3 sticks later...

My poor baby was stuck 3 times today! I took him to the pediatrician this morning, and of course, he's got a fever, but nothing else appears to be wrong. But since he's so young, they like to be extra sure there's nothing major going on. They do two things to make sure- one is a urine culture, and the other is bloodwork/blood culture. The urine culture was horrible, they used a catheter and got it out of him that way. Then we went to the lab for bloodwork. Let me tell you how NOT fun that was! We waited for an hour to get called back. When we got back, they tried sticking each arm, before admitting defeat. Poor Seth was screaming his head off, and they told us to go to the hospital, where they have more experience with babies. Usually they do heel sticks, but since the doc wanted a blood culture, it had to be from a vein? I think. Whatever! At any rate, after the lab failed, I called the doc to see what they wanted me to do, and he did say to go to the lab at the hospital, and that he'd fax over the orders for me. We waited more while they got our insurance approval (apparently they didn't want to, and couldn't understand why the lab couldn't get any blood out). When we finally got called back, the lady who was going to do his draw decided she didn't want to risk it because she wasn't sure she could do it in one try. Then the head of the lab came in and got it right away. I felt horrible for Seth, he just screamed and screamed, and nothing I did was helping. Now I sit and wait for the phone call from the pediatrician telling me what is wrong with Seth. Our guess is that it's just a virus that he picked up at day care (after only 2 weeks there!!). He's still got a fever, and is crashed out in his swing. I need to go wake him, feed him (since he hasn't eaten since 7:30), and curl up with him and take a nap. Since a sick baby doesn't make for a good night sleep (can you say 4 hours total?).