Loving, learning and laughing: The week from *!?^"&*

Here is a run down of our week:

Monday: Shawn's arm hurts from over doing it at the gym. I work his shift at the office. Shawn calls to tell me I'm lucky though because he changed one very messy diaper. I get home and also get a messy diaper. Shawn heads to town. The second car runs out of gas and even after AAA comes it won't start, tow truck hauls it to our mechanic.

Tuesday: Our day starts out at 3 am with a sick little girl. In the morning she is playing well and throwing up between plays. Towards afternoon/evening she gets crabby and wants to be held. She throws up at 9 pm. We make it through the night without any mishaps and think we are out of the woods. Find out that the second car will cost us $600-700 to fix. More then the car is worth. We are down to only one car.

Wednesday: Evie wakes up at 5 am and wants water. She drinks at 5, 6 and 7 am sleeping in between. At 8 am she throws up everything she's drank. By 9:30 am she hasn't kept any water down in over 12 hours. She is very sleepy. I call the nurses hotline and they tell me to give her water in little bits every 5-10 minutes. I start to have a not so great, mother's intuition feeling and called her pediatrician. They said bring her in. I made an 11 am appointment to see her pediatrician. It was 10:38a.m. As I made the appointment I was holding her over the sink as she was sick again. I had to call Shawn to come so I could have the car. He was in the middle of two appointments. I dropped him back at work and then headed to town. At her appointment, her wonderful pediatrician told me that she was 3-5% dehydrated and needed to be admitted to the hospital. My poor, sweet baby girl!! She had no energy, very lethargic. She just laid on the hospital bed through the examinations and didn't even flinch when they started the IV (they used a cream lidocane to numb her hand some). She wasn't crying. So once they had the IV started I laid in the hospital bed with her watching t.v. and cuddling her. I watched her exhausted self sleep. I can't even begin to imagine what 50% dehydrated looks like if she is only 3-5%. By the time Shawn and Grandma Lyn got to the hospital, at 5:30 p.m., she had perked up some, and she has had a wet diaper. But we were doing a lot of cuddling. She stopped dry heaving and throwing up by 6 p.m. We were able to get some fluids in her but not enough to go home. They also monitor her wet diapers and she didn't have one until approximately 3 pm. She even woke up dry. It was so hard to see her not herself. The biggest thing I missed besides her beautiful smile was her talking. She didn't say one word all day. Even though I still don't know what she's saying, I still love to hear her jabber. Shawn ran home to get a few things for me for overnight and then they left at 9 pm. I was supposed to go to the Cities for my continuing education/homecoming, but I was going to have to wait till she got out of the hospital. Sleeping was interesting. I started out with her laying on top of me and then eventually she rolled to my left side. Unfortunately she was on her IV cord and I woke her up trying to get it out from under her. She struggled for several minutes to get comfortable and ended up on top of me again. By morning she was lengthwise across the width of the bed and I was sleeping at the bottom half of the bed. Very uncomfortable. The nurses came in several times to check her vitals without waking her up. When we had checked in I learned that there are 5 other toddlers admitted for the same symptoms and related dehydration. The only connection is that they had all been to the YMCA's daycare, including Evie.

Thursday: We got up for the day at 7am. Between 7 and 9 am she drinks 10 oz of pedialyte and eats a cup of rice cereal with applesauce. Yeah!! And she is perked up, moving during exams, and doing a little bit of talking. Her pediatrician comes and after an exam and talking with me, states she will release her whenever I want. By 10am her IV is out and we are on our way home. Once home she becomes a little more clingy and doesn't want to drink much. I get ready to go to the Cities. When I leave she is smiling and playing on the couch. By 3pm, Grandma tells me she hasn't been eating or drinking much. At 5pm, Shawn tells me she's started to throw up again (which her pediatrician had warned me about.) At 6pm, he warns me that she isn't doing well, has vomited, and that he may have to bring her to the ER. We stay in touch with the pediatric nurses and monitor for dehydration. I am sick to my stomach and missing my baby girl. I break into tears being unable to hold and comfort my little girl. At 7pm, Shawn calls and tells me she is drinking again and they've managed to get food in her. At 7:30pm he calls and I can hear her animatedly talking in the background. I nearly cry. It is so good to hear her voice. They are in bed by 9pm. She is doing good. The nurses in the pediatric floor tell us that one of the other patient's has tested positive for the rotovirus, and that it has been traced back to the YMCA. Shawn says he talked to the daycare there and they are taking all precautions and disinfecting the whole room.

Friday: I call before my classes start and she had a great night. She is drinking and eating. At approximately 3pm I get a call from Shawn that Evie is once again throwing up and not drinking fluids. We keep in contact for the next few hours and things aren't going well. He again tells me that he may be admitting her to the hospital. I repack my bags in case this happens. Tonight she is crying almost constant. The pediatric floor recommends giving her Jello, which seemed to do it. By 7pm she is once again eating and doing well. In bed again by 9pm. Thankfully, Shawn's parents were there to help him. I find out that during her crying she is calling for me. It breaks my heart and I miss her even more.

Saturday: No more throwing up. She is keeping food and fluids down. She has a down time following her nap but perks up within an hour. I arrive home at 7pm and she gives me a big smile and lots of hugs. She is eating, talking, dancing, and drinking.

Today: Eating normal diet, but not much. Both eating and drinking are decreased. Her affect is much better but she does a lot more crying and whining then normal. No vomiting. We are so thankful. I put her to bed at 8:30pm because of the crying. She is sleeping for long periods (9pm-5am) but will not go back to sleep after getting up so early. This may be the reason for her irritability. She gets her first bath and changed into her regular clothes since Monday. It's been an uphill battle because we want her to be herself and to eat and drink like regular, it's hard to watch her eat so little and drink so little, knowing where it could lead to.

So that has been our week. It has been very stressful. I feel like I've gain a bunch of new gray hairs. It is so hard watching your baby go through things like this. The weekend was going to be hard anyhow, as it was the first time I have been away overnight from my baby since she was born. Her illness made it 50x worse. It was also a lesson in learning to let go and trust others and especially to trust God. As a mom, I have a tendency to forget that He is in control and that He loves and cares for her more then I can ever imagine. In addition to this lesson, I now have 20x more empathy for those parents whose children are hospitalized for cancer treatments, surgeries or severe emergencies. I thank God that she is on the mend. She was out of the hospital in 21 hours. The other children where there 24 hours-6 days. So it definitely could've been worse. I am nervous to bring her back to the Y. Tomorrow starts a new week and I can't wait!! Here's to normal!