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Monday, January 6, 2014

It's been a long...

…day.  Weekend.  Year, even though we're only 6 days in now.  The last three weeks have been a whirlwind, and this mama is tired.  The Holidays were a blast, but a blur of travel and busy and wonderful memory making with family.  I promised myself I would get to a Christmas post at some point this week, before it is mid-January and weird to be posting about Christmas.  I figure that as long as folks still have their lights (and Christmas trees!) up, it's still acceptable for me to blog about Christmas activities, right?  :-)

My Holiday break was technically over last Wednesday.  I was playing the week by ear, and trying to decide whether to work on Thursday and Friday or save my vacation.  It looked like the plan was going to be take vacation, or at least half days, because Carney was available to work and Dan had some availability, so we were going to use that opportunity to get some things done around the house (namely playroom organization, nursery progress and operation clean out Lilly's stuff).  We got the unfortunate call on Monday that Dan's grandmother had passed away very unexpectedly, so we knew we'd be heading to New York sometime towards the end of the week to be with family.  

I spent the next few days in a blur of unpacking, cleaning, doing laundry, re-packing and running errands.  To make matters crazier, the weather in NY decided to go nuts, and we all started to worry about how we were going to make it there.  Driving was considered.  I'm glad we waited it out and crossed fingers for non-cancelled flights, because the combination of Lilly and an 8-month preggo with the smallest bladder in the history of the world in the car for that amount of time would surely have tortured Dan to the point of insanity.

Thursday's flights were cancelled, but luckily we were able to fly to New York on Friday afternoon.  Lilly did great on the flight even though she missed nap - we kept her entertained with some new books and small toys I found at Target on clearance (and, of course, Elmo).  Everything was really smooth, until the airline lost our carseat and we sat around in the airport for 2.5 hours after we landed trying to find it.  Seriously, the one piece of luggage that was an absolute necessity.  Isn't that the way it always happens?  

The weekend was a blur of services and family.  Grandma Mary was one of the most incredible, kind, loving people that I've ever had the chance to meet and spend time with, and we're all better people for having had her in our lives (Not to mention she was a saint as she birthed and raised TWELVE children!!!).  She will be truly missed, and I am so glad that we were all able to go and be together as a family to celebrate her life.

The only picture I took over the weekend.  Lilly woke up on Sunday and said, "Mommy, Lilly wear tutu on airplane."  And you know what?  I did not even try to fight it.  She looks cute and got a lot of smiles and waves, even from the most sour-faced TSA folks.  In this pic, she's super excited to be riding the escalator like a big girl.  Cheeeeeeeese!
They say bad news comes in threes, so I knew something else was coming, it was just a matter of when.  My Mom's breast cancer diagnosis + Grandma Mary's sudden passing = 2.  Number three came last night when we finally made it home.  

More bad weather in New York caused a plane to skid off the runway, which delayed our flight (and seemingly the entire airport's) for several hours.  Lilly has had a cough on and off for well over a month now, and we can't seem to get rid of it.  It wasn't too bad at the end of last week, but I knew it was going to be cold in NY so I tried to get her into the doctor on Friday morning before we left just in case, but it didn't work out.  She was fine all weekend but coughed a lot more than normal during her Saturday night/Sunday morning sleep and woke up Sunday and was pretty pitiful.  I called and spoke to the nurse on Sunday morning, and the plan was to take her straight to the doctor from the airport since our flight was supposed to land at 2.  With the delays, by the time we finally got off the plane and to the car it was 4:30, and the doctor's office had been closed for about an hour.  At this point I was trying not to go into a panic, because I could tell there was something wrong with my baby girl.  She really had not eaten in a good four days, which at first I chalked up to being out of her routine until I realized that she genuinely felt terrible.  They normally are more concerned with drinking than eating, so the fact that I had a hard time getting her to drink anything on Sunday had me worried about dehydration as well.  Also, from the time we got to our gate and even getting on the plane, all she did was lay on my shoulder and nap on and off.  That is VERY unlike her.  Even with all of the missed naps and lack of sleep from the weekend's activities, she would never just sleep on me like that…she rarely even did that when she was a baby.  On top of all of that, she seemed to be having a hard time breathing…I counted that she was breathing between 40-50 times in a minute, which is worrisome.  

After being on the phone back and forth all afternoon with the nurse, we brought her home, gave her a larger dosage of breathing treatments than normal, and monitored her for an hour.  It didn't work, so we packed up to head to the Emergency Room.  We were really trying to avoid the ER and make it to the doctor first thing this morning instead, but the nurse really felt like it was the right thing to do, to make sure L's lungs were functioning properly and that she didn't have pneumonia.  

We were admitted relatively quickly, and several nurses examined L and told us that her lungs sounded clear and that it would probably just be a matter of a doctor coming in to examine her and then releasing us with instructions for extra breathing treatments until the cough cleared.  We still were happy that we went, if for nothing else than peace of mind.  However, it took literally almost 2 hours before we were able to see a doctor.  In hind sight, I'm glad that it took so long, because by the time the doctor got in to see us L's lungs were clearly blocked again.  It sounds like none of the nurses could hear anything because we'd given L a breathing treatment before we went to the hospital, which had temporarily cleared whatever blockage she has.  The doctor decided to give her a more advanced breathing treatment via a nebulizer (instead of the normal arch nemesis inhaler that we've had to use in the past at home) as well as a steroid and then reevaluate.  If there was no progress, they wanted to do a chest x-ray (Cue panic in Mommy and Daddy at the thought of a chest x-ray!).
I am not sure how, but L was in a surprisingly good mood although she did NOT like the device they put on her toe to monitor her oxygen levels.

Sad little hospital anklet.  And aforementioned oxygen monitoring device.

Cheeeeeese!

She was so sad about this breathing treatment.  She has become a pro at our home treatments, but this one was different.  She finally cooperated but had these huge crocodile tears rolling down her cheeks the entire time…it broke my heart.

Sad baby = sad mama and daddy, too!
Long story short, the breathing treatment and steroid seemed to clear everything up to the point where they were sure it was not pneumonia so we did not have to endure the chest x-ray.  I am so glad, because I'm not sure my nerves could have handled it.  They sent us home with a diagnosis of probable asthma (which she will hopefully grow out of!) and instructions for increased breathing treatments until her breathing and cough are both better.  They also told us to see her normal doctor on Tuesday to reevaluate since by that time the steroid would have had time to kick in.

L was such a trooper in the hospital, and I am so grateful because it could have been a lot worse, and we were all exhausted as it was.  We'd had a very busy weekend where she missed out on a lot of sleep (those of you who know my child know that she needs her sleep!) and she felt pretty crummy, and I was so relieved that she was cooperative.  She wooed all of the doctors and nurses with her charms, and every single person that came in to see her, whether it be nurse or doctor or even respiratory specialist, she called Dr. Vining (her ped).  It was hilarious.  "Dr. Vining put that on my toe."  "Dr. Vining gave me medicine."  "Dr. Vining gave me a popsicle."  Um nope actually that was a nurse/male doctor who looks nothing like Dr. Vining.  So funny!


Happy to get a popsicle to get rid of the nasty steroid taste.
We got home around 11:30 pm and L was asleep before I even put her in her bed.  She slept until around 9:45 this morning with no issues - her cough seemed to be much better overnight and that in combination with the fact that she was clearly exhausted made it a good night - I think I slept better than I have in months.  I wish I could say the same for today.  It was maybe the longest day I have ever had with her.  I am pretty proud of the patience that I demonstrated today because  normally I have a serious lack of patience, but I honestly don't ever remember a day like today.  Maybe I am mis-remembering, but I can't even remember a time when she was a baby where she just cried all day non-stop like she did today.  Dan came home early this afternoon to try to give me some relief, but of course she only wanted Mommy and he was quickly frustrated with the way she was acting (I don't blame him, I was on the verge of tears for most of the afternoon and just about at my wits end).  I didn't even get a break at nap time, because she really only slept for about 45 minutes before a coughing fit woke her up and she couldn't settle back down for sleep.  Thank God for Carney, who brought Kinsley over this afternoon and played with Lilly for around an hour and a half and it was a much needed break, not to mention really the only time all day that Lilly wasn't crying nonstop.

We have an appointment with L's doctor tomorrow at lunch time to check in and reevaluate.  Honestly I can't tell whether she's doing better because today was a rough one, but I'm not sure how much of that is due to exhaustion vs. feeling crappy.  Her cough actually sounds worse to me today than it did yesterday, and while her breathing is not quite as labored as it was yesterday, it still didn't seem back to normal today.  I am anxious for my baby girl to feel better!

I think that catches us up on the weekend.  I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with better news about L feeling better and being almost caught up on sleep and in a great mood (fingers crossed!), and a 35 week update!  "35 weeks' just gave me serious anxiety.  SERIOUSLY WHERE IS THE CRIB I ORDERED LAST MONTH AND WHY IS IT NOT HERE?!  At least our nursery construction is 99% complete.

Happy Monday!

Sarah


1 comment:

  1. Thinking about your family and sweet Lilly this week. Hope she's feeling better and letting y'all get a little break.

    ReplyDelete

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