March is almost over and what a month it has been! When I posted the adorable picture of my little girlies, Brynn had just gotten over the stomach flu. Luckily, the worst of it was during the 2 days that Seth was home because he was in between clinical-rotations. But the day after our photo shoot, she got a cough. The next day the cough turned a little wheezy and it was keeping her up at night and during her naps. The next day was a Saturday. She woke up with a slight fever, so Seth gave her motrin before heading off to work. She perked up and seemed to be doing better and Morgan had a busy day of birthday parties, so I loaded everyone in the car and we ran errands in between all the picking up and dropping off at birthday parties.
By the time we picked Morgan up from the last party, Brynn was burning up, coughing like crazy and didn't want to do anything but have me hold her little body close to mine. I called Seth at work and we decided it would be best to take her into an Urgent Care. The Urgent Care doctor suggested I take her up to the Primary Children's Hospital ER immediately where they would most likely admit her and keep her overnight because it was very likely that she had RSV.
None of my kids have ever had to go to the ER and the stress of the day, combined with my pregnant hormones, and feeling completely overwhelmed at the thought of doing it all alone, I completely broke down and burst into tears. My sweet mother-in-law was happy to take the older kids and endure my breakdown on the phone, so I dropped Morgan and Chloe off there and headed up to the hospital with little miss Brynn. Seth called when I was almost to the parking lot to let me know he was able to get off of his shift early and that he was heading up to the hospital. I could not have been more thankful for my sweet husband at that moment, who knew that I really needed his support even though I hadn't told him or subjected him to my sobbing breakdown. There was no wait in the ER, so they took us right back and checked her. She was such a trooper. She did everything they asked her to do and smiled and told everyone thank you and waved goodbye any time someone left the room. After Seth got there, they did an RSV swab and she completely freaked out. Unfortunately, that was followed by an albuterol treatment and it took me, Seth and the respiratory therapist to keep the mask on her. She is definitely a determined little thing. It completely wore her out, though and she fell asleep on Seth after she calmed down.
They took a chest x-ray and found that she possibly had pneumonia as well, and her RSV swab came back positive. She was happily drinking the gatorade juice box they gave her, her fever had normalized and she was so cheerful that they decided to start her on a 2 day sterroid treatment and send us home with albuterol treatments. On the way home from the hospital she was loopy from the sterroid...she pointed to every random thing she saw and said, "Look Mom, a _______" (window, rain drop, house, car, etc. etc.). It was kind of hilarious, because I have never seen her like that before.
She slept well Saturday night and Sunday morning she woke up with energy, a low fever which was easily managed with Motrin, and drinking and eating whatever we gave her. But, within 2 hours of giving her the morning albuterol treatment, she was struggling to breathe so much that you could see her little rib cage every time she took a breath and seeming like she needed another treatment. I called the hospital to see if I could just give the treatments closer together, and they told me that I needed to wait the full 4 hours and if she was consistently needing them more frequently to bring her back to the ER. Throughout the day, she continued to get worse. We had my little brothers over for dinner, and Brynn took a short nap after we went for a walk to the playground, but woke up pale and clammy and struggling so hard to breathe that she was exhausted. After giving her the 2nd sterroid dose for the day and seeing no improvement, we decided it would be best to take her back in.
This time I took her blankie and sippy cup, just in case we ended up staying so she had some comfort objects in the waiting room because they were much busier that night. After we got her into a room, the Dr. told me right away that I should plan on staying for the night because the home treatment was just not enough for her. They gave her a triple dose albuterol treatment which she fought and fought (it was more than 20 minutes long, so both she and I were exhausted by the end), and took some blood tests and started her on an IV to get her hydrated.
She was such a good sport...she didn't try to pull at her IV and she left her vitals monitor on and she didn't even fuss when they took her blood pressure. Once I knew we were going to be admitted, Seth's brother came to hang out at our house and Seth came up to the hospital with sweats for me and some books and treats for Brynn. They finally admitted us to the Rapid Care Unit and once we were settled Seth headed home to sleep so he could get the kids off to school in the morning. I "slept" with Brynn in her hospital bed for 2 hours at a time (hello - I am not ready for a newborn!) in between giving her albuterol treatments, forcing (literally...she tried to spit it out every time) medicine down her throat and feeling extremely uncomfortable in my big and pregnant state. They had to do the albuterol treatments about every 2 hours and ended up placing her on oxygen because she kept dipping so low when she was sleeping.
The next morning she was feeling cheery and energetic again, but still had to be on the oxygen. The doctor said we could reevaluate that night and see how she was doing, but that we would most likely be spending another night in the hospital. We colored and read books and watched movies and ordered "room service".
She was not allowed to leave her room because she was considered high risk, but she was so good about staying in the bed and keeping occupied with stationary activities. After Seth picked the kids up from school, he brought them to visit and have a picnic lunch and to trade shifts. She was so excited to see her siblings! They had to bring us an extender for her oxygen because she just wanted to run around her room and dance and play with them! Morgan and Chloe thought the hospital looked like fun...toy areas (which Brynn couldn't go to), a moving bed, movies, room service smoothies...I had to bring them back to reality by talking about shots and medicine and being stuck in your room, but they still would like their turn to be in the hospital. I, however, would prefer their turns never come. :) They masked Brynn and took her for another chest x-ray to see if there had been any change with the possible pneumonia.
By the time she got back, the big kids were stir crazy, so I shuffled them out of there and took them home.
After dinner, my brother came to put the kids to bed so I could go back up to the hospital and take overnight stuff for Seth. Because Brynn's x-ray came back showing improvement, they called our pediatrician and decided to give us the option of taking her home on oxygen. Since Seth had already missed a day of clinicals and we felt comfortable with the oxygen and the big kids were really needing to regain some stability of having their parents home, we decided to do it. We didn't get home until about 11:30 pm, but it was so nice to sleep in our own bed and Brynn slept like a rock! In the morning we took her to see our pediatrician for a follow-up and she was doing great!
We were able to take her off the oxygen during the day and only have her use it at night and during naps. Within a few days, we were able to eliminate the oxygen altogether. She is doing perfectly now and we are so happy to have our happy, healthy little lady back!
In the midst of it all, we had to start packing our stuff into storage because our new carpet was installed the week Brynn came home from the hospital and my baby brother got his mission call (
details about his call and a photo here), and we had all of our family over for Chloe's Birthday (a little early so Michael and Sarah could come while they were in town...I took very few pictures, but she felt so loved and adored so thank you to all of our family who spoiled her to pieces with love and presents). So, it has been truly crazy at our house! But, we have been so blessed with many many willing hands to watch our kids, move furniture between rooms, disassemble furniture, provide us with moving boxes, pick up the kids from school, dinners and offers to bring dinner and many notes and calls of concern and prayers in our behalf. I am certain that we have the most wonderful family and friends and ward you could ask for. Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you!!!
Most of all, it was a sweet experience to spend uninterrupted one-on-one time with Brynn. As the third child with a Daddy working and in school and a pregnant Mommy juggling 24/7 motherhood and dabbling in a photography business, it isn't often that I can spend hours snuggling Brynn with no interruptions. I loved snuggling her close to me all night and giggling with her and reading books with her and listening to her tell me all about things. I loved seeing her be polite and obedient and adorable with the hospital staff. I loved discovering how much she LOVES stickers and convincing her that the medicine wasn't so bad if we turned the process into a tea party (the nurses laughed when we had our medicine tea party complete with pinkies up and English accents, but it worked). I was surprised to discover just how OCD Brynn is. I knew she sucked her thumb and liked to snuggle a soft blankie against her face, but I had no idea that she had to bite the blankie first and that there was a very proper order to the timing of the blankie bite, thumb suck, and face rub. I also didn't realize that she would repeat the process until it was done to her liking. She is one who knows what she wants and oh.how.she.wants.to.do.it.herself. Spending that one on one time with her really clued me in to how I can better match my parenting to her personality. Maybe the other kids do need their turn in the hospital...or maybe just some one-on-one mommy dates. :) I think that even the most elaborate mommy dates would be much cheaper than our portion of the hospital stay.
