Murphy's Law

Wow. Did I speak too soon or what?!

This week was awful, horrible and in general not good. SO not good. In fact, it was one of the worst weeks of my life as a mother.

Soon after I made this post (Wednesday night) I walk into the living room to find daddy and baby napping together. Miles opens his eyes lethargically and gazes at me blankly. He doesn't even move a muscle as I walk across the room. His (and I can't believe I'm saying this) zombie-like stare just follows my movements. I touch his head and, as usual, he's burning up. I take his temp. with the ear thermometer and it reads over 103. Maternal instinct told me something was very wrong so I scoop him up and tell Matt I am immediately taking him to Minor Med.

We waited an hour before we were seen and he's barely even conscious, just laying on me and staring into space. When we finally see the nurse they take a rectal and inform me his real temp. is actually 105!!! You could have knocked me over with a feather.
They bring him Motrin and start in on what I could only call a battery of torture tests. First the catheter "for a clean urine sample in case it's a UTI" which I had to leave the room for. Thankfully, Matt and my mom had come at that point because I collapsed in sobs in the hallway, listening to him desperately cry for help. Someone brought me a chair because they seriously thought I was going to pass out. Of course, they got zero urine because his bladder was dry.
Then came the blood work which included taking blood out of an actual vein in his hand instead of a finger prick. Now, I'm used to blood work from my arm but HATE having my hand veins used because it hurts twice as much. I had to leave the room for that too simply because he kept trying to reach to me for help. I wanted to die. I could not believe this was happening to him, and to me.

Everything else was minor, relatively speaking. A strep test swabbing his throat, more rectal temps which were plenty traumatic enough for him. And all this time I'm getting an attitude from the staff as if, "Well, you're a mom. You've been through this before. No biggie." Not a single person even fathoms that perhaps I'm completely freaking out because I've never done this before. No one is really explaining anything to me and when they do it's worst case scenario. I'm hearing "hospital" and "pneumonia" and "blood disease". Keep in mind 3 different people have looked at his ears and throat only to claim they're clean as a whistle. Two different nurses even came in trying to give him the same medicine twice! I had to stop them from double dosing him. Hello? Chart? You people ever read it? How about talking to each other? Not something you're keen on, huh?! I shudder to think of what would have happened had not this poor little guy's parents been in the room to supervise them.

5 hours later all these results are coming in, every single one negative. The doctor, if you can call her that, comes into the room to again push for another catheter. I outright refuse. She then makes my decision the be-all, end-all by sending us away with nothing. No script, no diagnosis, no pat on the ass goodbye. The "doctor" emphasizes that if we change our minds about the cath we can come back tomorrow. Yeah, like I'm ever taking my little boy to that house of horrors ever again.

Matt and I stay up all night taking turns with his temp. and medicine. Miles remains unchanged, with fever up to 103 then slowly coming down as Motrin kicks in. Tylenol is doing nothing at this point. Daybreak slowly approaches and I go with Mom to his pedi. walk-in clinic. Within 10 minutes we are taken back and in another 10 his regular doctor (whom I just love) walks in. He says there is no WAY he's giving someone that young a cath for just a simple fever. He then looks into his throat and says, "There ya go, red as an apple. No wonder he feels so bad - little guy has a virus." So, within an 8 hour time span he ALL OF A SUDDEN has a sore throat??!! My mom is biting her tongue and I could kill that med emergency doctor.
After one more strep test to be sure and a simple flu test we're gone with the same instructions: fluids, rest, Motrin. I am so relieved to have a diagnosis that all three of us go back to my parents' (they lives 5 minutes from the doctor's) to nap for a few hours. My emotions and body are completely spent even still today.

It is now noon on Friday and Miles has been fever-free all morning long!! This is amazing and such a relief. He is still incredibly whiny, which we have to admit is getting a tad bit old, but at least he's walking around and being a normal baby again. My consolation is in the knowledge that I will never have to go through this exact same experience ever again. As my mom said, "Before, you were a mom. Now, you're a veteran."

Poor Sick Little Guy :(

I left town for a quick road trip this past Saturday and came home to a drastically different little man. It appears Miles is suffering from his third installment of ear infections since birth. No symptoms besides a fever in conjunction with a lot of whining, sleeping and cuddling (much to Matt's delight). He has co-slept in the bed with us several times which is certainly not his usual preference. His normal schedule is up in the air since he refuses to eat regular food, only carrying around his sippy cup the majority of the day.
There are good and bad points to nursing a sick baby. The good is that you have a warm, sweet, cuddly little guy who will let you rock him and will fall asleep on you pretty much anytime and anywhere. The downside is that...well, you have a sick baby. There's not much you can do other than give them medicine and try to make them more comfortable.
The good news is that Miles was doing much better last night (after a round of antibiotics) and was walking around babbling, playing a little and even sampling some meat loaf with scalloped potatoes! Fingers crossed that today is even better and that collectively we can kick this ear infection in its ass, if in fact it has an ass. ;)

Not feeling too great

Napping with Dad on the couch

Consensus: ear infections SUCK!!

Towel Day 2009

If you have to ask what "Towel Day" is then it will most likely do you some good to look it up for yourself. You can see, though, that Miles had a blast with his towel all day long. ;)

Bradshaw Memorial Day 2009

A series of pictures...

The sweetest little guy on the planet

I love him more than life itself.

I have a Nature Baby

This DVD was a gift for Miles' first birthday. The first time we popped it in he was conflicted, not certain if this would be something to keep his interest for 20 minutes (the running time of the film). After several more viewings he was hooked. Now I pop in this wonderful show every single morning before naptime and let Miles enjoy breakfast with Taa, Dee and Ed, his happy puppet friends. The music is wonderful, some custom written but mostly classical. I've listened to this DVD about a dozen times now and haven't gotten sick of it yet!
I would highly recommend this purchase for anyone who has an infant/young toddler and as soon as I can find it in stock I intend to get several copies for my friends with babies. Whoever bought this for Miles - thanks a million! Also, if anyone has any old Fisher Price DVDs they'd be willing to part with, can ya hook a sista up? ;)

We Heart Aimee

Thanks to my kindred spirit and fellow Hot Mama, Aimee, who came over Wednesday night bringing gifts of diapers and toys! We're planning on a picnic lunch in the park soon with our respective babies so that Aimee can get more cuddles out of Miles. (Last night was just too close to his bedtime and his social wiles were lacking.)

Rajun Cajun 2009

This last Sunday continued a Bradshaw tradition. 2 years ago Matt took us to the Rajun Cajun Crawfish festival downtown as part of an anniversary surprise. Last year we took a newborn, almost 3 month old "baby" Miles and this year grown up, toddler "short stack" Miles accompanied us to the outdoor festival. (This time we came armed with plenty of sunscreen!) The Chalk family joined us to dance along with live Zydeco music, dine on corn dogs, philly cheesesteak and our first taste of fresh crawfish. The rain threatened to come over the riverbanks but the most we got was a light sprinkling once an hour or so and we decided to leave right about when the most ominous part of the storm approached making it home just in time to avoid getting drenched. A good time was had by all!

Taxed ENOUGH Already!

I am a little shocked. Thousands of people packed Audubon park yesterday yet not only did this event not make national news (except for Fox) it barely made local news. Every single station was parked in the field, filming and interviewing us but all I saw was about a 5 second spot on channel 5 last night. If this doesn't prove my conspiracy theory that everyone other than Fox is bleeding heart I don't know what does. Some cameraman had the audacity to ask me, "What do you say to the fact that Obama hasn't been in office 100 days yet? Don't you think you should give him a chance?" I looked right at him and said, "This is not about Obama. This is about how fed up we as a society are of being constantly robbed by Washington. My beef is not with Obama or even the prior administration. It's with Congress ignoring the very people it is meant to represent." He asked what I want them to do. I said, "I want them to go home and get real jobs." Did my comments make it to air? Of course not.

Switching gears now to quell some of my anger: Miles had a blast. We showed up at 1 with a cooler full of picnic lunch and snacks. Short Stack played "soccer" with Dada and walked up to every single person in the park to introduce himself. He even took a cookie from a nice older man who said it was ok because he "had grandchildren too". Once it started to get crowded we had to confine him to his stroller where he watched in wonder at all the cars who drove by honking and some even waving their OWN signs from behind the steering wheel! To quote Matt the energy was fun and intense until the stage turned into a "Christian conservative claptrap." Enjoy some of the pics!

"Tax Day" Tea Party

Take part with the Bradshaw Trio, a good sampling of the city of Memphis and the rest of the ENTIRE COUNTRY on Wednesday, April 15 (Tax Day) at Audubon Park, corner of Southern Avenue and Perkins Extended. Join us for a picnic lunch and some mingling with like-minded people who happen to despise the present taxation process just as much as we do. I'm sure the local news outlets will be there and a fun time should be had by all.
We'll be there around noon and will stick around til people start getting off of work or til whenever Miles needs his nap. ;) Hope to see ya there!!

Easter 2009

Overton Square Crawfish Festival

This Saturday the Bradshaw trio walked from the house all the way down to the Bayou restaurant for some fresh muffaletta sandwich. We also landed ourselves on the news but that's a different story for a different link. My main concern in this blog is to share pics of Miles' experiences with people wearing giant red foam crawfish on their heads and his first taste of red beans & rice. (He was not a fan.)

Bradshaws in the news...again!

Be sure to look for Matt who is "not worried about safety".

6 Commonly Held Beliefs Among People Who Lack Common Sense

I love this article from LewRockwell.com. Here's a sample of my favorite parts:

* The constitution is open to interpretation

I love this one. I’m going to employ the transitive law of logic here: If A then B. If B then C. Hence, If A then C.
Here’s A:
If the constitution is open to interpretation then of course, as we’ve seen, every administration will interpret it to their advantage.
Here’s B:
If every administration interprets the constitution differently then that means that it has many meanings.
Here’s C:
If the constitution has many meanings, then it is by definition, meaningless.
Our founding fathers based our entire government, our economic system, our monetary system, our national defense, our justice system, our civil rights on this document. It’s obvious they did not intend for it to be meaningless hence it is not open to interpretation.
Of course "interpretation" here means soulless, slick government lawyers and justices abusing and manipulating its meaning.

* We live in a free market economy and the lack of regulation by the government has caused the current economic recession

Free market: A free market is a market that is free of government intervention and regulation, besides the minimal function of maintaining the legal system and protecting property rights.
There is not a single market in this country that is not regulated or intervened on behalf of the state in the form of taxes, commissions, bureaus, regulatory committees, offices, departments etc…
Therefore, there is no lack of regulation nor free markets since all markets are regulated and therefore, our free market economy does not exist and so couldn’t possibly be the cause of our current economic recession.
A little research on the Internet will show one that prices in all markets are higher due to government regulation and inefficiency while we still have all the same problems we would have without it:
Even though we have the FDA we still have salmonella in food products.
Even though we have the FAA and the TSA we still have hijacked planes and plane crashes.
Even though we have the Department of Education we still have one of the world’s worst education systems.
And the list goes on. This argument is so tired and worn out it’s a sure way to demonstrate that you are in fact going through life fat, drunk and stupid.

* Time travel is possible

As much respect as I have for Albert Einstein, I have to disagree with him. Time travel is in fact not possible.
3.5 million years ago the entire continent of Africa was covered with tropical rain forests and our earliest ancestors were swinging from the treetops to get from place to place.
Then all of a sudden the craziest thing happened: the earth started to warm and the rain forests started to dry up and die. So our ancestors had to come down out of the tree tops and move along the ground to get from place to place.
In doing so, they realized that standing upright on two legs was faster and more efficient. Ladies and gentlemen I give you the earliest homo-sapiens.
It’s obvious that time travel is not possible because if it were, Al Gore and the other environmental nut-jobs would have gone back in time by now, reversed the global warming and saved the rain forests and we wouldn’t be here today.
Even sadder is that if we’re not here today then Al Gore wouldn’t be here today and there would be no Internet.

April 9, 2009
Don Cooper [send him mail] is a Florida native, Navy veteran and Oxford educated economist living and working in the Midwest.
Copyright © 2009 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.http://www.lewrockwell.com/cooper/cooper12.html

A crappy story

So this Wednesday I had to do the grossest thing I've yet to do as a mom. Here's what happened. Miles and I get home from a playdate and he's crashed out in the car. I lift him up, tuck him in bed and close the door. While reading in the other room I hear him making noises and moving around so, assuming he's not ready for his nap yet, I go into his room and open the door to see (and smell) what he had been doing over the last few minutes.
Apparently he had removed his diaper, found some dookie and decided to go hog wild playing with it. It was EVERYWHERE! All over his crib, his bumper, his sheets, blankie, his clothes, his FACE!? I sighed, stripped him down and began to run the bath water. Then came the fun task of cleaning it all. I must have used about 3 full-sized towels to make sure even the floor was clean - it was insane. How something that little made such a big mess in such a short time frame is truly innovative.
Oh boy if being one is this much fun I can't wait to see what two brings!