Don't scare me like that!

By now, you are all aware of our health saga...it's been ongoing since before Paisli was born. If you're not, read my older posts to catch up, and then remember: do not, I repeat, DO NOT have a baby during the winter or early spring months. There is too much sickness going around! I've had 2 February babies; never by choice...my jinx got me pregnant at the wrong time. I wanted to have babies in June or July. In all honesty, I CAN'T control the months that I conceive. My body is completely unpredictable and has a mind of its own. Hence my 2 1/2 years of infertility (requiring the intervention of fertility drugs in order to conceive) shortly followed thereafter by mega-fertility (2 kids just shy of 12 months apart). I never know when I will, or will not, be able to conceive, making family planning extremely difficult. It then gets left up to chance. Two years apart for 3 kids was great for "chance," but 2 days shy of 12 months apart was less than ideal.

On to the update. Since we didn't seem to be jinxed ENOUGH already, we were afflicted with yet another health challenge. Hyrum gave you a quick glimpse (2 posts ago) into what happened over the past couple of days. I'll fill in the gaps.

Sickness was on it's third cycle through our house. Hyrum went to church while I stayed home with sick babies. Kiersa seemed recovered from her ear infection, but Hyrum had meetings so he couldn't take her. Then on Monday morning, Kiersa had a runny nose, again, along with all the other kids. The coughing at night was reminiscent of a haunted mansion filled with sickly ghosts. I'd lay in bed listening the the coughs, trying to fall asleep, but my mothering instinct was running on full steam and it kept popping my eyelids open with each cough or moan or movement (we live in a tiny apartment, so all my kids sleep within 15 feet of me, thus they're easy to hear). I began to feel extremely sleep-deprived by morning. Poor Hyrum was just as sleep-deprived as me because he gets up to help the bigger kids while I take care of the baby.

By Tuesday, all the kids sounded horrid, but Paisli sounded scary, AND she was running a fever of up to 102. It got its worst in the evening of course. Her coughs sounded wet and strained and came in bursts of coughing fits and spasms. I had to suck her nose out and had to hold her all night so I could listen to her breathing. I thought about an ER visit, but thought I was overreacting. By Wednesday, I was scared she had RSV and with being a day shy of 6 weeks, I was scared for how fragile her little system was. I called the doctor's office, and waited...and waited...and waited. I killed time by taking pictures of the snot-fest in my house and starting a post about it. When the doctor's office called back, they said "How old is she? And she has a fever? Drop what you're doing and get her in here right now. We'll squeeze her in." Okay, if that didn't make my skin turn cold, I don't know what would.

I then began the process of wrangling 4 kids by myself. I was flying around the place with a brush and rubber bands in one hand, little socks and shoes in the other, grabbing for jackets, calling out orders and making mental lists of things I needed to put in my diaper bag that had, of course, just run out: formula, a bottle with water, 2 sizes of diapers...don't forget to check for wipes and grab the cell phone and keys. I, naturally, looked like a scum because with 4 kids, sickness, a blog to keep up in order to document our family's life, pictures to take, children to dress and feed, a house to clean...something's gotta give. And that something is applying my makeup and doing my hair in something other than a messy bun.

Now, of course, with my luck, things couldn't go smoothly. Talea started yelling in her "emergency voice", as I call it, that Hyatt was bleeding. So while I tended to his bloody lip (I never did get whether it was Tilly or Hyatt's fault), Talea went crawling under my bed to find a toy pig, and came out covered in crud. I was frazzled to my breaking point by this point. I was on edge from severe lack of sleep for the past 2 days, had just had the doctors scare the crud out of me, was trying to get everything together without forgetting anything, was patching bloody lips...and now just after getting her all ready to walk out the door, Talea has to go spelunking under my bed with the dust bunnies. I admit I lost it and booted Talea in the rear since my arms were full of babies and I couldn't spank her with my hands. I did have the presence of mind to do it soft enough to not knock her down, but man, I couldn't believe she'd gone under there in the crud to get a stinking little plastic pig when she knew I was rushing to get out the door. She never even plays with that pig! I know, she's only 4, but I only have so much temper and my stress capacity is only so high. Sorry Tilly.

So, about 30 minutes later, I was heading out the door with a baby in each arm and a diaper bag on my shoulder. As I was locking the door, I thought maybe I should have packed a hospital bag just in case, but I didn't have the time to do it now. And what about my camera! I didn't have the hands to carry it now, and I didn't have the time to buckle all the kids in their seats and then go up and get it. The camera was left behind.

I stopped by the shop to grab Hyrum because after that fiasco, I couldn't imagine herding them all to the doctors office alone, and then possibly the hospital. I grabbed Hyrum and we headed off. When I got to the doctor's office, the nurse mentioned that she looked fine and that her temperature was only 99. Great! Just what I needed! Wouldn't it be my luck for Paisli to act fine for the doctor and then freak me out at home? While Paisli was being examined, she confirmed our concern that Paisli does indeed have a hernia, but it's a small one that should heal on it's own with time. Luckily, while being examined, Paisli threw a pretty good coughing spasm, so the doctor got to see what was freaking me out. Paisli was blowing mucous bubbles and sounded like she was drowning. The doctor looked very serious as she watched Paisli have her fit, then she sent us down to radiology to get an X-ray. She warned us that the contraption they put the babies in to hold them still looks like a Chinese torture mechanism, so I had Hyrum take her in for it. I knew if it looked scary I wouldn't be able to handle it. When he came out, he said it was pretty funny and that he wanted one for each of our kids, but when he showed me the picture, it about broke my heart. I'm so glad he was there for it instead of me!

When the doctor looked at the X-ray, she said she could tell there was pnemonia and she was afraid that the cough could be Pertussis (whooping cough) because of how it came in fits, and that she probably had RSV. Holy cow! My poor baby! She was also going to test her for a urinary tract infection since she'd had such a fever. She felt that after witnessing the coughing fit and with the pnemonia and with how young and fragile Paisli was, she needed to admit her to the hospital. So off to the hospital we went. They masked our entire family (ha! try keeping a mask on a 13 month old!) and took us to pediatrics, then they took Paisli and hooked her arm up with an IV and drew blood and attempted a cathader for collecting a urine specimen, but they were unsuccessful with that until our pediatrician (Dr. Rabin) made it there later that evening. Everyone that came in had to wear a mask and a disposable robe/apron thingy to keep the germs isolated in her room. This is Dr. Rabin after Paisli's birth.


Now, here's the best part. They checked us into the Nookie Room! That's room 321 in case you want to request it. We were told by the nurse that its the only room in the hospital with one way windows into the courtyard because they use that room for "certain things". What things? Conjugal visits? It's a pediatric room! Do the doctors and nurses sneak into this room to get a little nookie? Do they take unruly pediatric patients in there for beatings? I'm betting on the nookie. So I took advantage of my privacy and left the curtain open while I hung my breast out and fed Paisli. I did that at night too when the lights were on in my room and it was dark in the courtyard. Hyrum thought it was weird that only that one room would be one-way windows, so during the day, he went out and looked at our window, and came back saying he could see the curtain through the window, so he thought it was all bogus. Great! I was flashing everyone in the hallways my saggy nursing boobs as they walked around the courtyard! I hope no one recognized me! Stinking nurse, Gemi, for leading me astray!

Anyway, the tests came back positive for RSV, so we knew she had that, and that she had pnemonia, but it would take 3 days to get the results of the pertussis test, so they started her on antibiotics for that, just in case. Hyrum called Kevin Muntifering (Kaylynns's long-time significant other) to come help him give Paisli a blessing, but Hyrum's oil has been sitting in it's container for a while because it looked more like motor oil when it came out, and smelled pretty rancid. Oh well. She got her blessing, and a hair wash when I couldn't take the smell any longer.

Her IV ended up going bad during the night, which apparently happens a lot with saline locks on infants, so they took it out and would have to do shots instead, but she never did get a shot. The IV looked so awful because her little hand and arm were all wrapped up in gauze and tubes. I got a picture of it on my phone, but until I get an SD reader, that's where it will stay (our new mac doesn't have a spot for SD cards). Her lungs were weezy all Wednesday and part of Thursday, but then they started to clear off and on and all that was left was a crackle over her pnemonia spot. Here's what she looked like during her coughing spasms. Pretty sad, isn't it? She really was struggling for each breath and her eyes and nose would turn very red, though it doesn't show up with the flash.


She didn't always look scary though. Occassionally, she'd grin her cute little baby smile.


My nights were spent like this since she wouldn't sleep peacefully any other way.


Lucky for us, it's Spring Beak, and my twin brothers came up to visit. They arrived while we were in the doctor's office, and it was really handy to have them because on Thursday, Weston

was able to go help our installer, Jeremy, with a counter top job and Dallas

stayed at the office with Talea and Hyatt to answer phones and watch the shop while Hyrum came to the hospital with Kiersa. Kierce thought it was great fun to play in the curtains,

and we thought the prison cell crib was a better place to contain Kiersa than Paisli.


It was nice to have Hyrum's moral support with me since I was pretty stressed about it all. This was my second scare with Paisli since her birth where in the back of my mind I was terrified I might lose her. Hyrum really is the best husband with how he puts our family above all else and supports me whenever I need him.

On Thursday, Paisli turned 6 weeks, and I had my 6 week postpartum check up with my OB, so since Hyrum was with us at the hospital, I left him with Paisli and Kiersa and walked across the road to Dr. Groth's office.
Here's Dr. Groth, the best OB ever, at the hospital when I gave birth to Paisli. He's a little groggy from me waking him up at 3 am.


I weigh 155 now, which was my starting weight with Paisli's pregnancy (though I'd already gotten up to 160 by my first OB appointment), so this is the first baby where I've dropped ALL of my pregnancy weight (24 pounds, not just the 19 I gained since my first appointment) by 6 weeks. Just goes to show how much excess weight I'm carrying if I'm able to drop all my weight by 6 weeks.

Really, Paisli was hospitalized as a precaution since an infant so young can crash in an instant, but in reality, we weathered the worst of the storm at home because once we were in the hospital, her fever subsided and she started to improve. There is no medication for RSV. There is just breathing treatments (oxygen) when needed, so it's good to be in the hospital in case the baby is laboring to breathe or stops altogether. Paisli never had to get a breathing treatment. It's most likely that the rest of my kids have RSV also, but it's not as severe with them since they're older.

They let us go home on Friday morning, after 2 nights and a day there. It was comforting to be there while her coughing was so scary, but it's almost impossible to get any sleep in a hospital with how many times they come in to do little things, like change your drinking water at 4 am. Come on! I'm trying to be asleep, not drinking!

So, since the start of our life as a family, we've had several firsts, all coincidentally within the last month.
First ear infection.
First hernia.
First surgery.
First bloody poo diaper.
First RSV.
First pnemonia.
First hospitalized child.

Up until a few months ago or so, I'd never even taken my kids to the doctor for a cold before. I've made up for almost 5 years of pretty darn good health with one month of plague, and $180 of copays. Let's hope the rest of spring treats us better.

My baby is so precious to me, and I'm so grateful for all the prayers and/or energy (Tasha) that were focused on us in our time of need. She's looking like she'll be okay and I'm so happy that we get to keep her in our family. Thank you, everyone, for your love and support and concern. We felt it and needed it. I hope all of you get a chance to meet our pretty Paisli and see for yourselves what a wonderful little girl she is.