Stephens' Stories: This past week

Last Friday, 11/11, I picked Austin up from school a little early because I had a bowling event at work and we were finished at 3. Something was up with his right eye. It had a ton of yucky stuff in it. We called his doctor and made an appointment at 4:45. The diagnosis was pink eye. No fun! So we got a prescription antibiotic ointment and started him on it right away. We did find out his weight at the doctor- 13 lbs 6 oz. After 24 hours of being on the antibiotic, he was not contagious. We just had to be sure to wash our hands to avoid getting it ourselves. He also was starting to have cold symptoms -- a cough and a stuffy nose. The doctor said that he would probably develop a cold and cough and to take his temperature a couple times a day to monitor a fever. Sure enough, his cold got worse on Saturday and then on Sunday he had a mild fever. This meant no school on Monday (24 hour rule). I called the on-call doctor on Sunday to report the fever and she wanted him to come in on Monday morning to check him out. He also did not want to take all of his 6 oz bottle so we could tell he didn't feel very good. We gave him a dose of Tylenol to bring the fever down. His cough had turned into a congested cough. He was in pretty good spirits but just tired. I took Austin to the doctor at 9:30 on Monday morning. She wanted to make sure he didn't have an ear infection or bronchitis. Thank God he didn't have either of these. It was just a nasty cold and cough. By then, the fever had gone away. He only weighed 13 lbs on Monday (vs 13lbs 6 oz on Friday). I stayed home with Austin the whole day on Monday and David stayed home with him on Tuesday. Our home remedies were saline nose drops, steam room, elevate his head, and the dreaded suction bulb. Austin returned to school on Wednesday and is doing much better now. He has a little bit of a lingering cough and some congestion, but is as happy as can be. He has started sucking his thumb (as shown in previous post). It is a good signal for us when he is tired. Last night he rolled from his tummy to his back for the first time. On Friday night, Austin and I had a date night at home while David went to the DU hockey game with Ryan. Yesterday we hung around the house and then, of course, watched the Horns lose again. Today we are packing for Georgia (we leave Tuesday afternoon). Austin is going to be a pro airplane passenger. Later we are headed to eat dinner at Adam, Rachel and Brody's house. Check back for a long post about Austin's first Thanksgiving in Georgia.

Here are some pictures from Austin's first sick day.