Home and healthy

We're healthy and we're home.  Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers, it meant the world to me and I'm so blessed to have people like you in my life.  Thank you for emailing, texting, commenting and just keeping us on your minds.  

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Easter Sunday night, Sofia was kind of fussy and whiny and she kept asking to go night-night.  It was only 6:30 and bedtime's not till 8, so I was trying to hold her off because I didn't want to mess up the sleep schedule.  We went down to the playroom to keep her occupied until it was time to go to bed, but she wasn't having it.  She only wanted to sit on the sofa with me and nurse.  I gave in and finally just let her nurse, and she fell asleep within minutes.  All the lights were on, she hadn't eaten much for dinner, she was still in her work clothes and I hadn't put her in her night diaper.  But what could I do but lay her down?  So I took her up to her crib around 7, convinced that she was going to wake up in an hour and I'd just change her then.

I knew something wasn't right, and I stayed up until two in the morning because I just knew that any minute she was going to wake up.  She coughed a couple times here and there but nothing that made me run into her room.  Finally, she woke up at 8 the next morning which is all kinds of not normal.  She called for me and I went into her room to get her.

The vomit smell hit me before I turned on the light and she was whimpering.  I turned the light on and the poor kid had vomited all over herself and her crib.  Some of it was wet, but some was dried and caked on her sheets.  It was in her hair and everything and my heart just broke for her.

I quickly got her naked and we got into the shower and after we got out, I went to clean her crib.

While I was cleaning her crib, she laid on the floor and fell fast asleep.

Then I started to worry.  Sofia is not a 'sleep anywhere' kind of kid and she never falls asleep without nursing.  I picked her up and put her in our bed and she slept for two hours!  When she finally woke up, the vomiting started again.  I'm sad to report our Harrison has seen better days.  When Sofia was awake, all she wanted to do was sit on the sofa, and there's not much you can do to protect yourself and your sofa from projectile vomit.  

Poor kid

Then I got super worried that it was the norovirus again.

Sofia vomited off and on all day Monday and that evening, she started having diarrhea.  Oh joy. I just did my best to keep her hydrated and I prayed that it was just a 24-hour bug.  She went to bed around 8 Monday night, and woke up at 2 in the morning with vomit and diarrhea all over her and her crib.  Again.  Dammit.

I cleaned her up and laid down with her in the guest room.  I draped us both in towels and flinched every time she coughed.  She woke for the day around 7, and I carried her with me while I brushed my teeth and got some water from the kitchen.  "Mommy, sit the sofa."  If you could have heard her pitiful little voice....

No sooner did I get us draped and sit down did she turn her head and projectile vomit on the uncovered part of the sofa.  I called the doctor.  While I was on hold, she vomited again.  They told me to give her a teaspoon of Pedialyte every 15 minutes and call them later.

I gave her one teaspoon and three minutes later, she vomited.  I called them back and told them I needed to bring her in.

At the doctor's office, they confirmed it was viral and that there wasn't a lot they could do.  I hate when doctors say that.  ALSO, it is possible to get norovirus more than once.  What The Hell?!  They sent us home and watch for wet diapers and go to the ER if she goes longer than 8 hours without a wet one.  However, just how am I supposed to tell if her diaper is wet when every diaper is just diarrhea??

Tuesday night, she went a few hours without pooping but her diaper was completely dry and she was so worn out from puking and pooping for over 24 hours.  A quick call to Drew's parents to confirm what we already knew, and we were packing up to head to the ER.  I tried to keep my cool so I wouldn't scare Sofia, but I was terrified.  She's so healthy, this couldn't be happening to my baby!  As we took our seats in the waiting area with all the other sick people, I hoped and prayed that this would just turn out to be a few wasted hours and we'd be back home in the morning.  

PS, changing a diarrhea diaper in an ER bathroom is not fun.  Just in case you were wondering.

We got to the ER around 8pm Tuesday night and we were finally brought back around 10:30.  A little after 11, they took us back for the CT scan. They had to put her in this plastic thing that held her still and upright and poor Sofia was not a fan.  It was past her bedtime, she was sick and in a strange place and she was not happy.

They gave her anti-nausea meds so the vomiting stopped but the diarrhea never did.  I ran out of her cloth diapers and started going through their disposables.  The poor kid pooped on everything in sight.

The CT came back clear, so then they had to draw blood.  Oooohhh, LAWD.  I got dizzy when they stuck that needle into my baby's arm, but I had to keep calm because I'm the mom.  That's just what you do, right.

Until they came back and were like, she's severely dehydrated.  That scared the shit out of me, because I was watching her!  She still had tears!  Her skin wasn't papery!  Yet, the tears came when they were throwing around words like dangerously low and the worst, IV fluids.

I started breathing deep and looking for a focal point when they told me the IV people were coming.  Drew very quietly was like, Maybe you should step outside.  I nodded once, handed Sofia to him and walked out, just as the IV people walked in.

There was no good place to be.  I stood outside crying, listening to Sofia scream and cry.  "Mommy!  Come in and hold me!  All done all done!  Mommy!  Hold me!!  Daddy!!  All done!!"

Yet, Drew was inside.  Looking at her face as she screamed.  Holding her down while they stuck her.  Unable to do anything.  Holy God, it sucked so bad.

I came back in, and he was wiping his tears and shaking his head.  "She's never going to forget that."  I didn't bother correcting him - *He* was never going to forget that.

A few minutes later, they came back and she was going to be admitted.  I nodded, crying.  My poor baby was so sick.

Babies aren't supposed to be sick.  

That's against some rule, I'm sure of it.

Drew updated my Facebook for me.

That started our first hospital stay.  One of her gazillion stool samples came back positive for rotovirus, so that meant we were in isolation.  No leaving the room for anything.  There's not a lot you can do when you're in isolation, but watch a lot of tv and take lots of pictures. 

We slept together on the pull-out cots.

They wanted me to leave her in the hospital crib.  Alone.

AS IF.

We watched much Gabba.

Keeping her comfortable, making the best of this.

We got to our room early Tuesday morning, and by Wednesday she was much better.  The vomiting had stopped but not her booty faucet.  Bless her heart, we were changing diapers every twenty minutes.  Her potassium level dropped too low, so they switched out the bag for potassium-raising fluids.  We got to be frenemies with the IV pole.

The bane of my existence.

Sofia is right-handed and they put the IV in her right arm.  Additionally, despite the board they put on her, she could still bend and every time she bent her arm, the IV would kink and the alarm would go off.  I'd have to call the nurse, they'd come in to straighten her arm, reset the machine, only to come back in ten minutes to do it all over, because YOU try telling a two year old to keep their dominant hand still and straight.  Day and night, it seemed like that damn alarm went off every frickin five minutes.

One of the millions of times they had to check her IV.

Wednesday afternoon was the first time she was up and about.

I was never happier to see that beautiful face.

Thursday morning, she felt well enough to make funny faces with DJ Lance.

"Wow, that's a funny face!"

We even had a visitor and I'm so touched and humbled 

about that, I'm doing a separate post.

But this little flower was from our visitor.

By Friday morning, we'd given up on pants because they

just kept getting pooped on.

But she was feeling much better, and back to her old 

'dump Mommy's purse on the floor' tricks.

By noon on Friday, her potassium levels were finally back to normal, the pooping had pretty much stopped, so they disconnected the IV.  Woohoo!

My mom had arrived in town, and she got some more presents from my friends.

This time it was an awesome stuffed puppy.

Also, how cute is this bouquet?!

This smile.

On Friday afternoon, three days after we arrived, we were finally able 

to put on our going-home clothes and get up out of there!

I was so thankful this ordeal was over.  I was so scared for my baby and I was beyond thankful that our hospital stay was short.  I said a little prayer for the parents who have to make hospitals their second home.  I have more words to say about this experience, but this post is super long as it is.  If you can bear with me, I have only one more post about this and then we'll get back to normal.  But I kinda need to process, you know?

But again, thank you all so much for thinking of us, praying for us and just remembering us.  You're good and wonderful people.  Thank you.