Counting Our Blessings, Not Our Problems

Today was a new day and His mercies are new every morning! I firmly believe that! 

Last night was another rough night, Ryder's fever persisted and he would fall asleep for minutes at a time. And I mean minutes....30-45, maybe 60 on a good stretch.  Finally at 4am he fell asleep for 4 whole hours! Around 7am I woke up and ran into his room, in a slight panic, to make sure he was still breathing. Thankfully he was, and I just stood there, watching Ryder peacefully sleep, soaking up every sweet inhale/exhale. It's been 8 whole days since I've seen Ryder peacefully sleep for that long. The things we talk for granted.  Finally, around 8am he woke up, a bit cranky (I would be too if I hadn't really eaten or slept in nearly 8 days) so we got up, gave him some juice (what he would drink of it) and some frozen yogurt - breakfast of champions! Whatever it takes to get calories in him. He's taken a liking to Golden Spoon frozen yogurt. Like mommy like son! 

Thankfully Ryder didn't wake up with a fever. His temperature was actually normal and Ryder's last fever, of 101, was at 1am. Hooray! Maybe the fever had finally broken? 

Around 10:30am I noticed Ryder's face was slightly swollen and eyes were a bit puffy. I attributed it to his lack of sleep.  Then around 11:30am I noticed a NEW rash developing on Ryder's forearms, tummy and side of face. These bumps were completely different than the ones from his allergic reaction to the amoxicillin last weekend. This is when I kind of started to panic - I could just picture us being sent to the ER again!  I quickly called his pediatrician and made him an appointment for 1:30pm. 

We saw our pediatrician, Ryder had no fever at the doctor's office (hooray again!) and after examining our superhero and bringing her up to speed on Ryder's "adventures" over the past week, it was determined that Ryder most likely has a common virus called Roseola. Roseola is a viral infection that causes high fevers, for 3-5 days, decreased appetite, irritability, fatigue, swollen eyelids, followed by an upper-torso rash. (Check, check, check, check, check and check!) So ding! Ding! Ding! We think we finally found our answer to why Ryder's been suffering from a fever for so long! We have a follow up appointment tomorrow at 10:45am but Ryder most likely contracted the virus while he was in the hospital for his palate surgery. So on top of Ryder trying to recover from his palate surgery and cheek graft, he's also trying to kick Roseola's butt. It's a good thing Ryder's a superhero and it's an even better thing that God's mercies are new every morning! 

Lamentations 3:22,23 “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning, great is your faithfulness.”

Ryder's new rash. Unfortunately, they say the rash gets worse before it gets better. At the doctors office. Thank God for mommies! The hubby is out of town on a business trip (as if there's not enough going on) so my mama came to save the day....and night....and my sanity. Ryder's been poked, prodded and examined way too many times in the past week. How our hearts break for him! Finally this afternoon he showed some interest in toys, and played for a few minutes. I loved seeing him play like a normal baby. Even if it was only for 15 minutes. Tonight, as I sat and thought about the journey we've been on since I was 20 weeks pregnant with Ryder, I started to become sad, overwhelmed and just frustrated but then God reminded me.....we count our blessings, not our problems. And as I started to focus on our blessings and began counting them them, one by one, I quickly began to lose count :)