Sickness and Circus

We caught a bug my sister's little boy had while we were in Seattle.  Kyra was the first to be hit, as usual.  Runny nose, cough, fever, congestion=not good sleep for her or mom.  Hayden went unscathed, but Taylee got very sick.  Her fever was pretty constant for 4 days, and it was about 102 so I finally decided to take her in to the doctor because she just wasn't shaking it.  She wouldn't eat well at all, and I could tell she was pretty dehydrated.  The doctor ordered a chest x-ray and then told us she had pneumonia and needed to be put in the hospital for 2-3 days.  I was in complete shock, so I was an emotional wreck, not because I was worried that Taylee was in danger, but we had planned to go to the temple that afternoon and spend the weekend with family.  Instead I spent it in the hospital with a sick baby.  Miserable. 

 She was such a sad looking baby.

For infants on an IV they have to reset the machine every hour, so every hour there is a loud annoying beep until they come and reset the IV.  Each nurse talked about trying to catch it before it went off, but they never did.  I had to call them every hour for 48 hours to come reset the machine.  Frustrating to say the least.  On top of that, she didn't sleep well at night because they wouldn't leave her alone.  One nurse insisted on weighing her at 3:30 in the morning despite my strong protest (they also strip infants down to nothing when they weigh them) so Taylee was up for good from then on.  

Luckily she bounced back quickly and when the doctor making rounds came in after one day I was hoping she would let us go home.  Taylee was hydrated and eating well, and that is the only boost I needed from them.  I could heal her better from home.   They said her oxygen levels hadn't been above 92 for long enough (aka through the night) to let her go.  I was mad, but what could I do?  Their plan for getting Taylee off of oxygen was so slow we would have been there another day or two except I finally insisted the nurse shut the oxygen off to see how she would do.  She was fine ALL NIGHT LONG, so for no good reason we had to stay in the hospital until the doctor made rounds the next day.  I respect the medical community for what they do and I admit they know things I don't, but in this instance the mother knew best.

 I'm better, get me out of here!   She actually pulled the oxygen out herself.

We were released on Sunday the 21st and Taylee is back to her happy chubby self.  Except for sleep.  They had her up so much at night that now she wakes up at least twice.  Add to that a 4th tooth coming in and nights are no bueno.  I would rather deal with this at home though, so I am just grateful we are here and not in a hospital room.  Doesn't time just seem to drag its feet, and real life seem so out of focus when you are confined in a room all day?  It felt like we were there a week.  Luckily my mother graciously kept the kids and it was the weekend so Dax could come hang out with us and keep me sane.  Glad it is behind us!

A few days later a friend from work offered Dax 3 tickets for the big top (aka circus), and he wasn't feeling well and we didn't want Taylee out and about yet, so I took Hayden and Kyra.  They had a blast.  Unfortunately we were a little late (we found out about the tickets like 10 minutes before the circus started, and the kids were in the tub at the time) so we missed the tigers, and Hayden still hasn't gotten over that.  Who does tigers as the first act of the circus??  We heard it was cool though.  Hayden says that would have been his favorite, but because we missed it his favorite part of the circus was seeing an elephant urinate.  Such a boy.  I will admit, it was very interesting. (pictures not working, so I will add them later.)