Momma's Gut Feelings, always trust them.

Yikes almost a week since my last post.

Ryan's been a bit cranky this week. Wednesday morning I noticed his morning diaper had a strong smell. It was a heavy diaper, I chalked it up to just a lot of urine overnight, but kept my nose alert all day. Scott mentioned that Ryan felt a bit hot at bedtime, but his temperature was barely elevated above normal. The next morning, the smell was back, however throughout the day the rest of his diapers smelled fine. Until he woke up from his nap. Hmmm. Hear that sound? Beep, Beep, Beep? That's my Mommy Radar going off.

Cranky. Not eating like Ryan. Low grade temp. Smelly pee. Sounds like a UTI to me.

I called the doctors office, they could get me in at 4:15 on Thursday, or 10 AM on Friday. It was 3:00, our EI teacher was due any second, okay, I'll take the 10 AM on Friday. Melinda arrived. We discussed the week, we started playing, we discussed Ryan's possible infection. It didn't take her saying, "I always err on the side of caution" to push me over the edge. I was already teetering . It was 3:30, I jumped up called the doctor's office, took the 4:15, changed clothes while on hold, threw a snack together for Ryan, got both boys into the car and made it the 20 miles to the doctor's office and arrived for our appointment on time.

As soon as we entered the office, Evan started balling. Full. On. Hysterics. I could not console him. Holding didn't work, nor did reading, or even letting him watch the TV in the waiting room. He kept crying, "go, go-o-o-o, go" and for added emphasis, he'd sign it too. I kept trying to tell him that this was not his appointment, and it wasn't he who should be crying. Trust me baby. But no luck. Some 45 minutes later when we were finally ushered into a room. We sat in the tiny exam room while he wailed. after about 15 minutes, I was finally able to get him to calm down by drawing things on the chalk board. I drew my best bus, and we put things on the bus. The boys decided that appropriate passengers should be two ducks, a dog, a ball, a star, and a bird. Along side the bus, we had a boat, a car, and a helicopter. Whew. Then the nurse came in. Then the doctor. Lots of crying from Evan. No one could believe that it was Ryan that was feeling poorly. Why was the other baby crying???? My question exactly. It wasn't until the nurse started catheterizing Ryan that Evan realized, oh, this sitting in the stroller? Not so bad. I think maybe I should shut up now, they might forget I am here and I won't have to go through THAT!

Another 20 minutes or so, and sure enough. Ryan definitely has a Urinary Tract Infection. We didn't get out of there until 6PM. My nerves frazzled to the very ends. I could feel my eye twitching. To top it off I had to scrounge all of the spare changed out of the car just to get out of the parking structure!

We got home, got the boys into bed, and I collapsed into a heap on the couch.

The moral of this really long and pointless story? Always trust those Mommy Instincts. You know when something isn't right about your kids. You feel it like it is your own. It's down there in the pit of your stomach. It's screaming at you. You just have to listen.

(We are a few days into our antibiotics, and Ryan's appetite is back, no fever, still cranky, but certainly on the mend.)