"I'm a Little Pee-Pot"
Want to hear the saga of Peter's "pee in a cup" adventure?
Well, Peter woke up from his nap Wednesday afternoon with an elevated temperature. No other symptoms of illness (cough, runny nose, sore throat, etc.), just loss of appetite, lethargy, and quite a high temp (101-102). He pretty much just wanted to sit on my lap and watch "e-i-e-i-o" (Old McDonald on his Baby Songs DVD).
This continued all day yesterday -- lots of sleeping, Tylenol would bring the fever down for 8 hours or so, then it would go up again. Nurse said to bring him in on Friday (today) if no other sick symptoms presented themselves. He woke up from his nap yesterday just miserable. Crying "no, no, no" and absolutely wouldn't calm down to talk to us. Finally we got him distracted and calmed down. Tim recognized that he seemed to be crying periodically, like something was really hurting, but then would calm down and be fine for awhile.
Long story shorter...we were pretty sure it was a urinary tract infection. He didn't have other illness symptoms which means it's an internal infection of some kind. Couldn't be teething because the fever wouldn't be that high. Not tugging on his ears so no ear infection. We finally got an answer from Peter that "YES" it hurt inside his diaper. AND his diaper smelled pretty funny...another symptom of UTI. So we went to the store for cranberry juice.
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So that was the background -- here's the story I wanted to tell!
We (Peter, Ezra and Mommy) went to the doctor today to check out the situation. Fortunately Ezra slept the whole time, so I was able to give 100% of my attention to Peter. The doctor needed a urine sample, of course! Has Peter ever practiced peeing into the toilet, he asked? Um, nope! Haven't tried that yet! =)
Since the only two options were pee in a cup or CATHETER, Peter and I went to the bathroom for some serious water-drinking and peeing-in-a-cup training!! I went through the whole "water goes down your throat, into your tummy, and out your bottom parts" speech, we talked about waterfalls, swimming pools, rivers, and everything water, and even flushed the toilet and ran water in the sink for inspiration. NOTHING.
He sat on the toilet for awhile -- spread eagle, about to fall in. So I taught him to hold the pee-cup in the appropriate place so he could stand up and even walk around the room while we waited. And waited. And waited. I was afraid he was holding it in on purpose because he didn't want it to hurt. :(
We sang songs to lighten the mood -- "I'm a little pile of tin...honk-honk, rattle-rattle-rattle, crash, beep-beep!" I had him laughing pretty hard...thought that might do it. Laughing makes me pee sometimes...
Then we made up words to "I'm a Little Tea-Pot" -- "I'm a little pee-pot, short and stout, here is my cup and here is my spout...when I get all filled up, hear me shout, I'll bend over and pee it out..."
I don't know how many times I said, 1-2-3-PEE!! Wishing...hoping...but no.
We were in the bathroom for at least an hour. Finally, the doctor decided it was catheter time. (Really, I think it was lunch time...) I told Peter that we were done and he'd need to put his diaper back on. NO!!! He didn't want to do that...did he understand what was about to happen?? I was about to let him walk over to the examining room, while holding his little cup...when I heard a trickle! SURE ENOUGH -- he was peeing in the cup!!! YAY PETER!! High fives and congrats all around! He was pretty excited. And no pee on the floor.
Time to begin potty-training??? PHEW. I'm not sure. That was a JOB today! I'm tired. But we succeeded in avoiding a very intrusive and horrible procedure. He'll never know how much he should thank me.
Well, Peter woke up from his nap Wednesday afternoon with an elevated temperature. No other symptoms of illness (cough, runny nose, sore throat, etc.), just loss of appetite, lethargy, and quite a high temp (101-102). He pretty much just wanted to sit on my lap and watch "e-i-e-i-o" (Old McDonald on his Baby Songs DVD).
This continued all day yesterday -- lots of sleeping, Tylenol would bring the fever down for 8 hours or so, then it would go up again. Nurse said to bring him in on Friday (today) if no other sick symptoms presented themselves. He woke up from his nap yesterday just miserable. Crying "no, no, no" and absolutely wouldn't calm down to talk to us. Finally we got him distracted and calmed down. Tim recognized that he seemed to be crying periodically, like something was really hurting, but then would calm down and be fine for awhile.
Long story shorter...we were pretty sure it was a urinary tract infection. He didn't have other illness symptoms which means it's an internal infection of some kind. Couldn't be teething because the fever wouldn't be that high. Not tugging on his ears so no ear infection. We finally got an answer from Peter that "YES" it hurt inside his diaper. AND his diaper smelled pretty funny...another symptom of UTI. So we went to the store for cranberry juice.
-------------------------
So that was the background -- here's the story I wanted to tell!
We (Peter, Ezra and Mommy) went to the doctor today to check out the situation. Fortunately Ezra slept the whole time, so I was able to give 100% of my attention to Peter. The doctor needed a urine sample, of course! Has Peter ever practiced peeing into the toilet, he asked? Um, nope! Haven't tried that yet! =)
Since the only two options were pee in a cup or CATHETER, Peter and I went to the bathroom for some serious water-drinking and peeing-in-a-cup training!! I went through the whole "water goes down your throat, into your tummy, and out your bottom parts" speech, we talked about waterfalls, swimming pools, rivers, and everything water, and even flushed the toilet and ran water in the sink for inspiration. NOTHING.
He sat on the toilet for awhile -- spread eagle, about to fall in. So I taught him to hold the pee-cup in the appropriate place so he could stand up and even walk around the room while we waited. And waited. And waited. I was afraid he was holding it in on purpose because he didn't want it to hurt. :(
We sang songs to lighten the mood -- "I'm a little pile of tin...honk-honk, rattle-rattle-rattle, crash, beep-beep!" I had him laughing pretty hard...thought that might do it. Laughing makes me pee sometimes...
Then we made up words to "I'm a Little Tea-Pot" -- "I'm a little pee-pot, short and stout, here is my cup and here is my spout...when I get all filled up, hear me shout, I'll bend over and pee it out..."
I don't know how many times I said, 1-2-3-PEE!! Wishing...hoping...but no.
We were in the bathroom for at least an hour. Finally, the doctor decided it was catheter time. (Really, I think it was lunch time...) I told Peter that we were done and he'd need to put his diaper back on. NO!!! He didn't want to do that...did he understand what was about to happen?? I was about to let him walk over to the examining room, while holding his little cup...when I heard a trickle! SURE ENOUGH -- he was peeing in the cup!!! YAY PETER!! High fives and congrats all around! He was pretty excited. And no pee on the floor.
Time to begin potty-training??? PHEW. I'm not sure. That was a JOB today! I'm tired. But we succeeded in avoiding a very intrusive and horrible procedure. He'll never know how much he should thank me.