We were getting ready for church. I was in the kitchen and Caleb was helping our daughter get her dress on. I heard him cough twice that morning which was the only indication of what was about to happen. I heard a thud in the living room and Tavon’s voice saying “are you okay Daddy?” I went to see what happened, Caleb was on his back on the ground. I asked him if he was ok, thinking maybe he tripped.

     Right away I knew something was pretty wrong. He was having difficulty speaking, breathing heavily and wasn’t getting up.The thought that maybe it was nauseousness and might pass only lasted half a second, as I realized it wasn’t some fleeting thing. I panicked and quickly looked around for my phone which was on the counter. I am grateful to Heavenly Father that I was able to find it in a timely manner and that it was charged. I dialed 9-1-1.

     After what felt like ages of answering questions, the lady told me an ambulance was dispatched and to make sure Caleb knew help was coming. His skin had turned clammy within a few minutes of falling to the floor and his face was getting more and more purple. Our sweet kids were witnesses of everything happening in these critical moments. I held Caleb’s hand, letting him know an ambulance was coming and attempted to call Caleb’s mother to let her know what was happening and ask her to be with the kids.  I knew I wanted to go with him in the ambulance and that I couldn’t do that with the kids. She didn’t answer so I left a quick message as the firemen and paramedics arrived with more question.

     Caleb’s oxygen was drastically low but they couldn’t seem to figure out what was wrong. The only information I could give on any health conditions was that his blood had tested pre-insulin resistant 10 years ago before I even knew him. They gave him an oxygen mask and had him climb onto something they could take him down our stairs in to get out the door. Any effort or movement on his part was excruciatingly difficult. Later he told me he doesn’t know how he stayed conscious, but we are so grateful he did so he was able to make his own body breathe as deeply and quickly as it could instead of me attempting CPR to keep oxygen circulating.

    People on their way to church noticed the ambulance outside our home and stopped to see what they could do. One of my friends from church was an angel to me in that moment and offered to stay with my kids until his mother got there so I could go with Caleb. My mother-in-law called me back quickly and said she was on her way to be with the kids. I am so grateful that she checked her phone at this moment when she was probably at church and easily could have had it turned off. They needed to be with someone they knew well.

    The paramedics told me I couldn’t go in the ambulance with Caleb but I could follow them in our vehicle and wait in the emergency waiting area until he had been transferred to a room. I held his hand and told him I loved him as they pushed him to the ambulance. The drive to the hospital was agony as I wondered what was going on with his body. I kept thinking he had a heart attack but the way the paramedics were acting was more like they thought he had diabetes even though his blood sugar tested normal. Images of him losing consciousness in the ambulance and going to the next life without me there by his side haunted me.

    Once I reached the emergency waiting room, it didn’t get any better. It seemed forever until they let me back into his room. Apparently they ran him straight to get an X-ray and a CT scan.

    When I got to go back, I was grateful he was still alive. They left an oxygen mask on him but his oxygen level was still very low. His heart rate was very high, around 100 beats per minute just laying there. He wasn’t purple anymore but he was still cold and clammy with a high temperature. It took a lot out of him to speak. He felt cold and I asked the nurse twice for more blankets for him.    

    The doctor came in and informed us that Caleb had blood clots in his lungs and it would be a couple weeks until he was able to function well again. We were glad to know what was wrong, and eager to learn about the blood thinning medication and what kind of strain his heart had been put under during the time his body hadn’t had enough oxygen. I was texting a lot of people trying to keep everyone updated as we found out any new news.

    Nurses came and pushed Caleb to a new room in the Intensive Care Unit. They didn’t let me come for that transition either which was very frustrating to me-I hated not being there with him for one second. At this point his mom had arrived. She arranged for the kids to be taken care of by our friends who had children their ages to play with.

    Once they allowed me in his new room he was like a changed person, sitting up and alert and back to his normal self. He had a breathing aid (CPAP machine, which stands for continuous positive airway pressure) strapped to his face and head. A pulmonary specialist came and gave us much more detail on what was going on. He informed us that Caleb had a pulmonary embolism, which was when blood clots block the flow of blood to the lungs. According to the scans, Caleb’s right lung had been totally blocked off from blood flow as well as part of his left lung. There are 3 classifications of pulmonary embolism and the only specific Caleb hadn’t qualified for to get him to the most severe kind, a massive embolism classification, is because he didn’t lose consciousness. The cause of the clots was unknown since he hadn’t been sitting around, been on a long trip, had a major blow to the legs, or flown on a plane recently. They labeled it as “unprovoked pulmonary embolism.” This is the scariest kind because not knowing why it happened means it’s likely to happen again and could be a genetic fault in his blood.

    While the specialist was speaking to us we realized that Caleb’s condition was far worse than what the ER doctor had told us. The fact that he needed so much help to be able to breathe in enough oxygen indicated that he wasn’t in the clear yet. The doctor kept using phrases like “if you survive” which was a shock to me, realizing that Caleb was still at risk of having a massive heart attack from the stress the back flow of blood was having on his heart. Scans showed that his heart was in fact now enlarged on the right side and that drastic improvement would need to happen to prevent heart damage.

    Our option for medical intervention was a procedure where they go up through an artery in the inner thigh to place a drip line right next to the clots that had formed. It would drip clot dissolving medicaion into the area. The oral medication he started would prevent further clots from forming, but didn’t have the ability to break up current clots. The risk of this procedure was considered low because of Caleb’s young age. The main concern was that if his body had formed helpful natural clots in his life, for example in his brain after any head injury to keep a brain bleed from happening, those good clots could also get dissolved. This meant he could possibly have a stroke if there was any bleeding in the brain. It also meant that because of the risk the drip line could only safely be left in for 6-18 hours.

    The doctor felt strongly that Caleb should get the procedure as soon as possible to relieve the stress on his heart. We both agreed, and I once again found myself away from my husband, this time for a couple hours. I was grateful to my brother who had come and was waiting with me. If you can imagine, I was was dealing with the fact that I could still lose my husband who I love more than anyone, and who is the father of our four little children. Caleb’s mother had been amazing to have for a short while and went back to be with the kids. I feel so blessed that we were living around family at this time in our life.

    The procedure went well and I was in the room when Caleb got pushed back in. The plan was to check the levels in his chest in 6 hours(in the morning) to see how big the improvement was. I was hopeful that it would be a large improvement and they could take out the drip line.

    Caleb’s sister immediately left her home in Arizona to be there for us when she heard about Caleb. She was an amazing help. With Caleb’s mom and sister at our home I was able to focus on Caleb and not go crazy with stress over the kids.

    Morning came and we waited for the doctor to get there to check Caleb’s levels. Neither side of his chest had improved. What?! How could that be possible? I was breaking down inside with worry, knowing that Caleb’s body only had another 12 hours of the drip line medication to aid it in getting rid of the blood clots. After 12 more hours they had to take it out. I also knew that if Caleb didn’t have any improvement, they would take out the drip line anyway and he would likely suffer a heart attack from the stress on his heart.

    I had been praying over and over for heaven’s help in improving my husband’s condition. I knew that the close group of family and friends who knew what was going on had been praying too. I’m not the kind of person to post on Facebook about personal private matters going on in our lives but at this moment I knew that Caleb needed more prayers. I simply posted that I believe in the power of prayer and gave a quick summary of what was happening with Caleb. He desperately needed prayers, and the response to that post was astonishingly huge with support from old friends, extended family, and colleagues, pleading on Caleb’s behalf as individuals and with their families in prayer. I will never forget what they did for Caleb and our family. If anyone reading this is someone who prayed for Caleb and our family…thank you so much! I don’t know how to express my gratitude for your help and good heart!

    The doctor came in a second time to check for any improvement. Relief set in as he told us there was a 50% improvement on both sides. They removed the line from his leg. He had been instructed to keep his leg straight the last 12 hours, the one that had the line in it so as not to disrupt the flow of medication in any way. It was difficult for him to keep his leg still for so long and he was eager to be able to move around off of his back.

    Caleb was able to be taken off the CPAP machine and had oxygen through a cannula in his nose, at a pretty high flow. His heart rate dropped closer to a more normal 75 beats per minute but his temperature was swinging back and forth between 99 and 101.3. They told us temperature swings are normal with blood clots. A technician came in and did an ultrasound on his legs to try to find more clots. If he had more clots it was likely they would put a filter in to block them from moving up. No clots were found so the doctor wasn’t sure where the clots in his lungs formed.

    At this point he was relying so heavily on oxygen that is was difficult for him to eat and breathe at the same time. Every little thing wore him out but the next morning he tried walking, assisted on both sides and with oxygen. He was also given a breathing exercise tool to help him inhale his lungs to their full capacity. It made him cough a lot, every time he did it, but he showed his determination to show improvement. The point of the tool and breathing exercise was to keep his lungs flexible instead of stiffening up and scarring that way as they healed. I am grateful to his wonderful nurse who helped us understand the importance of what he needed to do and for showing a little tough love and belief that he could do it.

    We were in the intensive care unit for three days. During this time he was able to turn his oxygen from a 7 flow to a 4.5 flow as long as he was laying and not doing anything. They moved us to the hospital floor for one night, being visited by physical therapy to help Caleb get up and walk a few times a day. I was still assisting him to the bathroom along with his walker and oxygen line and being a fall risk. I had been feeding him his meals for the past few days because of the exhaustion for him to lift his arm to feed himself.

    The doctor told us Thursday would be the earliest we might go home so you can imagine our surprise when he started discharging Caleb on Wednesday afternoon. I had a sneaking suspicion it was because all of the beds were full in the hospital according to the nurses and other staff. I wasn’t too happy about Caleb being sent home…he could only go a short distance with his walker and oxygen cranked up, and our home was a split level entry which meant 9 stairs he had to conquer to get into our home. I explained all this to the doctor who sort of brushed it off.

We got him home and he did make it up the stairs to nap on the couch. Norco came and set up an oxygen machine with travel canisters for us to use when we went in the car anywhere. Caleb was considered in the “high risk” phase which is the month after a pulmonary embolism. After 2 days there was no improvement in his ability to walk or breathe. His oxygen was at flow of 4 when at rest which is considered just under hospitalization needs. Our amazing home teacher gave Caleb an oximeter for his finger that he used constantly to be in the know of how much his body was lacking oxygen when he did certain things. This was a great tool to be able to track improvement over the next months.

This was a very stressful time. Caleb’s mom and sister were now gone. I was trying to keep the kids out of our room as much as possible because they were getting over a cold and if Caleb caught anything it would be an ER trip for sure and could be life or death for him. Caleb wasn’t up to leaving the house for any reason other than doctor visits that had to be done. I still had appointments and things like kindergarten registration,etc with our kids I had to go out and do. Caleb wasn’t supposed to be left alone and he was unable to go with us. This meant finding someone to come and just sit in our home with him in case of an emergency. I was donating plasma to help with income and had a major thing happen because of that.

Caleb showed some improvement after a week but day nine we had to rush back to the ER due to some hot pressure he felt moving from his arm into his chest. Scans and blood work came back looking good so we got to go home at midnight. The next day he was able to move his oxygen flow from 4 to 3 and started moving short distances around our room without me. Day 11 he was able to turn it down to a 2!

I set up a baby monitor so I could hear him if he needed me when I was doing things around the house, garage, or outside with the kids. I was cooking his food according to the Mediterranean diet and he was starting to lose weight, which the doctor said would make it easier on his heart and lungs. His liver enzymes tripled on the blood thinner they originally put him on so it was switched to eliquis and that improved.

Three weeks after his PE we went to church and he did well enough that he wanted to stay for the whole 3 hours. His oxygen flow needs were between a 1.75 and 2.5. He was able to be off of oxygen for 10-15 min at rest once in a while and he walked around the block (with oxygen of course) for the first time with the kids. He was also able to help with their homework and folding laundry! He pushed himself a lot of the time but if he overdid it too much he would have to take a long nap to recover and turn up his oxygen higher than he usually did. We purchased a medical guardian for him so he knew he could get help if he was ever alone or it was just him and the kids, and I had peace of mind when he was at work or wherever. He was never left alone the first month following his PE. He was working a few hours a day from home.

Fast forward 3 months and Caleb was off of oxygen except at night and after exertion. Caleb kept an emergency canister of oxygen in his car just in case.

Eventually he was able to wean off of the oxygen at night and hadn’t needed it for over a month when all of a the sudden he started struggling again. He started needing to use his oxygen canister in his truck a lot, and was declining. We thought maybe he was sick too but after 2 weeks of decline I picked him up from work and took him to the ER. We suspected more clots but to our surprise the CT scan showed not only no blood clots but no scar tissue from the pulmonary embolism left behind either. This led us to appointments with a pulmonologist, cardiologist, and hematologist to try to figure out what was going on so we could resolve it. Tests came back showing his heart still slightly enlarged on the right side but the cardiologist didn’t seem to think it would be causing his problems. The pulmonologist set him up for asthma testing but the initial test came back negative. She set him up with a medication which was a combination that included a steroid to try to enlarge the vessele, calm down the cells in his lungs and keep down inflammation. He also had a sleep test to see if he was breathing okay at night.

The second test for asthma and other conditions came back pretty promising that he did indeed have asthma. His primary doctor prescribed him an emergency inhaler and between the steroid combo in the morning and his emergency inhaler, it was like magic and his breathing struggles almost disappeared. The hematologist told him the risks of going off the blood thinner were greater than staying on it for life, especially since his PE was classified “unprovoked”.

After he returned to work he had time to exercise and lost 45 pounds in 3 months because of his amazing self control, dedication to the habit of working out, and his amazing health coach (Me haha!) who measured and prepped all of his meals according to personal training weight loss challenge standards. I’ve never seen anybody show as much self control as he did for 12 long weeks!

It has been just over a year since his pulmonary embolism, which prompted me to write this post. We feel so blessed that his pulmonary embolism occurred at home where I was there and able to call for help. He worked all the time, so the likelihood of it happening in his truck or at work with no one around was substantially higher than happening at home. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for us and that all of this didn’t happen for nothing. It has taken a huge toll on each member of our family individually, but I know it has been for a reason. I hope this post can help someone else whose loved one has had a life threatening PE, help them know what our story is and maybe feel empowered in some small way in knowing what could possibly be coming next and that they’re not alone in their experience and fears. There really isn’t too much out there on Pulmonary Embolism stories because 80% of them result in almost immediate death. Caleb has been affected long term by the PE and will be on blood thinners and the inhalers for the rest of his life, but he is still with me. He is still here with me and our kids. We have been through so much in the last year since it happened and I’ve been able to see what an amazing Dad he really is because of him having a job with regular hours. We have a more balanced life being able to be around family and take care of ourselves. 

Wishing you a blessed day!

Your Friend Jexi

Shaken baby syndrome: This IS a real thing and it kills babies. Caused by the baby being shaken causing damage to the brain, bleeding, and a lot of times, death. Remember-crying won’t kill your baby but shaking it can.

Ear infection: bacterial infection of the ear causing intense pain as the eardrum bulges and inflames from the infection. Usually it goes along with or follows a cold due to the mucous closing off the ear drum preventing proper drainage. Symptoms include scratching/pulling at an ear due to ear pain, may or may not have a fever. Treatment is usually amoxicillin twice a day for 7-10 days. Tavon is 6 and 56 lbs. He gets 11 oz twice/day (22 oz/day). Ali is 2. She is prescribed 6 oz twice/day (or every 12 hours). Kyler is 8 months and gets 5ml 2x/day. You can use tylenol or ibuprofen to help with the pain while the antibiotic is first being given. Pain should decrease in 1-3 days. We put an ice pack on Tavon’s ear when we were waiting for the doctor office to open as well as propped him up. The added pressure on the liquid in the ear when lying increases pain.

Pertussis (Whooping cough): A bacterial disease that spreads easily. This starts out with cold like symptoms for a week or two and a slight cough. Cough increases in intensity, esp at night and has a loud gasp for breath between coughing. May throw up when coughing or have difficulty breathing. Serious illness! Treated with antibiotics.  Possibly hospitalization for babies under 1.

Hand, Foot, & Mouth Disease: Tavon got this when he just turned 1. I had no idea what he had! Crazy fevers all the time and then these blister things showed up on his feet. I always take my kids in if they have a fever but there was no treatment. It just had to run its course since it’s caused by a virus. If you get this you can still get it again because different viruses cause it so you may be immune to one virus after you get it but get it again from a different virus. Only kids 5yrs and under usually get it. Caleb and I never got it from Tavon. I just gave him tylenol or ibuprofen until he didn’t have fevers anymore. Symptoms last 7-10 days.

Yeast Infection: Ember had a yeast infection from the time she was 2 weeks old till she was 2 months old! AWFUL and STUBBORN to get rid of. Yeast is naturally on and in your body but some conditions cause it to overpopulate and grow out of control. The biggest culprit of a yeast outbreak for adults and children is being on antibiotics! Antibiotics kill the bad bacteria as well as your helpful bacteria. Without helpful bacteria, your body gets overrun by yeast. I personally get a yeast infection every time I use antibiotics. Another condition perfect for yeast growth is a baby’s damp bum. Keep your baby bum dry and change diapers often. Yes diapers cost money but if you wait till the diaper is packed full you are encouraging yeast infection. Trust me. Changing more frequently creates more spending on diapers but that is better than money for doctor appointments, medicine and time it takes to get rid of a yeast infection. A diet high in sugary foods and white refined grains is a feast for yeast in your gut. If you want to prevent yeast infection in yourself and your kids, eat veges, fruits, lean proteins and whole grains. I also give everyone a probiotic gummy every day to support their good bacteria. To get rid of Ember’s yeast infection we spent hundreds of dollars on different butt rash ointments, etc. and the one that worked best was Desitin-the maximum zinc oxide one that comes in a PURPLE tube-not the blue one that is cheaper. The desitin just helped keep her bottom dry. The doctors will have you try a cream first called clotrimazole which you can go buy at the store without a prescription. It comes in different strengths from .5 percent to 2 percent. The strongest one is sometimes with shoe inserts and treatments for athletes foot, which is a foot yeast infection. It doesn’t matter if the medicine says cures jock itch or athletes foot. If it is clotrimazole its the same thing and will work for yeast infection. Try putting this on with every diaper change for a day or two before you go to the doctor because that is what they will tell you to do anyways and to come back if that doesn’t work. I usually mix a pea size of clotrimazole cream with a clump of desitin and rub it on really well with each diaper change. If you don’t see improvement in 2 days, time to go to the doctor so you can get a prescription for nystatin ointment. Specify you want the ointment instead of the cream so it is moisture repellant. Use that just like you did the clotimazole cream, or you can rub the nystatin in really well first and put some desitin on top. If a course of that doesn’t totally clear it up, return again to the doctor who might want you to try diflucan so go ahead if they do but the only thing that worked for Ember to totally clear up her nasty yeast infection was two rounds of the oral nystatin. It is not considered a well known treatment for yeast infection but again, it was the only thing that would completely get rid of her newborn yeast infection. Don’t pressure your doctor to go straight for the oral nystatin though because it is hard on their little liver and the other medications will probably work. For adult yeast infections, boric acid suppositories helped take care of my yeast infection along with my BV (see below for more info on that).

Thrush: This is a yeast infection that has transferred to your mouth. White clumps in the mouth that may look like cottage cheese. Tavon and I got this when he was 11 months and I thought the white clumps were just chunks of spit up but if I tried wiping them off they bled. His gums bled badly when I brushed his tiny teeth and he would cry so bad. Then when I got it i understood because it hurt to even touch my gums with my finger! Poor baby. Plus I was breastfeeding so he transferred the yeast infection to my nipples which made them itch horribly. I know Tavon was given medicine and I was also given medicine to apply to my nipples to stop the cycle of us passing it back and forth.

Bacterial Vaginosis (BV): This is more for moms. After I had Ember I got this really funky smelling vaginal discharge. For me it smelled like ammonia and it was more noticeable after intercourse (sorry for the details, I’m just trying to help you realize that if that happens to you it’s not normal and this is probably what it is). I was given an oral antibiotic to try getting rid of the overload of bacteria taking over down there but after I finished the course, the smell came right back. I was then represcribed the same oral medication along with a vaginal cream that you squeeze into a syringe and put into your cervix like a tampon to squeeze the gel out farther up. Again, it worked but only for as long as the medication lasted. I remember my doctor telling me to look into boric acid suppository which would change my PH to more acidic so that bacteria couldn’t grow as well. I read some articles about it and looked at a bunch of reviews on products through Amazon. I purchased a bottle of 14 boric acid suppositories to try. It’s just a pill you push into your cervix as far as it will go, before bed. It will dissolve through the night. After 3 nights I no longer had BV or my yeast infection (I was also using clotrimazole cream 3x/day). YAAAY

Croup: A viral infection that will last 1-2 days and nights. The infection causes the windpipes to swell which interferes with breathing, causes a barking cough, and may give a hoarse voice. Ember was 3 and Kyler 8 months when they were treated in-office for croup by being given steroid crushed up into some liquid ibuprofen. It started out as a cold which added a cough after a few days and the cough made Ember throw up a few times a day it was so intense. They were both gasping loudly for air between coughs. Lasted 2 days, VERY bad at night, only a few hours of sleep so I brought them in because I was worried about whooping cough but after treated for Croup the worst was over for Ember. The doctor said a humidifier would help tremendously with the night coughing because breathing the cool mist calms the swollen windpipes. I brought Kyler back in again because cough was no better. Doc said his lungs sounded like the beginnings of whooping cough or pneumonia, so they prescribed an antibiotic stronger than amoxicillin.

Varicella (Chickenpox): The time between exposure to the virus and eruption of symptoms is called the incubation period. For chickenpox, this period is 10 – 20 days. So if you wonder who gave you the chicken pox think back to who you were with 2 weeks ago. The patient often develops fever, headache, swollen glands, and other flu-like symptoms before the typical rash appears.Tavon got chicken pox when he was 7 months old. Poor tiny baby! He still has a scar on his forehead from a big one that he kept scratching at and ripping the scab off. I remember petting his head and seeing a small red dot through his hair on the back of his head. I didn’t think much of it until another one on his head showed up, and another. They just started showing up all over poor little guy! I gave him oatmeal baths to soothe the itching by grinding up the oatmeal myself and dumping into bath water. I also doused each chicken pox with the calamine lotion. I won’t ever forget the smell of that pink stuff. He also went from not being cuddly baby at all to liking cuddles more. Chickenpox is crazy contagious to anyone who has never had it or been vaccinated for it before. Vaccination for chickenpox is usually offered at the 1 yr old checkup. Tavon got it from being snuggled by a 4 yr old girl who had chickenpox but she wasn’t showing symptoms yet so we couldn’t have known.

Pinworms: Twenty percent of children in the USA have pinworms at any given time and 1 in 3 don’t know it. First of all, if you have this or ever get this, you get no judgement from me and have my sincere empathy! If you or your children have an itchy anus at night this could be why. Get a flashlight and look for parasites crawling around the butt hole. The best description is strands of cotton only they are moving. Tiny itty bitty worms that come out of the anus at night to lay eggs where there is oxygen. From there the eggs get on your underclothes and transfer to you hands if you touch them or scratch, maybe transfer to the floor if you put your clothes on the floor, transfer to the toilet, transfer to your bed sheets, etc. Eggs cannot be killed by bleach or any type of cleaner. Heat is the best way to cook the sticky eggs around the house, on clothes, etc so wash clothes in hot water and GO TO A DOCTOR FOR A PRESCRIPTION. The eggs can still hatch if swallowed for up to 3 weeks and are invisible to the naked eye so you will need 2 doses of medicine a couple weeks apart. The medicine kills the worms inside you but remember you have also swallowed more eggs and the medicine doesn’t kill those so another dose is needed 2 weeks after the first to kill the worms that the eggs have matured into during that time but before they can reach the large intestine to lay more eggs and start the cycle again. It is doable to get kids to take the medicine. It doesn’t taste good but it isn’t awful so just crush theirs into juice to drink. They say everyone in the household probably has it if one person does so everyone gets treated over 1 yrs old. Wash all bedding and clothing in hot water and steam mop the floors if you can.

Circumcision Experience: Tavon was circumcised at the hospital when he was one day old. I chose not to watch as had been recommended by my mother and the doctor. The kind doctor told me that Tavon didn’t even cry. Yeaaaah….right! Dealing with a circumcision AND an umbilical cord can be pretty stressful because when you change the diaper you put ointment on the penis to keep it from rubbing on the diaper and babies want to pull their knees up to their belly, causing the sore penis to touch the hard and sometimes sharp, umbilical cord. The ointment for the penis can get on the umbilical cord, causing it to get goopy when it is supposed to stay as dry as possible. If you choose to circumcise your son, make sure you have ointment, cotton balls or q tips, and gauze on hand before your little one is born. A red penis head after circumcision is expected. With Kyler We got scared from a different symptom though and thought that he was getting an infection on the head of his penis after circumcision because of yellow secretions on the head of his penis that wouldn’t come off with a water rinse but after explaining it to the doctor on the phone, we were told it is a normal sign of healing and that it would subside and go away within a week. The easiest way to keep the foreskin from sticking to the penis head for me was to pull some cotton from a qtip or cotton ball and put it on the base of the penis head every diaper change. Insurances usually don’t pay for circumcision because it is not considered a necessary medical procedure.

Umbilical Cords: Once cut after birth these dry up and fall off in 1-2 weeks. I had a freak out the week after Ali was born because of her umbilical cord. It was stuck to her onsie after getting wet from a sweaty nap and when I went to change her diaper I pulled up her onsie, which tugged her umbilical cord and pulled it up slightly, causing it to bleed a few drops. I was worried about her getting an infection so I globbed neosporin on it. I forgot how quickly the umbilical cord could turn soft with any moisture around. I went to change her diaper again to find a goopy smelly umbilical cord that was definitely starting to come off probably prematurely. My mom calmly told me that I should gently wipe off what ointment I could and apply rubbing alcohol to the umbilical cord to get it dried out again. After I applied alcohol with a qtip I called the number to the delivery nurse desk that they had given me upon hospital checkout. They told me the alcohol was the right idea. I just kept putting rubbing alcohol on every once in a while with a square of guaze over the top, held onto her belly with small bandaids or pieces of tape that I had first stuck to my hand and pulled off so they would be too sticky as to hurt her when I pulled them off her belly. When Ember was born she had a herniated belly button which is different than an outie. It’s like her belly button is being pushed up, which goes down to normal after a few weeks. The doctor also clipped the corners of her umbilical cord hardened because it was pretty sharp and kept poking her in the belly. Make sure you have rubbing alcohol and qtips to apply it with before your baby is born.

Coming soon:

Reflux:

Pneumonia:

RSV:

UTI: