Audrey is 2 Years and 8 Months Old!

Our sweet Audrey beans is doing so well.  It's been a wild month so let's get right in it!

-We spent some time in Cincinnati in the middle of the month.  Audrey had an appointment with a renowned pediatric ENT surgeon to repair her laryngeal cleft.  We spent a super fun day exploring the Newport (KY) area and took Audrey to Build A Bear, the Cincinnati Zoo (she got to feed a giraffe-- so much fun!) and then showed up nice and early for her surgery the next day.  She stayed overnight at the hospital and we were discharged the next day.  Now begins the tedious task of weaning down her gel thickener as she learns to drink regular liquids.

 - She has made HUGE strides with potty training this week-- earning lots of Little Debbie cakes (we call them PooPoo Cakes-- she earns one for every time she poops in the potty!)  She is so proud of herself! She is nearly completely potty trained now and we are so happy for her- she is wonderful.

 - We spend lots and lots of time looking out the window for bugs and birds.  She is very interested in birds but the bugs make her scared....either way it's a very dramatic and very entertaining reaction when she sees either one!

 -We have spent a lot of time outside as well- wandering around, dancing, etc.  We are hardly inside at all anymore- so happy for warmer weather!

 - We headed to the beach for a week of vacation- so needed!  The girls LOVED Ripley's Aquarium and getting to swim for hours every day. 

 - We've spent lots of time unclothed as well (well, she has- I like to wear clothes haha).  We find Audrey buck naked more often than not...such a funny kiddo.  :)

Audrey- Surgery Update

Paul spoke to the doctor yesterday-- called his office as it had been almost 10 days since her surgery and we hadn't heard anything (and I think he got tired of me asking).  It turns out the physician in Cincinnati didn't ever respond about Audrey's results (didn't I SAY that was going to happen??) and so he consulted a peds ENT who just recently left our area (the one we would have used in the first place, had he still been here). 

The news is not good/not bad.  Apparently she does not *quite* meet the specifications for a Type 1 Laryngeal Cleft, as we initially thought.  He (peds ENT) thinks that she will simply grow out of it and we should continue on with life as usual (so thickening all drinks, monitoring her closely during baths and swimming, etc). 

 I would be lying if I said I was not disappointed.  Believe me-- it's NOT that I wanted her to have another surgery. I didn't.  But I DID want to have this problem fixed once and for all.  Waiting this out, however long it may be, is sort of torturous.  She misses out on things because of this- I won't send her to places where I am not 100% sure that she will be monitored closely.  For instance, my good friend Andrea invited Audrey to go to summer day camp a few days/ week over in Huntington with Andrea's girls...and I said no because I just can't let her go someplace like that yet.  She is supposed to go to Emily's preschool 2 days/ week starting this fall and I am not sure if I will let her go if it's still happening.  The risk is simply too great for her to get access to someone else's cup, or to be given an unthickened liquid.  It's not that anyone is "out to get her" or something like that-- usually it's a well-meaning person who simply doesn't want her to be thirsty...and so they fill up her cup with water, or juice, or whatever...and she chokes and gags and potentially aspirates, which could lead to pneumonia (again).  It is so frustrating! And we just booked that trip to Great Wolf Lodge and I am pretty sure she won't be able to go there with us since an accidental ingestion is almost certain to occur at a water park.  :( That will make 2 vacations now that we haven't brought her on this year, and I feel really guilty about that...but there is no way she can safely go to a water park and have a problem with swallowing, you know?

 I did ask Paul how long the ENT thinks we will have to wait for her to "grow out of this" and he said that the doctor offered no time frame for it at all.  We were already told it would be by the time she turned 1, which obviously wasn't true.  I know that no one has a crystal ball but I hate that we didn't really get an answer out of the study. :( And I hate that this is so open-ended and we have no end in sight for the gel.  I am very discouraged. 

 Nevertheless, I am very happy that she was fine during the surgery, and I guess I'm sort of relieved that we aren't facing some risky procedure to fix it.  BUT...... I still wish we had some answers.

Audrey- Swallowing Surgery

Today sweet Audrey had a surgery done at our hospital to see if we can pinpoint the root of her swallowing problem.  In case you need to be caught up, Audrey aspirates thin liquids (that is, basically any liquid that we have not thickened with her gel thickener) up into her nose/ airway and also down into her lungs.  She has had 3 swallow studies done that have shown us this occurring.  The purpose of the surgery today was to have her esophagus examined using an endoscope and to take biopsies of her esophagus to see if she has damage from acid reflux.

We arrived at the hospital at 6:45 and got checked in.  Poor Audrey couldn't have anything to eat or drink and she was not very happy about that.  We walked around and waited in the waiting area until they called us back.  We were visited by the anesthesia team and also by Dr G, who was doing her surgery.  They gave her some liquid versed and she started to calm down.  She actually got pretty funny-- looking at her hands all weird and giggling a lot.  I think it would be a very handy substance to have on hand when we have to fly with the girls, just saying. ;)

Finally she was calmed down enough for them to come and take her.  I was very upset and didn't really want to let her go, but obviously we needed answers so I handed her off.  She took her Piggy Pig that she always sleeps with and headed back to the OR with a really nice nurse.

We waited about 40 minutes or so (I have no idea...it felt like 350 years!) and finally Dr G came out to us.  He showed us some images he had taken during the surgery and explained things.  Apparently she is right on the cusp of having something called a Type 1 Laryngeal Cleft, although he's not quite sure her defect is big enough to warrant surgery to fix it.  He wants to consult with a physician in Cincinnati about her case before he makes any recommendations.  He said she did great during the surgery and there were no complications.  We thanked him and went back to the waiting room to wait on Audrey.

After a little while longer they called us.  We had no sooner gotten within about 20 feet of the doors to the recovery area when I heard her SCREAMING bloody murder. I pushed past the nurse who was waiting for us and turned into Mother Bear... I scooted back to where she was and there was a team of nurses crowded around her.  Audrey's poor voice was crackly and straining and she was in full-on freak out mode...she has never cried so long or so hard.  It turns out that they had to give her IV Tylenol and had not done it before she woke up.  Apparently it has to be administered through the IV at a certain rate and was going to take 15 minutes to give to her.  So, the nurses were trying to control her, keep her still, prevent her from ripping out the IV, give the Tylenol, give her the paci she kept losing from crying/yelling so much....it was a disaster.  My poor little baby was just losing it. I picked her up and tried my best to hold her still and help the nurses.  Finally the 15 minutes was over and they removed the IV (more screaming).  She wouldn't let them put a band aid on it so I had to try to hold a piece of gauze on her... pointless.  She was flailing around so much, she just couldn't seem to get calmed down at all.  They had originally told Paul that she would have to stay in recovery until she drank something but they didn't make us wait that long- they basically gave Paul the checkout information and said, "If you're good, we're good..."...pretty much so nonverbally begging us to get this crazy crying baby OUT of recovery.  I can't imagine how hard it was for the other recovering patients to listen to her crying so much!  It was hard on everyone.

Paul and I took her to the car and I put her in her carseat and just waited with her for a while.  She was so drowsy and fell asleep on the way home.  Once we got home she wanted to play but she was way too wobbly to do anything.  I eventually just had to lie her in her crib and she fell asleep in just a few minutes.  I was worried about her but she just needed to rest a lot to get feeling better.

She slept for about 2 hours and then woke up STARVING.  Remember that she hadn't had anything since around 7pm the night before- so this was 17 hours of nothing to eat or drink.  That baby ate like nobody's business!!!! She had tons of food and drink...I seriously wondered if she was ever going to stop eating! She took another nap after we played for a while (she wasn't wobbly anymore after the first nap) and when she woke up after the second nap I felt like it would be OK for me to leave her and go to the dance recital that Emily was in that night.  It seemed crazy to leave a baby who had just had minor surgery but honestly, you couldn't tell at all that anything was different.  I was so glad she was feeling better and I didn't have to choose between which child to support tonight!   Now we wait to hear something back from the physician.  Hoping for good news, and maybe a cause as to what's causing her to aspirate.

PS- No photos with this update. I didn't think it was appropriate for me to be taking photos in the hospital, and I wanted to be "present" with Audrey- not trying to get a good shot.  I know you understand. :)

Audrey is 13 Months Old!

This last month has just flown by!  Audrey is getting bigger, better, and more precious with each passing day.  Here's what life is like with her right now:

- she continues to do well with the regular liquids. I am still slightly thickening juice when she gets it, but over this next month I'm going to try to wean down how much it is thickened.  She is drinking organic whole milk with no thickening agent and doing great with it!

- she drinks her juice and/or water through a straw sippy cup, but is still taking a bottle for milk/bedtime.  I know, I know....I am not ready for her to give it up! She is still my tiny baby...sort of.  I'm planning to work on this this month, too...reluctantly. ;)


- she has 2 words, "dada/daddy" and "dog" (gog).  I am so proud of her word skills!  She is babbling ALL the time now- she goes on and on, we just have no idea what she's talking about yet. I love hearing her little voice.

- she can stand up on her own after pulling up on something, and she is working on getting herself into standing from the sitting/crawling position.  It's really funny to watch because sometimes she'll practice the legs part and have her hands down and be bouncing her bottom up and down in the air.  Other times she's practicing the arms part so she'll get into a crouching position and be throwing her arms in the air.  I'm sure it will come together for her soon, but for now...very entertaining! :)

The diaper + those stripes = wardrobe fail...her tiny butt looks HUGE!! 

- she is still so very cuddly.  She will gladly sit in my lap or let me hold her whenever I want to. I love this so much!

- she shakes her head "no" when I tell her no.  Also, she will go near something that I have said "no" about (like an electrical outlet or the vacuum) and reach her arm out and then shake her head "no" like she's telling herself...it's too funny!

- she brings me things if I ask her to (i.e., she was holding a hanger the other day and I put out my hand and said, "Give it to Mommy, please" and she crawled over and handed it to me.  Smart girl!

- she has started to jump a little in her bed, which cracks us up completely.  You may remember one other girl we know who jumped in her bed CONSTANTLY...

- she claps her hands and laughs whenever anyone seems happy or excited- it is so precious!

- she got sick this last week, the first sickness really since her diagnosis of swallowing dysphasia in February.  She has croup but has handled it really well.  I hate that we exposed the other kids in my Moms group but I'm sure it's not the first time the kids will get exposed to something this winter.  She has been a trooper through the illness.

- she is obsessed with my tongue and teeth...her hands are always in there.  Tonight we were in Playroom with Emily and I was sitting on the floor. Audrey came over, ripped open my mouth and shoved her hand in there and laughed so hard.  Then I took her hand out and she full-on screamed at me...whoa, Nellie!   I thought she was supposed to be more easygoing?!?! ;)

- I think we're in a big growth spurt- we had an unexpected trip to the doctor this week (see above) and she has grown 1/2 a pound and 1/2 an inch since her appointment on September 6!  Her feet are finally growing too-- hallelujah!!

- she loves to play in the playroom with all the stand up toys...loves it. As soon as we start up the stairs she gets so squealy and excited- I love it!

- we finally did her cake smash photos...only 4 weeks late for her first birthday, ha!  She definitely was happy to eat more cake, even if we did have to quit early due to windy conditions.  

Thanks for checking in on my sweet little lady! 

UNhappy Baby!

Poor Audrey is a mess right now.  For the past few days she has been having a tough time- lots of tears and fussing, which is completely abnormal for her.  Well, last night she fussed for almost 90 minutes (off and on) before Paul and I gave up and let her get up.  She laughed, cooed, smiled, etc at us and we figured she was just acting up a bit (she had been in WV with my in laws over the weekend and got a little spoiled, sleeping in arms, etc.)  We tried to put her down and she got SO upset- we're talking inconsolable crying...so atypical for our little girl.  Finally she gave up and we went to bed.


Or so we THOUGHT she gave up.  She woke up, as usual, around 2:30am and I gave her a bottle and put her back to bed.  Paul and I have both been suffering from some insomnia...tons of stress in our lives right now...so I was lying there, not sleeping, when she started crying again.  And again.  And again...until it was 4:30 and we STILL had not gone back to bed (by this point I had sent Paul to the guest room to sleep since he is on call for everything--adults, peds, rehab-- tonight).  I went downstairs and requested a substitute teacher for the morning since there was just NO way I could teach all day if my day started at 2:30.  She finally slept around 5 and I slept with her in my bed...until 6:15, when Emily woke up.  I. Was. Exhausted.!! I never really got anymore sleep and we just got up and got ready for the day. 

In the morning, when I was getting ready to go to work, Jamey called and said that Audrey seemed like she might have an earache (fyi, Emily has NEVER had one, so I had no idea what to look for).  Paul was able to take her in to the pediatrician this morning and she has a slight ear infection but the doctor was mostly thinking this is all caused by teething...apparently poor Audrey's gums are super inflamed and she expects us to see multiple teeth any day now.  Honestly....this is one time it's ok to not be an overachiever, lol!  Although I guess if she gets a few at once it means we deal with this for less time....

At any rate...I am beat.  Just wanted to put this on the blog for posterity's sake...someday we'll look back on this and remember how hard it was to have young children and constantly have interrupted sleep.  But for now...I'm going to bed. :)

Baby's First Hospitalization

We've had quite a rough couple of days with poor Audrey.  As I mentioned in her Monthly Update, she has been sick again recently.  Over last weekend, she would have periods of looking rough- lots of retracting, grunting, tugging, etc., but then it would sort of get a little better and we wouldn't feel AS worried. We specifically noticed a huge decline in her appearance and heightened breathing trouble after she would drink her bottle. However, we decided to go ahead and send her to Miss Jamey on Monday since she appeared to be better on Monday morning.

On Monday afternoon Jamey let us know that Audrey wasn't looking very good and so Paul called and got her an appointment with our pediatrician.  He took her in and she received a breathing treatment (albuterol) to see if she couldn't do better.  Her pulse oxygen level was in the high 80s...normal is close to 100.  Our pediatrician observed her for a while and decided she needed to go to the emergency department at the hospital to be assessed there.  Around this time I was getting out of work and called Paul, who told me what was happening.  I quickly called my in-laws to come down and help us, and called Jamey to see if Emily could go over there for a little while while we took Audrey to the hospital.  Luckily it worked out that my in-laws could make it and Jamey was a saint and allowed Emily to come play over there too.  We were (and are!) so grateful to all of them.

I met Paul at the hospital and we were seen by the peds residents and attendings.  Audrey was checked for RSV and the flu and tested negative for both of them.  She had a chest x ray and it was found that she has a pneumonia in one of her lungs. At this point we started talking about doing a barium test on her to rule out any malformations in her digestive tract or esophagus, and a swallowing study to see what was causing her to have such trouble breathing after she eats.  Unfortunately, neither of those tests is available in the middle of the night (well, probably if it's an emergency they are but this wasn't an emergency), so she got admitted.  We headed up the the 6th floor around 10:30 and got settled.  Paul went home and got me some clothes, my contacts case, toothbrush, etc., and then I sent him home to get some sleep. 

I stayed with Audrey and she was very uncomfortable.  Her O2 sats kept going around 90-91, which was better, but still not good.  Between her machines beeping, vital signs every hour, the helicopter landing, etc, I think I slept around 2 hours!  It was such a long night!  Thankfully in the morning Paul came and brought me some breakfast (for whatever reason, the food at the hospital is kind of crummy, but their breakfast is amazing!  I was so glad to be there for that meal, lol).  After breakfast the team rounded on Audrey and told us that they had ordered the barium and swallowing studies so we could be getting ready for that.  We headed upstairs and waited just a little while before the tests began.

First was the upper GI x ray... for this one they had her drink 2 ounces of a barium solution and then x rayed her while she drank it.  She liked the drink but HATED being confined to the x ray table- as with all babies, she had to be velcroed to a board with her arms over her head...definitely NOT her favorite position for sure!  The x ray showed that she didn't have any malformations but that she DOES definitely have reflux-- we watched the solution go down, down, down into her tummy and then some of it came right back up into her esophagus.  She was already receiving Zantac for that so we will just keep on giving her that.  She had 2 more of these x rays throughout the day to make sure she has no intestinal problems and everything looked clear and normal- so thank Heavens for that!

Next was the swallowing study.  She was put in a little carseat-like chair and they took xray video of her drinking a variety of different fluid consistencies (all with barium for contrast).  THIS was the test that gave us our answer!  It turns out that when she is drinking plain formula or breastmilk- consistency liquid, she is aspirating fluid up into her nasal cavity (causing her chronic runny nose and congestion) and also into her lungs (causing her frequent upper respiratory infections AND the pneumonia that was discovered the night before).  The test was AMAZING- to see her swallowing everything and aspirating some of the liquid.   speech pathologist was conducting the test and she was SO nice and gave us so much information...but I was just so impressed with how well she did her job.  My highly untrained eyes were missing the aspirations so she slowed down the playback and pointed them out...we're talking like a SPECK of white on an x ray film and she was catching that every time.  We experimented with a lot of different consistencies and finally got the right mixture for Audrey to successfully swallow-- something called "nectar thick". 

Basically, we have to add a gel thickener to all her bottles to ensure that she doesn't aspirate the fluid anymore.  We ordered the gel stuff (it's super expensive AND not covered by insurance...AWESOME!) and the hospital gave us a bunch of samples to use until that arrives.  I can attest to how much of a difference this stuff is making already- just the first few bottles she's had have been entirely different than her usual feeding behavior!  She is still coughing a little and sputtering after she eats but that probably has more to do with the fact that she definitely has pneumonia and the attending yesterday said she believes she's fighting a virus right now too.  Poor girl!  But just in the past day she has improved so much... we are so thankful for all the resources that are at the hospital here that helped her to get diagnosed.  It's so wild to think that this swallowing problem has accounted for most of her illnesses this winter!   We are so relieved to have an ANSWER and to know that she's not just some sickly little kid who catches everything she gets exposed to.  We are definitely looking forward to her getting better and being so much more comfortable when she eats.  Thank goodness for modern medicine!

Baby's First Sick Visit

Hi friends! We are experiencing Baby First Sickness right now!  I took Audrey to the pediatrician on Saturday AM because she had had another rough night of coughing, congestion, etc.  She was diagnosed with "prolonged upper respiratory infection" and given a 10 day supply of amoxicillin which we started that night.  Pedi was NOT concerned about her potentially having RSV or anything more serious than the upper res infection.  She perked right up on the amoxil and is doing perfectly now- hasn't been suctioned in 2 days!! :)  Looks like she is handling her first cold very well...I am SO thankful!  Of course, you can't tell she wasn't feeling well...she has the nicest disposition of any baby I've ever known!! 

   Also....that sweet baby is upstairs taking a nap UNswaddled...she's in a sleep sack!!  We are practicing a little every day to try to wean away from the swaddle blanket.  Oh, and as if that weren't enough, this morning she grabbed a toy and brought it to her mouth!!!!! SLOW DOWN, SISTER!  She is growing way too quick.

Hospital Trip....Again.

Just wanted to update you all on Miss Emily. We have had an eventful weekend! Friday, she spent the entire beautiful day playing outside. Saturday, she woke up with a very runny, nasty nose and had a nagging cough, but nothing serious. We attributed her fussiness to playing outside and getting exposed to all kinds of pollen (we found out Saturday that the pollen count that day was the highest it has been ALL YEAR!) We basically hung around the house and did our best to soothe/console her. She is also getting her incisor teeth right now so we were not sure if her teeth were hurting, she had a cold, or was battling allergies.

Sunday morning, she woke up extremely sick. She kind of laid around the house, not really playing (totally out of character for her) and around 10am I put her in the shower with me, thinking the steam might help break up the mucous all in her chest and nose. When we got her out of the shower she took a fast turn for the worst-- she was breathing very fast, working hard to breathe, and her heart rate was very high. We tried treating her with her albuterol inhaler but it didn't seem to do the trick, so we packed her up and took her to the ER.

When we got her to the ER she was listless and looked bad, but not horrible. They hooked her up to the pulse oximeter and we discovered her pulse/ox was 77...normal is upper 90s to 100, so 77 is pretty bad, especially for a baby. The triage nurse even said the words, "Has she ever been intubated before?" My heart fell out of my chest and I got super upset but tried to hold it together so she wouldn't get scared. Her heart rate was in the 190s and she was breathing upwards of 60 times per minute- practically panting. We got into a treatment room and they started working on her FAST. She got a dose of steroids, a chest Xray, got another strong treatment of albuterol, and was put on 2L of oxygen. Slowly her stats began to improve. (She did not get intubated this trip, thank you Lord!)

We got admitted because she was oxygen dependent and her stats were not good enough to try to wean her off. It was a very long night. The poor thing was so tired (she had no nap on Saturday OR Sunday!) but she was so sweet and good natured through the whole thing, even when she was scared. One thing that was sort of funny was that she would talk to the doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists and greet them when they came in the room with a big, "Hello!" but then as soon as they would start working on her she would yell, "Bye bye!" like she was telling them they had overstayed their welcome and should leave. It was hysterical!

I stayed overnight with her and Paul went home and tried to sleep. He ended up coming back to the hospital about 3am because he couldn't sleep with us there. Together we slept on about a 2.5 foot bench/sofa thing in her room...I have slept in many places that were more comfortable! She didn't need any additional albuterol treatments overnight and her stats were looking much better by this morning.

The overall diagnosis is that she has asthma (even though she is still too young for the 'official' diagnosis). Her case was reviewed by a world-renowned pediatric pulmonologist today (he writes textbooks on peds pulmonology) and he said even though they are supposed to be 2 years old (she is 18 months tomorrow!) that this "looks like asthma, reacts like asthma, is exacerbated by allergies like asthma"....so he is calling it asthma. Hopefully the addition of FloVent to her daily routine will help us from having to go to the hospital with this anymore. It is terribly hard to have her in there, caged up like a little animal. Not to mention that she is a very busy girl and does not love the hospital crib one bit! We see her pediatrician on May 10 for her 18 month appt and hopefully we'll be able to discuss the effects of the FloVent on her from now until then.

Anyway, just wanted to clear the air and let everyone know the "rest of the story". She is doing much better now- when we left today her oxygen sat was in the high 90-100 range on room air (she's been off oxygen since about 9am). Thanks for keeping her in your thoughts and being concerned. We are very happy and relieved to have her home with us tonight and feeling so much better.

Asthma

We noticed Emmy coughing and having a lot of runny nose and sneezing on Sunday night but didn’t think much of it. When she woke up yesterday morning she was snotty and crabby but seemed to feel better after breakfast so we went ahead and sent her to Jamey's so she could play-- all morning she had been saying "Dee Dee!" (Jamey's son) so we knew she wanted to go over there. We gave her a breathing treatment before we sent her and then took her over. Paul and I were at lunch when we got a call from Jamey saying Emily was very fussy and seemed to be breathing hard. As soon as we could we went back to her house- her sister in law was there (Jamey had an OB appointment) and Emily was having a SUPER hard time breathing- tugging, grunting, pulling, breathing really fast (over 60x/min) and felt hot like she had a fever. We called the pediatrician and begged them to get us in, which they did. We took her over and they wanted to watch her and give her breathing treatments and also oral steroids. Her pulse/ox was 80 (good is 100) but we were having a hard time getting a good reading so we weren’t sure about whether to believe that. Her temp was 100.1. They watched her there for 2 hours and weren’t satisfied with how she looked so they sent us on to the ER.

When we go to the ER they checked her pulse/ox again and it was 89. Her heart rate was close to the 200s but albuterol can increase it so they weren't super concerned about that. She had to be strapped down to the board again for a chest Xray which later came back clear. They put her on 1L of oxygen but later cut it back to 1/2 a liter and then turned it off completely. We got the "official diagnosis" that she is most likely asthmatic and we will need to have an inhaler with us, or readily available, at all times (like, we don't have to take it every single place we go but we should always have the prescription filled and have it in a place where we can find it or get to it easily, and take it with us if we are traveling out of town or something). She was treated and released from the ER last night and I stayed home with her today. I already took her to the pediatrician for her follow up and saw a different doc than yesterday who said she looks much better but to stay the course and do the albuterol every 4 hours until this evening and also to finish out the 4 days of steroids they had us get.


I don't really know how I feel about all this- I am disappointed to have the 'sick kid' but I'm hopeful that asthma meds have gotten so much better now that she will be able to live a normal life. I hate to see her in the hospital but I hate even more that we will have to be vigilant with her and exposure to allergens, etc. . Most of all, I just hope she gets completely better. The doctor today said most kids have a 50/50 chance of outgrowing the wheezing and airway issues by age 5 but when I told him Paul is asthmatic and Emmy already has excema he seemed less confident that Emily would outgrow it. I guess we will have to see!! For now I am just relieved that she was able to be treated and released and that she is her same wild self today.

FINALLY feeling better!

After nearly 3 weeks of being sick, Emily is FINALLY feeling better! What a long Christmas break/vacation time (for Paul) we have had! Emily had viral bronchiolitis, a bad cold, and double ear infection! In addition to the ear infection, she was completely unable to hold down food for 5 straight days and lost a full pound....talk about stressed-out Mommy and Daddy! Thank goodness she is finally better and back to her old self. That is one 3-week span I do NOT want to relive!

Baby's First ER Visit!

Emily and I have been fighting a nasty cold for about the past week. On Saturday morning at about 230a I woke up and checked on her-- she had been extremely fussy and was having a lot of difficulty breathing due to excessive congestion and a plugged up nose. When I went in her room I found her sleeping, but breathing very rapidly-- about once per second-- and very sweaty. I woke Paul up because she didn’t seem “right” to me. He looked at her briefly and decided that yes, she needed to go to the Emergency Department. All along he was thinking she would need an Albuterol breathing treatment but of course we didn’t have the Albuterol nor the spacer to administer it....so, off we hurried in the middle of the night.


When we got to the ED she was seen very quickly (thank Heavens!) Her oxygen saturation was only in the low 80s (good is 90+, great is 100%). Also, she had a fever of 102. She was breathing about 60x per minute (my previous estimate had been right on). In addition, her heart rate was between 170-190 bpm...pretty fast, even for a baby. They took her back to a room and gave her a nasal cannula with 1 liter of oxygen. She hated the cannula-- I cannot say this enough! She tried so many times to tear it off! Then she was examined by the Peds resident on call that night, who said she sounded congested and had low O2 sats and possibly had RSV. At this point, I started getting very scared. People were talking in hushed tones, Paul thought he heard the term “rapid response” which is another way of saying “intubation” and that really freaked me out. All I could think about was how much she had been out with other people recently- traveling, going to the mall, playing with other kids, etc. Last year around this time we were practically quarantined trying to NOT get RSV. The only good thing was that this year, she would be 14 months old battling RSV instead of 8 weeks.


I held her tightly and tried to console her-- anytime someone came near her she just cried and cried. She was so confused about being up in the middle of the night, being bothered with wires and weird people coming to listen to her, touch her, take her temperature rectally (she is definitely NOT fond of that...who would be?!) I kept rocking her and it seemed like she would finally fall asleep, only to have a machine start beeping, or someone come in to look at her, etc. So annoying and stressful! At one point she had to have a screening done for RSV- this involved sliding a flexible-tipped syringe up inside her nose and withdrawing a sample of mucous...I don’t have to tell you how much she hated this. Poor muffin. Also, a respiratory therapist came and gave her an albuterol breathing treatment, which, while very traumatizing for Emmy, provided instant relief. She could breathe bigger breaths, her heart rate slowed down, and her O2 sats came up to the 90+ area. Big relief.


Once the RSV and influenza screens came back (both negative, hooray!) we were admitted to the pediatrics floor of the hospital.

(We had to wait for the screening to come back so they would know if we needed to be in Isolation or not-- it turns out that there Isolation sign was hung on her doorway anyway, even though both screen came back negative). She rode in my lap in a wheelchair up to the 8th floor. We got her settled into her room at about 5am and she was seen by a few more doctors and nurses. All during this time she was eating, drinking, making wet/dirty diapers, etc.


Around 10 I left to go let the dogs out and get that poor girl some toys-- all I had grabbed before we left was her “Silky”, a small satin/velour blanket thing that she sleeps with. When I got back to the hospital she had been lowered to 1/2 liter of O2 and had pulled her cannula over to really her cheek area, not anywhere near her nose. Then the docs decided that she could try no oxygen at all, and she kept her sats up around the 94-100 mark on room air which was so relieving.


She was served a tray of Inedible Delights for lunch so Paul’s mom Jane (Granny) went down to the cafeteria and got her a grilled cheese sandwich, which she picked at. She MUCH preferred the ice cream that was on her tray, but I only gave her a few little bites (maybe 2-3 tsp total) because it was only the second time in her life to have ice cream and I was afraid she would get sick from it.


She finally took a 1 hour nap (keep in mind, we had all been up since 2am!) but was back jumping up and down in the metal crib shortly after. The nurses kept coming in and saying, “What is she doing? It must be the albuterol-- it can make them hyper” but we just laughed and said that jumping in her crib is just what she does! Albuterol had nothing to do with it!


Around 3pm I had the nurses page the on call resident again- I really didn’t see any reason for her to stay in the hospital where she obviously couldn’t rest if she was having good saturations, her heart rate had slowed, and she was eating/drinking/making dirty diapers. Luckily for us, the resident completely agreed and discharged us. At 3 the respiratory therapist returned and gave her albuterol treatment #3 and we were home by 4pm. I figured she would go right to sleep in the car and I would put her to bed very early, but when we got home she was up and ready to play again! Can you believe that? So, we played with her and kept her up until 6pm, at which time she had a quick bath, cup, and bed. She jumped in her crib until about 6:15 (seriously....I wish we could bottle up her energy and sell it!) and then I didn’t hear another peep from her room until 6:30am the NEXT morning! I went to bed at 6:30 (also exhausted from a very long day!) and, aside from going in to check on her 4-5 times during the night, slept completely uninterrupted until she got up at 6:30 Sunday. Bliss!


Today (Monday) we took her to see her regular pediatrician for a follow up visit. She said Emily looks great but still is congested. She said not to use the albuterol “just because”-- to save it for when she really does need a treatment. We had brought it with us just in case she needed it but the doctor said she was OK. We are so glad to have her home and (sort of) healthy. I don’t want to go back to the ED for a long, long time!

Baby's First ER Visit!

Emily and I have been fighting a nasty cold for about the past week. On Saturday morning at about 230a I woke up and checked on her-- she had been extremely fussy and was having a lot of difficulty breathing due to excessive congestion and a plugged up nose. When I went in her room I found her sleeping, but breathing very rapidly-- about once per second-- and very sweaty. I woke Paul up because she didn’t seem “right” to me. He looked at her briefly and decided that yes, she needed to go to the Emergency Department. All along he was thinking she would need an Albuterol breathing treatment but of course we didn’t have the Albuterol nor the spacer to administer it....so, off we hurried in the middle of the night.


When we got to the ED she was seen very quickly (thank Heavens!) Her oxygen saturation was only in the low 80s (good is 90+, great is 100%). Also, she had a fever of 102. She was breathing about 60x per minute (my previous estimate had been right on). In addition, her heart rate was between 170-190 bpm...pretty fast, even for a baby. They took her back to a room and gave her a nasal cannula with 1 liter of oxygen. She hated the cannula-- I cannot say this enough! She tried so many times to tear it off! Then she was examined by the Peds resident on call that night, who said she sounded congested and had low O2 sats and possibly had RSV. At this point, I started getting very scared. People were talking in hushed tones, Paul thought he heard the term “rapid response” which is another way of saying “intubation” and that really freaked me out. All I could think about was how much she had been out with other people recently- traveling, going to the mall, playing with other kids, etc. Last year around this time we were practically quarantined trying to NOT get RSV. The only good thing was that this year, she would be 14 months old battling RSV instead of 8 weeks.


I held her tightly and tried to console her-- anytime someone came near her she just cried and cried. She was so confused about being up in the middle of the night, being bothered with wires and weird people coming to listen to her, touch her, take her temperature rectally (she is definitely NOT fond of that...who would be?!) I kept rocking her and it seemed like she would finally fall asleep, only to have a machine start beeping, or someone come in to look at her, etc. So annoying and stressful! At one point she had to have a screening done for RSV- this involved sliding a flexible-tipped syringe up inside her nose and withdrawing a sample of mucous...I don’t have to tell you how much she hated this. Poor muffin. Also, a respiratory therapist came and gave her an albuterol breathing treatment, which, while very traumatizing for Emmy, provided instant relief. She could breathe bigger breaths, her heart rate slowed down, and her O2 sats came up to the 90+ area. Big relief.


Once the RSV and influenza screens came back (both negative, hooray!) we were admitted to the pediatrics floor of the hospital.

(We had to wait for the screening to come back so they would know if we needed to be in Isolation or not-- it turns out that there Isolation sign was hung on her doorway anyway, even though both screen came back negative). She rode in my lap in a wheelchair up to the 8th floor. We got her settled into her room at about 5am and she was seen by a few more doctors and nurses. All during this time she was eating, drinking, making wet/dirty diapers, etc.


Around 10 I left to go let the dogs out and get that poor girl some toys-- all I had grabbed before we left was her “Silky”, a small satin/velour blanket thing that she sleeps with. When I got back to the hospital she had been lowered to 1/2 liter of O2 and had pulled her cannula over to really her cheek area, not anywhere near her nose. Then the docs decided that she could try no oxygen at all, and she kept her sats up around the 94-100 mark on room air which was so relieving.


She was served a tray of Inedible Delights for lunch so Paul’s mom Jane (Granny) went down to the cafeteria and got her a grilled cheese sandwich, which she picked at. She MUCH preferred the ice cream that was on her tray, but I only gave her a few little bites (maybe 2-3 tsp total) because it was only the second time in her life to have ice cream and I was afraid she would get sick from it.


She finally took a 1 hour nap (keep in mind, we had all been up since 2am!) but was back jumping up and down in the metal crib shortly after. The nurses kept coming in and saying, “What is she doing? It must be the albuterol-- it can make them hyper” but we just laughed and said that jumping in her crib is just what she does! Albuterol had nothing to do with it!


Around 3pm I had the nurses page the on call resident again- I really didn’t see any reason for her to stay in the hospital where she obviously couldn’t rest if she was having good saturations, her heart rate had slowed, and she was eating/drinking/making dirty diapers. Luckily for us, the resident completely agreed and discharged us. At 3 the respiratory therapist returned and gave her albuterol treatment #3 and we were home by 4pm. I figured she would go right to sleep in the car and I would put her to bed very early, but when we got home she was up and ready to play again! Can you believe that? So, we played with her and kept her up until 6pm, at which time she had a quick bath, cup, and bed. She jumped in her crib until about 6:15 (seriously....I wish we could bottle up her energy and sell it!) and then I didn’t hear another peep from her room until 6:30am the NEXT morning! I went to bed at 6:30 (also exhausted from a very long day!) and, aside from going in to check on her 4-5 times during the night, slept completely uninterrupted until she got up at 6:30 Sunday. Bliss!


Today (Monday) we took her to see her regular pediatrician for a follow up visit. She said Emily looks great but still is congested. She said not to use the albuterol “just because”-- to save it for when she really does need a treatment. We had brought it with us just in case she needed it but the doctor said she was OK. We are so glad to have her home and (sort of) healthy. I don’t want to go back to the ED for a long, long time!

Sick Day

Poor Miss Emily has her first real illness- a vomiting/diarrhea bug! I actually had to take a sick day today to stay home with this little lady. She is very clingy and only wants me to hold (but only while I’m standing up...no sitting allowed!) She took a 2 hour nap this morning and is just waking up. Let’s hope she feels better soon! Poor muffin.