Sicky pants

Oh man. I do have to say that the last 1-2 weeks have definitely been some of the hardest, longest, worst days I've had. Luckily I think we are finally through the thick of that one. Tanner and Harvey were both sick right before we had Greta. The first night in the hospital I started getting a sore throat. Dang. It. And then poor little unsuspecting new baby started getting a snotty, congested nose on day two of life. That was the worst of it while we were packing and moving. The Friday we left she started getting a cough that sounded pretty congested. It was really sad. And every time she'd cough, her little arms would flap up like a little puppet and it was so sad but a little bit funny/cute. Mostly sad though. 

Well all weekend she had the cough and hit and miss seemed to be getting worse. Monday morning (March 14) I asked Tanner and my dad to give her a blessing because it was not a good night. During the day she seemed mostly ok and I thought we might be on the up and up. We dropped Tanner off at the airport late afternoon and by the evening she just seemed so much worse. Such a terrible cough and she'd have fits where she really seemed to struggle with breathing. I had told myself if she didn't seem better by that night I would taker her to the doctor. I had been having difficulties with my medical brain vs mom brain in if I needed to take her in or not. We decided to start at insta care. I sent a text to two of the docs I worked with and said what was going on and they both thought we should go to an ER. We were already checked in and waiting at the insta care. This is where I had my first meltdown. I almost wasn't even going to taker her in and then I was being told she needed to go to an ER. I was worried and felt like a horrible mom. My parents both suggested Primary Children's so we headed up that way. They go right to a triage place so we didn't have to wait at all at first or get registered. They checked her vitals and oxygen sats and took us right back and the nurse called some code word on her walkie talkie thing and 2 seconds later there were 15 people in the room taking her clothes off and hooking her to a bunch of different machines etc. Major meltdown number 2. 

It. Was. Awful. Her sats were in the 80s. She was so sad. And mad. And so much mucousy gunk in her they had to keep suctioning. It was heartbreaking. I knew as soon as I saw her sats we wouldn't be leaving the hospital that night. The docs were great. They assumed it was viral and didn't do a chest X-ray or start IVs, etc. I was grateful for that. They ran a viral panel was all and she ended up being positive for RSV and rhinovirus. We had gotten to the ER about 9 and had to wait in there for awhile till they had the tests back and could get a room ready. They had been admitting respiratory issues in little kids like crazy so she was just joining the club. 

That picture breaks my heart again. And again. 

We finally got up to a room about 1am and it took the nurses and doc awhile to do what they needed and give me all the info I apparently needed. I was SOOO tired. I was so grateful I had my mom there though. She stayed the whole time till they got us all settled in. 

I finally got to fall asleep around 2:30 I think? And then there were plenty of interruptions starting early in the morning. That day we had lots of visitors. My mom came back and brought me some clothes and other things I needed. My sis in law Nat stopped by and brought Dr. Pepper :) 

My dad and sister and inlaws all came too which was just really nice. It made the day go by faster and the distractions helped me keep it together when I really didn't want to or think I could. She got put on high flow oxygen during the night cause she was retracting so bad. During the night and day there was some talk of her maybe needing NICU if she didn't do okay on that and also IVs potentially cause she really hadn't been eating that much. Luckily we were able to bypass all those. The high flow cords were kind of a pain but she did seem to breathe easier and the mucousy bubble spit up stuff seemed better too with it. 

Heather brought her that cute bunny!

Sorry lots of pics. She's just still so cute even with all the cords and tubes!

I got to check out the Ronald McDonald house there which was sweet. They provided a dinner that night. They had a sweet sitting area and computers and nap rooms and nice showers etc etc. Made me appreciate that in a different light. I luckily didn't get to or need to take full advantage of it. I was grateful to be at Primary's where they are tip top but it was also good (and sad) to be there because it sure put things in perspective. Not that what she had wasn't serious or scary or hard for me or any of that, but there are so so many other kids at that hospital that have FAR worse things and parents that endure much more challenging things and kids that won't ever get to go home. Ugh. Just hard stuff. 

That second night was miserable. I was exhausted and she didn't sleep good at all. Was very discontented and wouldn't settle. Luckily eventually the nurses helped out, took a rectal temp and helped her poop. We got a few solid hours after that. My friend Nikki, who we met in Williston, came to visit that morning. Again awesome to have the company. The docs were pleased with how she was doing. That second night they took her off the high flow oxygen and she was weaning off the O2 really great. They decided we could go home on oxygen. So we got all that set up and my parents came with Harvey to pick us up. 

She looks happy about it huh?

I'll try to wrap this up. Haha. We had an appointment for follow up that Friday (we left on a Wednesday). I was hoping she was gonna get off it then. But nope bdays still too low. It took two more visits (one the next Tuesday and one Friday the 25th) before her sats were good enough the doc felt like we could taker her off. It was obnoxious. Hard to help Harvey or do anything with her tethered to the wall. She had a cough still pretty bad all the way up until Wednesday/Thursday or this last week. It was just another hard week. Harv ended up with some new sickness and a fever for a couple days on top of it. Ugh. I slept on the couch every night since the condenser home health brought was hooked up upstairs. We had several really difficult nights with me being so so so tired, her not sleeping good, and Harvey having a few issues in the middle of the night of all inconvenient nights. Tanner made it back in time to go to the Friday appt to hear the good news. He's the good luck charm. He leaves, she goes to the hospital, he comes back, she gets off O2. I think he might not ever be able to leave again! We are so so grateful she is healthy and good again. It sucks that the first month of her life she was sick but grateful for her healthy-ness now! Here's a few plus pics of her modeling a nasal cannula. 

And even though she's cute with that on her, she's MUCH cuter without it!