Continuing from Part 1 published late last night, here’s what else went on during Baby L’s time in hospital last week.

So our son arrived at hospital at around 5am on Wednesday, and he was admitted to the children’s ward about an hour later. By 10am Mummy had finished the school run and made her way to the hospital to be with us.

Nurses continued to monitor Baby L for the first few hours without a Doctor coming by, and he was having 10 puffs of Salbutamol every hour. When a doctor finally did turn up to take a look at our baby boy, a decision was soon made to introduce Beclomethasone (the brown inhalers), as well as Serevent (the green one) as his wheeze was still proving to be quite stubborn. It would go after his Salbutamol dose, but it wasn’t long each time before it was coming back again which the doctor wasn’t too pleased with.

He was now having 10 puffs of Salbutamol, he’d had 2 puffs of Beclomethasone and 2 of Serevent. After that they stepped up his Salbutamol to every half an hour for five or six hours.

By this point he had been eating again too, which was a relief. Not only was it nice to have him feeding again, but it was also nice as it meant his breathing was improving quite a lot, as during the early hours before heading to hospital he couldn’t eat because it was just blocking up what little remained of his open airways, bless him. He seemed a bit happier in himself too, and even took a few walks round into the playroom to have a bit of fun in between inhaler doses.

The only issue Baby L really had during the day was sleeping, he hardly got any at all. For one, he was on a ward which was quite noisy – not so much with other children as you would expect with a Children’s Ward, but more so the staff! One receptionist in particular was LOUD, and insisted on yapping to every member of the nursing team that passed her, or at least tried to pass her. Also by the time he fell asleep at any time, it was pretty much time to wake up again to have his next dose of inhalers!

By around 5pm it was decided that it’d be best to keep Baby L in overnight. Mummy had to leave not long after as she had a Radiotherapy to get to 25 miles away as part of her final week of cancer treatment. Thankfully his breathing had improved enough by then for the doctor to recommend extending his doses from every half hour to every 2 hours, which was swiftly altered to every 3 hours, and 4 hours respectively as on each check, he seemed fine. Finally he was really getting somewhere!

The evening was a pretty quiet one for me. Baby L had finally been given a chance to get some rest and he was taking advantage of it, having nice long naps. Before I knew it nurses was throwing out beds for the parents who were staying the night – which I didn’t expect. I was more than happy to slum it in the chair, and was actually quite weary of using the bed because I know how much of a deep sleeper I am.

As far as I know, Baby L only woke twice in the night. If he woke any more times than that I didn’t hear him! Hopefully that didn’t happen, but it wouldn’t surprise me if he was dealt with by a nurse a couple of times without me hearing a thing.

Friday morning arrived, I woke up at 7am. Wandered around until I felt human, then got a few things tidied up in our little bay while Baby L was sleeping. He woke half an hour later and had a feed, then we went round to the playroom for a little while while waiting for the doctors to do their morning rounds. One came at around 8.30am which was surprisingly early. He suggested that we would be discharged by lunch time which was great news.

To be honest very little else happened that morning. I called my wife to let her know that we should be let out today, and reminded her I had no key to get in! It was pretty likely she wouldn’t be home when we got out, as she had an early Radiotherapy appointment (her last) followed by a treatment completion review so, her day was pretty busy.

Baby L and I just carried on walking around the wards in between his feeds, inhaler doses and naps until a second doctor visit confirmed that our little dude was ready to be discharged. This came at around 10.30am. So I began to get our stuff packed up and ready to go, but it wasn’t until 1pm that our discharge papers finally arrived and we allowed to head home. He was discharged with all three inhalers – Salbutamol, Beclomethasone and Serevent – yet still the doctors insist on calling it a viral induced wheeze, and not asthma which baffles me.

Our three year old Little C has Asthma. I have Asthma. My wife has Asthma. We’re not stupid, Baby L has Asthma, but the docs insist on saying it’s not diagnosed in baby’s as young as Baby L which seems pretty pointless to me, but I suppose there’s a reason behind that madness.

Since being home Baby L has slowly improved further and fingers crossed will be completely better in a few more days. He has a nasty cough to shift as yet, but then he’ll have a clean bill of health! For a week or so, at least, until the next thing comes along!