coming back over the next few days, so we knew that we definitely should wait for the doctor's okay rather than jumping the gun and letting them be close to each other before then.

Finally, Tuesday morning when I woke up and left the nursery to check on Dave and Jack, Jack ran up to me and told me "The doctor said I not sick anymore!" I looked at Dave for confirmation, and he said that he had just gotten off the phone with the doctor and he said that Jack's culture was negative for strep and it would be okay to let him around Samuel! Hooray! I gave Jack a huge kiss and a hug and told him that I was so happy that he wasn't sick anymore, and he said "And now I get to go in Samuel's room!" and he ran right past me and climbed on the bed to look into Samuel's crib!

"Oh, look at him, he's so cute!"

I was so beyond thrilled that my boys could finally "play" together and that Jack could finally get to experience being a big brother! Jack adores Samuel, and he is always asking if he can hold him, always giving him kisses and hugs and telling me what Samuel is doing nearly every minute of the day! "I heard Samuel sneeze!" and "Samuel is talking to me! He says, 'Hi big brother!'" and "Momma, you have to wake Samuel up so that he can watch Chuggington with me!"

He is the best big brother, EVER!