Update on Leo

Many of you have been asking how little Leo is doing.  Thank you so much for your concern.  I thought I'd post an update on my blog.  For those of you who don't know what's going on, Leo appears to have caught a stomach virus.  When we came home from Grampy's house late Saturday night, I woke up to Leo projectile vomiting all over himself in his sleep. Poor baby :-( The vomiting lasted all night.  He vomited 5 times that night.  I changed the sheets three times, and then I ran out of sheets, so I put him on a mat on the floor.  Then he threw up on that twice. Sunday was no better.  He vomited after every feeding.  He soiled the carpet in the living room a few times and covered the couch.  I must have done 5 loads of laundry that day! Leo ran no fever, but we began to get especially concerned on Sunday night when he had had no wet diapers, indicating dehydration.  After talking to a few trusted friends, I made the decision to go to CVS to get some Pedialyte for him.  Leo was able to keep down 6 ounces of the Pedialyte which eased our minds a bit.  We decided to continue to monitor him overnight and to call the pediatrician first thing in the morning (I later found out that the pediatrician's office is open 7 days a week, so I could've called and brought him in on Sunday!) Leo slept through the night and woke up with a wet diaper.  His personality seemed to be back to normal - he was his old smiling, happy, self.  I nursed him successfully once, and administered a few more ounces of the Pedialyte.  Since he still didn't have a temperature and appeared to be on the mend, I decided that I'd wait to call the doctor.  Then came a frightening turn of events.  I recalled having given him a small jar of Gerber baby food while at Grampy's house.  Normally, I make my own baby food for Leo by grinding up organic fruits and vegetables in a small food processor.  But this time we were in a rush to get out the door, and out of convenience I grabbed a jar of the Gerber baby food (don't worry Chrissy, it wasn't the food you gave us!)  When Ben and I gave Leo the food, we recalled seeing some discoloration at the top of the jar.  We mentioned it to each other, but decided to give it to him anyway since the expiration date read October of 2009, and since the plastic seal had not been broken.  We figured it was probably just one of the preservatives they put in jarred baby food.  On a total whim, I decided to call Gerber at the phone number on the back of the jar to inquire as to whether or not there had been any reported incidences with this particular lot number.  Sure enough, the customer service rep told me that there had been "a few other reported incidences with that lot number."  My stress level went through the roof at that moment!  Right after I got off the phone, Leo threw up, and I called the pediatrician right away. After examining Leo's stool sample under a microscope, the doctor concluded that it wasn't anything like ecoli or salmonella poisoning (thank God!)  There was, however, a foreign virus present in the stool sample which the doctor guessed was the virus that Leo had most likely caught from another person.  When Ben got home this evening, it was apparent that he too had the virus.  So now I have 2 sick boys at home!