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These last couple of months have been rough for us.  In December all the girls in our house were sick.  Mara had the flu.  Reese was sick, but tested negative for the flu and I had some crazy virus that eventually caused pink eye and an ear infection. 

We thought we were better by Christmas.

Then Reese got the flu at the beginning of January.  Mara wound up getting it AGAIN.  I managed to stay healthy the second time around.  Mara wound up with an ear infection and was on antibiotics for 10 days.  Just as she was getting better, Reese woke up in the middle of the night with a fever of 103.  We went to the doctor the next morning and found that she had an ear infection...so 10 days of antibiotics for her, too.

We thought we were better at the end of January.

Then Mara got sick again.  She went to sleep this past Monday night feeling fine.  She woke up at midnight with a horrible sounding cough.  She sounded like a seal.  We called the triage nurse who advised us to go to the ER.  We did and were told that she had the Croup.  They gave her some steroids and sent us home.  Tuesday she was a lot better and then the cough came back with a vengeance on Wednesday.  Thursday night she started wheezing.  By Friday morning I thought it was time to take her back to the pediatrician again.  I dropped Reese off at Dell to have lunch with Daddy...she was so excited to go to Daddy's work.  I thought the pediatrician would just tell us she needed fluids and rest.

I was wrong.

When Mara and I got to the pediatrician the receptionist heard her coughing and said we needed to be seen right away.  They called us back and immediately checked her oxygen levels and found that they were at 87%.  They should be between 95 and 100%.  Her doctor was in the room a moment later and said he couldn't hear anything in her chest through all the wheezing.  He gave her a breathing treatment in the room and told me that he wanted her to go by ambulance to the children's hospital.  Needless to say, it scared the heck out of me.  Less than 3 minutes later there was a stretcher and a few paramedics outside the room.  I called Karl to tell him what was going on.  He still had Reese at work and had no car seat for her since I had dropped her off.  The next thing I knew I was in an ambulance with Mara on the way to the children's hospital.  I barely remember being in the ambulance. 

Meanwhile, my parents drove up to Dell to pick up Reese so that Karl could come to the hospital.  Karl got down to the lobby to wait for my parents and Reese vomited.  He managed to get her cleaned up and my parents got her home.  My mom called me a while later to tell me that she checked her temperature and it was 104.4!!  I called the pediatrician's office and made Reese an appointment for my parents to take her in.

Mara had another breathing treatment at the hospital (her 3rd in an hour, she'd also had one in the ambulance).  They did a nose swab to check for RSV.  It was positive.  They took her in for a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia.  This was the most traumatic part of the day for me.  They put her in this contraption that restrained her (I find it very funny that the kids in the pictures are smiling).  She couldn't move and had her hands pinned above her head.  I started crying and she was screaming.  Thankfully, it was over soon and the x-ray looked fine...no pneumonia.  The doctor at the ER decided that she was good to go home.  She sent us home with a nebulizer machine and a prescription for Albuterol (which is what they give asthma patients). 

The doctor could not find anything wrong with Reese, so he thought she might have a stomach virus.  She only vomitted the one time.  Her fever came down last night and today she is feeling well.  Mara has had a few breathing treatments at home and is sounding much better.  I'm hoping they are on the mend, but I've said that before.

This whole experience has taught me 3 things:

1)  There is no point complaining about any of this.  They are my kids and it is my job to take care of them.  It doesn't matter how many times I get vomited on or pooped on...I signed up for this.

2)  My husband and my parents are SO helpful!  I could not have done all of this by myself.

3)  My kids have been sick multiple times, but when I was at the Children's hospital, I kept thinking, "There are other kids in this building who don't get to go home today.  There are other parents who are way more worried than I am."  I am counting my blessings that all of this illness is temporary. 

And to end on...a cute picture of Mara in her hospital gown.  I thought the diaper hanging out the back was adorable.