Sick Kiddos

Our weekend started out with such promise. Tony's parents, Mimi and Papa, came up for a visit and they kids were so excited to see them. Saturday the kids played all day long and had Mimi and Papa parading all around the house and the backyard showing off everything they know.

Then Harper started sneezing...

Sunday morning Harper woke up with a runny nose, but despite that she was in a good mood. We had Great Granny, Nana, Pop, and Uncle Tanner over to help celebrate Tony's birthday with Mimi and Papa. We went to dinner and the service was slow, but the kids were great at dinner. Jack sat at one and Harper at the other, each occupying the head of the table, and they entertained the whole place.

Sunday night Harper woke up about 10:45 crying and trying to get comfortable; she woke up at midnight and 2 and 4 and finally at 5 am, Tony brought her into our room and we suctioned out her nose and put her in a pack and play in our room to sleep.

Monday Harper seemed congested and she coughed quite a bit, but she was playing and feeling fine until about 5. I noticed that Harper didn't eat her afternoon snack- very unlike her, but I thought it was because of the congestion- and then at 5pm, I picked her up and her heart was racing. I took listened to Harper and she sounded a little wheezy, so I looked up some signs of an "RSV type cough". I took off Harper's shirt and watched her breath and I could see every rib with every breath she took. I told Mimi that I thought we might need to take Harper to the doctor.

Tony and I decided to take Harper up to the urgent care and got there about 6pm. We checked in and the staff took Harper's vitals; her breathing was labored and her oxygen was at 95%- not good for our little girl; she was also taking about 80 breaths a minute, which is far outside the 40-50 breaths/min "safety zone".

It didn't take long to get checked in and they immediately set Harper up with a breathing treatment; she didn't even fight the mask. The treatment helped, but not enough, so they did chest x-rays and gave Harper some steroids and medicine for her fever that had spiked to 101. After the second breathing treatment and the results of the chest x-ray (no pneumonia, praise God!), Harper was feeling MUCH better (she was marching around the room and eating Cherrios and graham crackers like a champ), but Harper's breathing was still very quick- 65 breaths/min, and it was decided that we should go to the emergency room at Children's Hospital.

We checked into the ER at 10pm and didn't walk out until 1:55am. While were in the ER, Tony and I tried our best to keep Harper calm and content. I finally ended up curling up beside her on the bed and she and I slept for about an hour between breathing treatment and nurse visits. We were finally given the green light to head home and as a parting gift we had one final breathing treatment for the little one.

When we got home, Tony and I fell into bed- Tony in our bed with the dog, and Harper and I upstairs in the pack and play and twin bed (we were told to sleep close to Harper all night in case her breathing became labored and we needed to bring her back).  Harper and I slept from 2:30-7, and then we got up to face the day.

Harper spent most of the day fussing; her medicine makes her cranky, lack of sleep makes her cranky, and feeling sick makes her cranky.  Oh, and doing the breathing treatments every 4 hours- that makes her very cranky.  She is feeling much better today and got a good report on her pediatrician follow-up this afternoon. We have another 24 hours of breathing treatments and then hopefully, we'll have turned a corner with her.

We are very thankful to Mimi who has been a trooper today taking care of Jack around the clock and Harper when I was too tired to move. I took today off work, and Tony is taking tomorrow off, so we're hoping that we can keep Mimi from going crazy. We couldn't have made it through Harper's ordeal last night without her, and we want Mimi to want to come back and visit.

Tonight the kiddos are resting- finally- after not taking much of a nap. Oh, and tonight Jack started sneezing, spiked a low grade fever, and has a runny nose. I've already given him some Zyrtec, some ibuprofen, and sucked out his nose tonight- when it rains it pours- prayers would be greatly appreciated.

Here's to a speedy recovery for all!