Week 19-August 25th-31st-Hi Baby, I have missed three weeks of blogging, but oh my, have they been an overwhelming three weeks!!! You are now four months and three weeks old, weigh 13.6 pounds and are 25.5 inches long. You are a different child than you were when last I wrote.
I suppose I will begin from where I left off and continue from there.

You were given so many blood tests to see what was going on in your little body. The pediatrician, an infectious desease specialist and an ears, nose and throat doctor were all trying to figure out this mystery. Someone thought your lymph node was infected, the ENT doctor, thought it was your salvary gland. You were tested for mumps, cat scratch fever and staff. Everytime you wake up from sleep you cry and cry and cry. Usually, you wake up smiling.

So it turns out that the infection that you had was in your lymph node and began to spread up the right side of your face and had turned into an abscess, which needed to be drained. Before we could get that done, you needed to get a CAT-Scan to see exactly where the infection was. On Tuesday, August 17, Papa and I checked you into Cedar-Sinai Medical Center and the next day you had to have surgery to drain the abscess. They put a tube down your throat and put you to sleep. The surgery took about 30 minutes and it was about an hour before we had you back in our arms. We had never been so scared and upset in our lives. When I handed you to the anesthesiologist, he carried you upright facing behind him. You cried and cried the whole way down the hall and I couldn't get you back. I stared helplessly. My father had to guide me away from your cries and into the waiting room. When we got you back, you were still asleep from the anesthesia but when you began to wake your cries were soft and hoarse from the tube. It was very sad, but the surgery was a success. Dr. Bellack, the otolaryngologist, took out 10 cc's of pus. That is about 2 teaspoons full. It is a lot considering how little you are. You have a little scar behind your right ear which should fade away by the time you are one year old.

We were in the hospital for six days, five nights. All the residents and nurses loved you. I think for the most part, you were the littlest patient in the pediatric wing. I stayed with you the entire time, Papa came every morning and evening to see you. You are still taking antibiotics and we have been home for a week and a half. This is crazy, it is just taking a long time for you to heal although the swelling in your face in gone and you only have a smallish purple bump on the right side of your neck. You feel a lot better and do not wake up crying anymore. When we went back to Dr. Bellack for a follow-up, pus had started to reaccumulate and so he put a needle into your neck and drained about 2 cc's worth of pus. I think he is a good doctor and a good man, but I believe that he is desensitized to pain, because it hurts you, a lot, and he is not the most gentle man. You put your faith and trust into doctors and think that what they do is in your best interest, so I do not think to question him, but afterwards, I think he could have given you a numbing agent to make it less tramatic.

During our second follow up with him, a few days later, he asked me if I wanted to drain it again and I told him not if it wasn't necessary and it wasn't. So the way we left it was another week of medicine and lets see how it goes. I am diligient about giving you your meds exactly on time, never a missed dose, but it is crazy, you have been taking meds for about five weeks now. At least you are only on one type of medicine now, instead of two, because they did finally figure out that the bacteria you are carrying is staff, which is everywhere, but you apparently were succeptable to it because your little body was so busy fighting off cold germs that you couldn't fight off the staff also. Your body did manage to sequester the bacteria in your lymph node rather than have it spread all throughout your body and that is a very good thing. I guess that although you were very sick, had that happened, you would have been much more sick.

During this entire time lots of amazing developmental leaps and bounds were reached. On Friday, August 13th you weighed 12.8 pounds. You have started to laugh, despite feeling lousy. When Papa and I are close to you, you hold our faces with both your little hands. It is very sweet. You are reaching more for your toys and your aim is getting better. You love love love your rattle and hold it and shake it. You chew on Sophie the Giraffe and make her squeak; not too long ago you would just look at her. We would put her in your hand and she would fall right out. You also love your seahorse. We play its music anytime you have a dipe change and you just smile and your eyes sparkle. When Papa or I sing to you, you sing right along with us. It is awesome! You are growing by leaps and bounds. I never knew someone could change so quickly. Everyday you are doing something new. I have pages and pages of notes I jotted down, so I wouldn't forget to put anything in this blog, but I am going to continue it tomorrow. I love you, my baby, and I am so relieved that you are finally getting better and growing stronger. As a result of all of this, I don't let anyone touch you without them washing their hands first and only family, no one else can touch you. Papa and I love you more than anything! You are our dream!