Lewis Family: Thankful

Friday, December 14, 2012

Thankful

Sometimes I get caught up in thinking about little things what's not good- like the kids arguing, the house being a mess, .. then things get harder and I realize again how very much we have to be thankful for. An amazing God, a wonderful husband, terrific kids, loving family, ...

I'm so thankful for everything about baby C's birth. God took care of all the details. a super hospital, great delivery, baby C waiting until my Mom got here, James being here with me or the kids the whole time, my parents' super help with kids, food, the house, me, ...

I was reminded again of my many blessings this past week. last Sunday KG was a little sniffly. we stayed home from church and did our best to wash hands, not share cups, not touch the baby, ... But it's so hard to keep a very contagious cold from spreading.

Wednesday night baby C was slightly sniffly. Sometime during the night she got an icky cough and felt a little warm. Thursday morning I called our pediatrician who said to bring her in. After her exam, the doctor told me to take her to the ER. We got to the ER and they said to admit her- she had two ear infections and a slight fever. They tested for RSV and did a spinal tap to rule out meningitis. The "cast" is really a protective case for the IV. She received IV fluids to rehydrate her for the spinal tap and keep her hydrated while she was so sleepy. They admitted her for 48 hours of observation and to administer IV antibiotics while waiting for results of the tests. So for 2 days we nursed, slept, checked vitals, got IVs, talked to doctors and nurses, and repeated... Franklin Square Pediatric was super nice. All the nurses and doctors were terrific- thorough, friendly, ... The charge nurse even carried all my bags to the car when we were discharged.

That's the short version of baby C's hospital stay. What made this harder was that while I was at the hospital with C, James had a 6 pm flight scheduled to Ft Knox, KY. Pretty tough when you're miles from family and have 4 kids at home. Our closest friends just moved to PA. We couldn't reach the babysitter we'd used. Our neighbor was unable to watch the kids. The other friends here we might have asked to watch the kids have babies and I didn't want to ask them and risk spreading RSV to their babies. So thankfully James' NCOIC watched the kids. Grandma & Pops Leon were getting ready to come up when Leon broke his leg- tip/fib fracture. So he and Grandma were at the hospital until midnight. Then Brian and Grandma drove up to Baltimore and watched the kids until Saturday afternoon when James finished work and I got home from the hospital. So thankful to friends and family who help!

If I'd just posted this the other day, that would have been the end of the post but I waited and C's breathing got worse on Monday. She started wheezing and having very rapid hard breathing so I called the doctor and they said go back to ER. When they checked her, she was very congested so they did a deep suction and one breathing treatment. Her oxygen sat was still low so they admitted her. We spent the night but she didn't get worse so they discharged her in the morning. We went back to her doctor Thursday afternoon improved but still low oxygen sat so they sent us home with nebulizer/ albuterol and said just watch to make sure she doesn't have more breathing problems.