Hi everyone! I'm so glad I found this site! I've been pouring thru the site since suspecting bed bugs, and now that my account is active, I'm hoping to get some opinions from you all! For those of you interested in the backstory, read on. To those in a hurry, skip to the bottom! :)
My mom is a home health nurse and watches our kids in our home some days while I work. At the beginning of December (she thinks the 11th) she showed me some bites on her ankles. They were CHEWED up. I'm also a nurse and am pretty familiar with the different appearances of bed bug bites and told her I was 99% sure that's what they were. I'm assuming the house must've had a pretty bad infestation based on the number of bites present. She shrugged me off, told me I was paranoid, and we left it at that. About a few days later (she thinks the 14th), she mentioned she had some huge welts on the back of her neck (classic 3 bite pattern) and showed me the picture. I was then 100% sure they were BB bites. She once again told me no. They were a bad reaction to flea bites. Christmas morning, I woke up to 2 bites on my upper chest. I woke up to nurse my son that night and fell asleep on the couch for the majority of the night, and that area of skin would've been exposed while nursing. I knew instantly upon seeing the bites, we had a BB in our home.
I've looked high and low through the couch (it's the kind with the attached cushions so I realize there are a TON of spots I don't even have access to but felt I should at least try) and have found zero evidence. I am the only one that showed a reaction to the bites and just the one time. I realize not everyone shows symptoms but my daughter has ridiculously sensitive skin (and reacts horribly to even mosquito bites). I haven't been able to bring myself to sleep on the couch since, but my daughter has occasionally (she gets out of bed in the middle of the night and we find her all over the place, haha) and so has my husband.
Anyways, Sunday our dog came wildly running thru my daughters room where we were all sitting on the floor playing, when about 10 seconds later I spotted the bed bug crawling across the floor. I've been researching these things like crazy for 2 weeks now so I knew instantly without a doubt that's what it was/is. I caught it and taped it to a piece of paper. It was unfed. I've slept in my daughter's bed several times since my one and only bites, and have not had any new ones.
***Long story short: we found a live bed bug in our home after me being bit on decemeber 24th (no know bites after). Monday we had the orkin man come out and do an inspection. I was working when he came, but did talk to him after. He said he found zero signs of an infestation, confirmed what we had was indeed a BB (stage 3 nymph), and that it was highly possible it was a lone hitchiker. What are the odds?! Upon questioning my husband, I discovered he didn't check under the couch and up in the frame (where I believe I was originally bitten), didn't check the box springs of the beds, didn't check the love seat at all, and only looked at my son's crib upon request. I was less than confident in his assessment. I called terminex and a guy came out yesterday and did a much more through inspection, but also said he couldn't find any thing. He did however say that he felt that the nymph (10 days old according to him) was indeed born in our home, and that he felt in his heart we 100% will have a problem, it's just developing now. He offered to treat (using spray) at a lower price since he felt our case was minor and therefore would be easier to treat, and will provide us with covers for our mattresses and boxsprings and gave us the prep sheet.
I guess my question is this-what are the odds that this could be the only lone bug in our home? Are we doing the right thing progressing with treatment based on the facts? We do have a confirmed bed bug, so I know we've been exposed and are at risk. I'm freaking out. I don't want to take any chances, but we also have 2 small kids (3 1/2 yr and 10 months), and I'm really apprehensive about the use of chemicals (my son is still crawling, and puts his hands in his mouth a lot)
I'm so sorry this is long and rambling, but I guess I'm just totally lost. We have the money to cover the expense, but it took us SO long to save up for it, and we're trying to sell our house this spring, so this is a major hit to our already tiny nest egg. 
Thank you so much for any comments or advice!