"We'll Pray For You"

    This has been a very long, hard week at the Alexander house. We have been blessed with a very healthy and happy baby since he has been born. Everyone always comments on how well behaved and easy going he is. I tell them " I know, we really lucked out." We haven't had any issues.. not even an ear infection, until this week..
      Monday morning when I went to get Carter out of bed he had thrown up everywhere! I didn't even know babies could throw up that much. I got him out of bed and gave him a bath. He seemed fine but as the day went on he got really fussy. I was having a hard time getting him to eat or drink anything.  Then came Tuesday. He was super fussy and everything I gave him ten minutes later he would throw that up. I felt so bad for him! By Tuesday  Richard was also sick. It is heartbreaking to see him sleep all day and not his happy self. Since Carter was throwing up at night we put him in our room so we could hear what was going on. Well his tummy must have really been bothering him cause he was keeping us up all night. I felt so helpless.

    By Thursday not only was he throwing up multiple times a day (still not interested in eating or drinking) but he also had really bad diarrhea. I felt so bad because I was changing his diapers every five minutes and he just knew what was coming. Every time I would take off his diaper he would start screaming in pain. I had called the nurse multiple times already but we were concerned because Carter was not peeing. We were told that if he didn't pee by 8:00 PM then we would need to take him to the hospital to get an IV. That night was especially bad, Carter wouldn't stop crying and we didn't know what to do. Richard was sick and couldn't help much. I was bawling because I felt so helpless and just wanted to take the pain away from Carter. I asked Richard to give Carter a Priesthood blessing. I cried while Richard gave the sweet blessing and right as he was finished Carter started smiling and playing with us.  It was amazing! We were watching his diapers and 8:00 came and went. We decided since he was finally keeping down some liquid that we would wait a little long to see if he would have a wet diaper. Thankfully he did so we put him to bed. That night he slept so well! We were so happy but he woke us up early to him throwing up again.

     Friday was here. As much as I loved that all Carter as wanted to do is cuddle with Mom all week, it was getting hard because now I had caught the bug. I feel like it should be a rule that moms shouldn't get sick haha. It is so hard to take care of someone else when you don't feel like getting off the couch. Luckily Richard was feeling a bit better and was able to step up and help with Carter. Now that this had been going on for 5 days I decided to take him to see his Doctor. I figured he had the flu but wanted to make sure before this went on any longer. Turns out it is the flu and there is nothing we can do for babies. His Doctor said it may take up to 2 weeks for his body to fight it off. We had high hopes he was almost done but then things got bad again Friday night. He started throwing up multiple times again and we are having a hard time keeping him hydrated. He also had developed a terrible cough that was keeping him (and us) up all night long.
       My brother in law was texting Richard asking how Carter was doing and said that they would pray for him to get well quickly. As I read that it brought me so much comfort. That simple phrase meant more to me than anything. Prayer is a powerful thing and to have more people praying for our sweet boy to have a speedy recovery means more than words can describe.  I'm so grateful for the gospel and for our family! It is now Saturday and Carter is still feeling crummy and not getting any better. We pray that he will get better soon so we can have our happy boy back.