Five on Friday

1.  We have had a whirlwind week!  On Monday Asa, Anna Reaghan, and I drove from OH to TN with my dad.  The kids did GREAT!  It was probably the most easy going road trip they've had.  Asa was really congested and had a fever actually, so he just chilled looking at books, playing with cars, and then eventually watching some Busytown after lunch.  Anna Reaghan just stayed calm even though she only succumbed to one, 20-minute nap right before lunch.  Mercifully answered prayers!

2.  On Tuesday G-Ma arrived in TN with our Sammy dog.  Both kids were super excited to see both of them. :)  We also had a picnic lunch outside with some cuzzies (outside to hopefully spare them from Asa's germs).

3.  On Wednesday things got interesting. On Wednesday night, Mom and I were at the new house hanging curtains when my dad called to say Asa woke up and was quite upset I was not there. So we went home and I was just settling Asa down when my mom came into his room and told me I needed to check on Anna Reaghan because she was having trouble breathing--Mom her croupy stridor over the monitor.  I went into AR's room, and her breathing/stridor was SO LOUD.  Every breath in and out, shallow & rapid breaths, and I don't know how she was getting much air at all, but she was sound asleep!  I grabbed her out of bed and she seemed a bit disoriented.  I took her to the bathroom and turned a shower on as hot as possible to fill the bathroom with steam.  Her breathing eased some, but not enough to feel comfortable putting her back in bed--especially with how bad it *had* been.  So Mom stayed with Asa and Dad took Anna Reaghan and me to the ER at Children's Hospital.  The staff was wonderful and immediately validated that her breathing was "gunky" (their word, not mine :)).  She received a breathing treatment and oral steroids which helped, and they wanted to watch her for an hour or two as the steroid peaks around 1 hour after being administered.  Around an hour and 15 minutes after she had it, you could hear the stridor start to return.  At no time at the hospital was she even CLOSE to how bad it was at home, but it was enough they wanted her to have a second breathing treatment and that automatically means staying for 6-8 hours of observation.  So sometime in the 2:00 AM hour she was admitted to the hospital.  We managed two 45 minute chunks of sleep in between checks from nurses and respiratory therapists and AR being so, incredibly overtired and uncomfortable  She was awake from around 10:00-about 4:15 with no naps.  She vacillated between exhausted and wired from being so overtired/the meds.  The respiratory therapist told me they are usually looking for the child to NOT need a breathing treatment for 6-8 hours.  Her last one in the ER was around 1:45, so I was hoping, hoping, hoping we'd be discharged by lunch if she didn't need any more.  Thankfully, she did not, but then we had to play the doctor waiting game.  No one could pinpoint (not even remotely) when the doctor would make rounds and see AR.  PRAISE THE LORD, a wonderful doctor came through before lunch and said she would discharge AR after one more dose of oral steroids.  Mom and Asa came down to visit us, and we were all SO HAPPY.  We still had another hour or two of the papers being processed and waiting for the pharmacy to send up the meds, but then we got to GO HOME.  AR fell asleep in the car almost immediately and slept from about 2-5:45!  Then she went back to bed at 7 so tired she could barely hold her head up!  What a night!  I never DREAMED that by taking her to the ER she'd end up admitted!

4.  Add to all of that craziness that Asa is really clingy as a result of the move and woke up all throughout Wednesday night panicky that I was not home.  My mom ended up sleeping in his room to calm him each time he woke up.  Let's just say they did not get much sleep either.  :(  :(

5.  I have informed Asa and Anna Reaghan that they have now reached their lifetime quota of 1 (ONE) ER trip (Asa:  we + doctor thought he broke his wrist last Dec., thankfully it was not broken).  I sure hope they listen!!