Attempts on AJ's Life, or AJ's Story Part IV

So we spent our two days in the hospital (three if you include "Labor" day). They were relatively drama-less. We slept, ate, and tried to be presentable for visitors, we had visits from phlebotomists at 6AM, and I only had to track AJ down once (they'd taken him to see the pediatrician, but apparently they gather all the babies at once, the pediatrician works his way down the line, and as he's finished, they bring the babies back - AJ just happened to be the very last baby in line and I got concerned after he'd been gone for a couple of hours...I probably wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't been for those darn phlebotomists...did I mention that they left the light on when they left?). All in all, it was about as positive experience as being in the hospital could be.

But we finally got to go home!!!! Wednesday morning, we waited for what seemed like hours to be discharged. Finally, right before lunchtime, we were. Since we were at a hospital over by where VNB and I each worked, and since I was starving and would want a controlled eating environment, we decided to stop by his office and mine prior to going home. So we went through a drive through, then took lunch to his office. While we ate, everyone admired our handsome boy. When we were done, we went to my office and while I filled out my timesheet and took care of a few more things, VNB showed AJ off to everyone he saw.

Sounds tiring, right? Well it was, but we weren't done. Our pastor's wife hadn't seen the baby yet, so our next stop was there house. That was a nice chance to sit for a while, feed the baby, and relax before we finally made it home.

Now prior to that day, it had literally been in the 60s and 70s for most of December and January to that point. On that day, it was about 23. So before we left the hospital, we dressed AJ in the following: long-sleeved onesie, thick fleece sleep bag, heavy blanket for swaddling, then his car seat has a padded cover too. When we got home, the padded cover was replaced by a second blanket. He did great on the car ride home (with all the stops), but that evening, he would do the following: eat, sleep for about 10 minutes, then scream. Now, he'd hardly cried at all while we were at the hospital and he'd usually sleep for 2-3 hours in between feedings, so we were perplexed. We tried burping and bouncing and walking and everything else we could think of, but the only thing that would make him stop crying was to eat some more.

After several hours of this, something clicked in my head. Without even really knowing why, I started to undress him. Off came the outer blanket. Off came the inner blanket. Off came the sleepbag. (Back on went a lighter blanket for swaddling.) And the screaming stopped. And AJ went to sleep.

Go figure, the appropriate dressing for 23 degree weather with a brisk wind is a _little_ warm for room temperature with no wind.

But he survived _that_ attempt on his life, so we figured we'd try again. This time we were aided by his great aunts - the OP and Aunt Mom. OP brought over dinner that first night - meatloaf and broccoli. Now VNB doesn't like broccoli, but I _LOVE_ it and since he doesn't like it I don't get it very often. So I had it for dinner that night and the leftovers for lunch on Thursday. On Thursday, Aunt Mom brought over dinner - guess what the vegetable was? That's right - broccoli. So I ate some for dinner that night and the leftovers for lunch on Friday. On Friday, VNB's sister and brother-in-law came up to meet their nephew and take care of us for the weekend. They had made a very nice dinner and we were all actually sitting at our table, eating. Now, AJ had been a little fussy all evening, but nothing _really_ unusual...until dinner. He was sitting with us quietly when all of the sudden, he let out this ear-piercing scream. We seriously thought that he'd somehow pinched himself or something. That caught our attention.

After a while of him screaming for a few minutes then calming down, then screaming again, then calming down again, I was beginning to suspect gas, so I sent VNB to the store for Mylecon drops (except I didn't know the name then, so I sent him for "baby Gas-X"). He talked to the pharmacist at the store who said that he should call the pediatrician. So he came home and we attempted to call the person who was going to be our family practice doctor. Since we hadn't seen him yet (and couldn't seem to get an appointment), it was a little difficult to get his on-call person to talk to us, but we finally did. His suggestion was to watch it and if it got significantly worse, to go to the emergency room. I finally asked if it might be gas (remember my four large helpings of broccoli?) and couldn't we get drops for that and he said, "Oh yeah, Mylecon. That might work too." (Leia's uncharitable thought at the time, "Thanks for nothing, idiot.")

So VNB's sister drove me to the store where we bought the drops. We came home, AJ ate some more, then took some drops. The drops went down, a burp came up, and AJ relaxed and went to sleep. It all literally took about 5 seconds.

So we tried to cook him and that didn't work. Then we tried to make him explode. When that didn't work either, we figured that he was sticking around. I don't _think_ we've tried to kill him since then....although his 9th day was a "little" interesting. Read all about it in the next episode, "The Terrible Day, or AJ's Story, Part V."