Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful Christmas with family and actually got a pretty good snow for us that started Christmas Day...that counts as a White Christmas, right?
Can't say that our New Year started off so happy...the Friday after Christmas I was leaving the doctor's office with a nebulizer and prednisone for Bryson and Ava. The breathing treatments seemed to help Bryson, but Ava continued to worsen. That Saturday night, Bryson went into a second night of screaming and pointing--from what we could tell, he seemed to be hallucinating or just going plain crazy. I was stressed and scared about that, and then I got too weak and jittery to hold my sweet boy--spoke with our pediatrician to confirm that it was probably a side effect of the prednisone for Bryson, and I was having a similar reaction to those of some inhalers I tried in high school from breathing the aderol while giving Bryson and Ava breathing treatments. We were thankfully able to knock Bryson out for the night with Benadryl, then I sat down in my room and told Ben I felt like I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, I had hit my limit...then spent the night trying to hold Ava upright in bed as she seemed to be struggling to breathe with every coughing spell. Ben went to church the next morning to open and usher, I got Emma ready for church and sent her with my parents, Bryson seemed to be happy and back to "normal", but Ava wouldn't wake. She would open her eyes a minute or two, so I changed her diaper and checked her temp. around 9:00. It was only 99, so I thought maybe she was just tired from not sleeping much. Two hours later, she still had not woken or played and fear really started creeping in, so I checked her temperature--102 then. I called the pediatrician who called right back very confused since I had the Bryson drama the night before...he agreed we should go on to ER and recommended we go to Levine Chidren's hospital and that we pack a bag in case they admitted us. I called my mom, who came right away and took Bryson while I packed and waited on Ben. That was definitely the most fearful time so far in my parenting journey.
The ER waiting room was good for us. We were not so thrilled about the slam packed room and had a hard time waiting when we were so worried our then 3 month old was fairly lifeless. I don't even remember now how long we were there, but while we were there, we saw a homicide case end with family being escorted out by social worker/counselor type women. My heart sank watching a dad barely able to hold himself up carrying nothing but a pink blanket--in fact, I am tearing up writing about it. Ben and I settled in to a little more patient waiting and gratefulness for whatever it was we were facing--had to be better than that! About 20 minutes later, a girl came running in with a baby in her arms, screaming, "I need help now, my baby's not breathing!". Seriously, I have never seen a baby that stiff and lifeless that was not a cheap baby doll. Again, we were counting our blessings. (I am pretty sure I passed that mother in the hallway after being admitted, so I assume that baby made it.) Not too long after all that, they took us back to triage and kept us back. Due to the nature of the illness and Ava's age, we moved up the priority list. Kinda' makes you feel better. Lots of waiting, monitoring, testing, and x-rays followed the next couple hours. Not so good to be ignorant parents watching your baby's oxygen levels struggle. Then, we got news that we were being admitted, bittersweet. Nice to know she would be monitored and my fearful nights at home were over, but never fun to hear that your baby is sick enough to be admitted to the hospital. And, I was sad I wasn't with my other 2 and that I didn't really get to tell them bye. As we were waiting to be admitted, they brought Ava a gift, what I like to refer to as her $6000 rattle. : ) Thanks to insurance, it didn't cost us quite that much. They were absolutely wonderful to us and our little Ava, and we could not have asked for better care or service! After we settled in, Ben and I were reminded of the many parents who aren't there so temporarily and those who are admitted knowing it's very unlikely they will ever take their child home.
My 3 days in the hospital were filled with lots of movies, chocolate milk, crangrape juice, texting and phone calls. It was nice to have some good one on one time with Ava too. Ben spent the 2nd night at home because Bryson woke up Sunday night at Mom and Dad's fairly inconsolable for several hours. DJ came up and spent a few hours with me, which was also wonderful one on one time! The shower was pretty miserable, as was the amount of junk food we ate, and the sleeping conditions weren't the greatest either, but Ava continually improved, and I got some down time which is RARE! Anyway, we were extremely grateful for healing and happy to be home.
Thankfully, we got home before Emma's 4th birthday! I was starting to worry they were going to keep us, and I wasn't going to be able to be with my baby on her birthday. I managed to get out and get her a gift so that we could celebrate her on her big day, January 6. On the 8th, she and her friend Linnea shared a frog birthday party at our house. Stephanie made the cutest frog cake, and we played some fun frog games and did some frog crafts. The kids seemed to have a good time, and there were definitely 2 very happy 4 year olds that day!