1. We (well, I) did a little more decorating around the house--fall decor on the mantle and a picture wall behind the love seat in the living room. We need a few more photos for the picture wall, but I am planning out which prints I would like to complete it.
2. This little superhero showed up at our house!!
3. On Tuesday night, Matt and I celebrated our anniversary a little early with a night out to see Beauty & the Beast! We had dinner at a lakeside restaurant, saw the FANTASTIC show, and then stopped for gelato a few doors down from the theatre before heading home. Over the weekend I was afraid we might not make the show, because the stomach flu felt.so.awful. Then Matt fought it off all day Monday. Our dinners were meager as a result :), but we both enjoyed the show so much. All the actors and their voices were SPOT on. I think it was the best production I have seen!!
4. Then the not so good. :( Asa seemed to have a croupy cough right on the heels of the stomach flu. I kept a close eye on AR remembering quite vividly her croup hospitalization last October (what is it with October??). On Wednesday she started seeming a little congested and was hoarse by dinner time. She started running a fever that over the next day or two would spike up repeatedly to almost 103 and even stay above 101 with meds. :( I decided to stay home from Bible study and keep an eye on her--I just need to be nearby and know my baby was okay (not to mention I wasn't feeling so hot myself--taking the glucose tolerance test for gestational diabetes while recovering from the stomach flu isn't the BEST timing I've ever had). She woke up at 10:30 gasping for air and screaming--or, it would have been sobbing & screaming if not for the stridor interfering with every breath in and out. :( We tried rushing her outside, but it wasn't a cold enough evening to ease her breathing that way. We tried holding her in front of the freezer, but she was still in too much distress/scared to calm down. So at that point we ran her up to the bathroom and blasted a hot, steamy shower. Thankfully, she calmed down (with the ipad to distract her) after about 15 minutes. She stayed up with us to relax and so we could keep an eye on her. Around 11 or 11:30, I tried putting her back in bed. Matt had dragged a mattress to her room for me to sleep on by her bed. We made it about an hour before the stridor came back and she got scared. Back to the steamy bathroom we went. The cycle continued until it was clear being flat in her bed was aggravating her breathing, so then we transferred to me holding her upright in my lap to sleep. She slept fitfully for maybe 45 minutes-1 hour at a time before needing to go back for more steam. At one point it got down to every 30 minutes (and taking 20 minutes of steam to calm her breathing). I didn't sleep a wink. Even when AR calmed down, she squirmed a bit and even if she relaxed all the way Lila was kicking up a storm the ENTIRE time. I never understood what people were saying about their kicking babies keeping them awake at night until that night. Whew. She KNEW something was up. Meanwhile, I could tell AR was struggling enough that she warranted a trip to the ER (you could see her chest and neck retracting trying to get enough air), but at that point it seemed like the wait time at the ER vs. time waiting for our pediatrician's office to open were becoming more of an equal in length. I opted to wait unless it got worse--hopefully we could avoid a hospital admission. Around 6:00 I got to sleep for about 1.5 hours while Matt traded with me and held Anna Reaghan until he needed to leave for work. WHEW!!! Asa went back to preschool for the first time in a week and our WONDERFUL pediatrician gave us an appointment for less than an hour after I called them. I am so so so thankful for them! Being one who doesn't run to meds the first sign of illness, I always make a big case in my head justifying why I believe my children need treatment when something IS wrong. Both times we've taken AR in for croup, I quickly realized I wouldn't have to justify to anyone why we were there--this time they even brought in nurse and nurse practitioner students to see AR so they could see and hear an actual case of croup. lol Our little case study. :) The office staff was all wonderful with her and so careful to make sure we had the full picture (checking her oxygen level, etc.) of how she was doing. Anna Reaghan received a dose of oral steroids that should remain in her system through these peak days of croup, but we also got a prescription for some back-up doses in case it flares back up. I can't say how much I appreciate how seriously they considered her history of being hospitalized and made sure we had back up meds to help us avoid the hospital this time. My sweet friend who is a nurse practitioner at the practice even checked in on AR on her day off! Do we have amazing people caring for our kids, or what?!? It's SUCH a blessing!
Here's a little photo essay for you of the progression of Anna Reaghan's croup... Thankfully she is on the mend. She is still pale and exhausted (and grumpy to go with it ;)), and she's still a little wheezy, but she is breathing better and slept most of the night last night. :) She has been scared to go to sleep because Wednesday was such a rough night :(, but hopefully we can rebuild some positive, not scary sleeping experiences to reorient her. ;)
Playing ipad and watching Chuggington at 11 PM--a special "privilege" reserved for the very ill :(
playing ipad in the steamy bathroom in the middle of the night
steamy and miserable but breathing a little easier
even more miserable in the morning--counting the minutes until the doctor's office opens
after medicine: night and day difference
the lack of sleep caught up with her and made her pretty pitiful again, but she was breathing more easily while being pitiful. We'll take what we can get!
5. Twenty-four weeks (and recovering from the flu) with Lila! We switch to the third trimester THIS month, and I'm in my final 4 week stretch between appointments before we change to appointments every 2 weeks. It is FLYING by!!
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