Brooke's Hospital Stay

I wish that I could say that I have been MIA because I was lazy or just not up to blogging but that is far from the truth. Shortly after my last post on Thursday Brooke's virus sent us to the ER where, little did we know, our journey was just starting.

The ER was PACKED. There were tons and tons of people there and Brooke had been able to keep nothing down at that point so waiting was very unsettling. When we were finally seen, 3 hours later, they put her in a crib in the hallway and the doctor gave her about 20 seconds of his time. He started her on an IV to hydrate her and then ordered for blood to be drawn to see what was going on. After sitting in the hallway for another 2 hours the doctor concluded that it was just a virus and she should be sent home. She was still having diarrhea probably every 10 minutes or so and I expressed that concern to him. He replied, "Well, I'm going to give you some handouts on how to deal with it." When I asked further questions he raised his hands up as if to say, "Leave me alone." At that point it was like 11 o'clock and Brooke's spirits had lifted since the fluids were given to her and I figured that a doctor would know better than me. Off we went...

That night Brooke was up CONSTANTLY throwing up, having the nasty diarrhea, and screaming in pain that her stomach hurt. When we got up the next morning she was still having those symptoms and I noticed that she had no tears coming from her eyes, she was unable to pee, and she had absolutely NO color to her face. I called her primary care provider and he sent me immediately to the hospital to have her admitted. John had worked the night before so I decided not to wake him, assuming that she would only be in the hospital long enough to be given more fluids. I also didn't pack us much of anything because again, I figured we wouldn't be there all that long.

When we got the hospital they discovered that Brooke was extremely dehydrated. As it turns out, me taking her to the ER the night before was a HUGE part of her being okay. Those fluids apparently are what sustained her through the long night of being so sick. We were ultimately there for 3 long, horrible nights and we just got home today.

Our doctor said that what the ER doctor was was unacceptable and she should have been admitted that night, as her blood work showed great dehydration at that point. He even got the director of the ER to come up to apologize and the doctor was fired on the spot for his treatment to Brooke. They basically kissed up to us the whole time. I was happy to see that they were mortified over the awful care she had received.

This whole situation brought on awful emotions within me. It was so hard not being to be with both girls at the same time. The day that Brooke was admitted was by far the hardest. I had to be by Brooke's side that day because she was EXTREMELY sick and my sister took care of Adrienne. She brought Adrienne up after nap time where I nursed her and then I didn't see her again until I went to Alison's house to sleep while John stayed with Brooke. Adrienne was a real trooper and I was so fortunate that the hospital let me use their amazing pump to make lots of milk for her. After Friday we thankfully got into a groove and let Adrienne come up to the hospital during the mornings to hang out. The doctor figured it was fine because she had been around the germs for so long anyways, plus the breast milk is great protection. On Saturday and Sunday afternoon my parents took her for a few hours so I could have one-on-one time with Brooke. Leaving her and John at the hospital each night was the HARDEST thing I have ever had to do and I can never remember feeling so torn in my entire life.

So, through this all, I am thankful for the health of my precious daughter, Brooke. I don't have any clue how parents of terminally ill children do this day in and day out. These 4-5 days have been an absolute nightmare! I am also thankful for so much family and friends who made this as "easy" for us as possible. We had so many visitors who brought gifts and food and it was such an encouragement!

Brooke's on the mend right now and I couldn't be more excited! She's still very sleepy and her appetite is obviously down. She's also down to 26 pounds so she just looks skinny and pale to me. I can deal with all of that as long as she's HOME! Each day will get a little bit better.

Reliving a Nightmare

Once again, I have a VERY sick family:-( John started throwing up on Tuesday morning and has been incapacitated with horrible stomach pains ever since. He has even called in to work, which is something he NEVER does. I assumed that the girls were in the clear because they had the bug last week but Brooke has been throwing up repeatedly and having nasty bathroom issues since about 2 this morning. It's now going on 4 in the afternoon and she is extremely sick and grumpy:-( The worst part is that John does an evening overtime shift on Thursdays and not one person is willing to cover it for him. Unbelievable. So yeah, I'm about to send my sick husband to work and care for my even sicker daughter. Please pray for continued strength and health on my part and that Adrienne remains healthy, as well. I think I might go cry now.... :-(


Oh yes, but I am VERY excited because my brother and his wife just found out today that they are having a baby boy:-) She's due the end of August and I have been so excited but now that I know the baby's gender, I don't think I can wait 24 more weeks. I am SO in love already and I can't wait to have another precious baby to spoil.

Who's Who?

Adrienne started pulling up last night!! It didn't make for her going to sleep very easily but it was sure cute. Can you tell which one is Brooke and which is Adrienne? They look so much alike to me!

My Brooke

See this little girl??? She lights up my world and honestly, with that face, how could she not? We have been enjoying long walks together during these past few sunny days and I LOVE it! Our favorite pastime, however, is blowing bubbles on our front porch together. Sometimes we can spend an entire afternoon out there chasing bubbles and competing for who can blow the biggest one. I love it. I love her. I love being a mommy!

Update

We have had another 36 hour period with no throw up!!! I would be excited but there's really no point in that considering our track record! It's horrible because every time one of the girls coughs I'm expecting the worse. I chase after poor Brooke all day with a bowl saying, "Do you need to throw up?" Lol. Oh the joys of motherhood! :-)

In the midst of all of this crazy sickness that has been going around our house, Adrienne has truly blossomed. I can't even believe how much she has learned to do over the past week or so. She can now pull herself up but not all the way... Either from sitting to her knees or from her knees to standing. She hasn't quite mastered the art of getting all the way up from the sitting position. She's close though! She is also officially cruising. She can move all along the couch now and even transfer from one piece of furniture to another. Watch out world, here comes Miss Adrienne! Another impressive new skill that she has recently acquired is standing unassisted for a few seconds. It's funny because she has yet to master a real crawl... She just kind of scootches everywhere. Hey, it gets her from A to B, and QUICKLY, too! She also signs "all done" and says, "Dada," and "Brooke" (without the 'k' sound). For some odd reason she won't say Mama but we'll get there soon... I hope, anyways!

Here's a funny Brooke story for you: She said to me today, "Mommy, when I become a much bigger girl, will I shave?" I said, "Yes, Brookie, many years from now. What will you shave?" "My face like Daddy," she replied. I had to laugh! She "helps" John shave and he puts shaving cream on her face so why would she think any differently? She also made a funny observation while I was nursing Adrienne... She said, "Mommy, my nursers are small." I said, "Yes they are but it's because you're only a little girl right now!" She said, "And yours are big, big, big." Lol. Thanks, Brooke. I appreciate your honestly!

So that's the latest with us. John had the past few days off and is now on his way to work. The first night back is always hard:-( Oh how I miss him!

I Was Wrong

Guess what I was doing at 1:30 this morning? You guessed it... Giving Brooke a bath to rid her of her throw-up-soaked-hair. Once again, she's fine this morning and she ate 3 pieces of toast and 2 scrambled eggs. When will this be over for good???? I'm growing weary for her and me! :-(

Recovering

Things have been awful around here! We have been plagued by the weirdest stomach bug that has pretty much had us out of commission for the past several days.

It all started early Saturday morning when Brooke threw up. She's the kind of kid who randomly throws up but then goes on the rest of the day and never acts sick again. However, she proved to me that she was actually sick when she thew up a couple more times. After that, though, she went on to eat like crazy, play as usual, and act completely normal. That night she slept through the night and woke up feeling well (and hungry!) so off to church we went.

Church was great! The girls were happy and we went to Wendy's for lunch afterwards, where both of them ate like champs. I assumed that we were past the bug. But as luck would have it, Brooke started throwing up everywhere at around midnight on Sunday night. She managed to get it all over every single blanket on her bed and then I brought her into my room where she did the same. It was a blast! Lol. I got her situated and back to sleep and then at 2, Adrienne started doing the same exact thing. She was up much of the night crying and throwing up and it was just insane. It was by the far the worst night of my life. Awful, awful, awful.

Yesterday morning both girl were grumpy and miserable but thankfully they were able to keep fluids down in small quantities. They were super exhausted, fussy, and clingy. I also had about 5 loads of laundry to do from all the throw up so it was a hard day to say the least. When John eventually woke up, he had an awful headache and at that point, I couldn't get either girl to stop screaming. I gave them both Ibuprofen (thinking that maybe their heads hurt, too) and seriously, half an hour later they were new kids. Talk about mother's intuition!

Both girls slept through the night last night and woke up completely happy and healthy. They've eaten well and played hard today and I'm confident that they are better... Or at least mostly confident, considering our previous experience! I hope we're in the clear!

All About Myrtle Beach

We had the most amazing and refreshing vacation! It was so nice to get away and reconnect as a family. Life gets so busy and it was nice to focus on nothing else but being together and having fun! We spent lots of time shopping, playing with the sand at the beach, and eating and some fabulous restaurants. The weather was PERFECT and that made it that much better. Here are some pictures for you: (the many others will soon be on Facebook if you are my friend)

The INCREDIBLE view from our hotel room...






Adrienne was enamored by that door to the balcony. Silly girl!


Brooke at the Ripley's Aquarium


Brooke at Barefoot Landing (a wonderful place with shops and restaurants)


My man and me eating some seafood at Joe's Crab Shack


Isn't she cute??


She wasn't quite as impressed with the ocean as the rest of us were!


I love this picture of the girls. They are buddies and this just shows it!

Home Again

We just got back from an amazing vacation. I have so many details and so many pictures but after all the driving and such, I'm ready to unwind. More to come tomorrow (hopefully)!

Gymnastics

Today was Brooke's second time in the big girl class at gymnastics. She is a brand new three year old and the class is for kids from three to five years old. Since she's new to this class, obviously the other kids are going to be more confident and capable than Brooke because they've been doing the activities longer and they are older.

With that being said, I am very angry over how she was treated today. Brooke's class was working the high bars today. The teacher was helping them hold onto the bars and then flipping them over.... It looked really difficult and scary. About ten minutes into the class the teacher yanked Brooke out and said, "Mom, she's being disobedient. You need to talk to her and decide if she can handle coming back in." Tears were streaming down her little face at that point. I took her to the bathroom and I fully intending on disciplining her for not obeying. I'm not one of those moms that thinks that her child is perfect and I know that Brooke has her share of struggles. Anyways, when I asked Brooke what happened she said, "I was afraid of the bars, Mommy." She was really upset and obviously flustered so I dried her tears and reassured her. I didn't have the facts so I thought I would wait until I talked to the teacher to see what I should do about the whole situation.

After class I talked with the teacher right away. She said, "She was afraid of the bars and wouldn't hold on and her disobedience is a safety issue now." I said, "So you're telling me that she was afraid of the bars and that's not obeying you?" She shook her head. I then, quite politely, said, "Ya know, I'm trying to raise an Olympic athlete here. I'm just interested in getting my daughter out to meet kids her own age and to keep her active. If she's THAT afraid of something, I don't call that disobedience." The teacher then passed it off as, "Oh, we're doing challenging new skills and that's why she's acting up." Hello, lady, what part of "she's afraid" do you not get?????

I know that you need to sometimes push a kid in order to help them overcome their fears but it seems to me like they shouldn't be called out for being timid. I am seriously thinking about quitting that class because I don't feel as though she was treated fairly today and my heart really broke for her. I may give it a couple of weeks and see how she does but if something else happens, that will be the final straw.

Would you be upset if this was your child? Or am I over-reacting? You can be honest with me. I know that as a mom I can sometimes be a little over-protective. Right now I am FUMING and dreading going back there.

Lots to Report

I haven't had a chance to write over the past couple of days but SO MUCH is going on with us! Where do I even start??!?!

Vacation!!!!

We leave for Myrtle Beach on Thursday night (after John works from 5:30-8) and we are SUPER excited, as you can imagine! We got The Hilton Beach Resort for $40 a night on Priceline. You just can't beat it! Our room has balcony with a view of the ocean and as far as I'm concerned, it just doesn't get better than that!

It's going to be the perfect weather, around 60-65, which is great for outlet mall shopping and walks on the beach. It's not the type of weather where you lay on the beach all day but that's cool because we don't really do that anyways. I'm looking forward to trading up my wool pea coat for a Spring coat for a few days!

We'll be in Myrtle Beach until Tuesday morning and then we're going to drive home, where we'll stop at the halfway point in Richmond and spend the night. We'll then make the final leg of our journey on Wednesday.

My Job

I've been thinking a lot about getting a VERY part time job for a while now. We kind of want to put some extra money away and/or pay off our car before we have another baby and this was one way to kind of speed up the process. After praying about it for a long time and asking for God to show me His will, it all just kind of unfolded on its own. A little diner in our town is opening (that is like 2 minutes from my house) and I just put my application in for the heck of it. I went for an interview and they were incredible and totally willing to coordinate my schedule with John's! It's a family owned place so it just feels really quaint and friendly. So yeah, I'm going to be working a few breakfast shifts a week on John's days off. We'll get the best of both worlds... Some extra cash but I still get to be home with the girls! I'm all for that:-)

Check-Up's

The girls had their well visits today... Adrienne's 9-month and Brooke's 3-year. Adrienne was a whopping 20 pounds even and 27.35 inches long. The doctor was pleased with her progress and development which is always good! She's in the 75Th percentile for both height and weight but so was Brookie at that age and now she's tiny.

Brooke was 35.5 inches long and 28.6 pounds... 20Th percentile for both. We have a slight issue with her, however. She was just under 30 pounds when she went in for a virus about 2 months ago. She lost a little bit of weight and the doctor said that some fluctuation is normal but we think there's another small issue. She has really frequent diarrhea (and has for a while) and he said that that can sometimes cause poor weight gain or even weight loss. He said she could have an dairy sensitivity (which would make sense, looking back to her struggles as a baby) and he wants me to try giving her a medicine with her dairy products that will help her digest them better. If that doesn't solve her issues then he wants to send her for tests and blood work. I'm hoping and praying that that's all the problem is because I don't want to have to put her through all of that garbage again!

So yeah, that's what's new with us. We'll spend the rest of the week getting ourselves ready to leave for VACATION so I'm really, really excited for the days ahead. Life is wonderful!