Holidays in the Hospital

Well, as promised, here is the information about our recent hospital stay. I must say, I've been dreading the first sickness for Emilyn...stressing about what I'd do, what she'd get, how we'd know she was sick, etc, etc. For this being a pretty intense scenario, I feel pretty good about how I handled my emotions, which tend to be panicky, and how JD and I both responded, held up and managed our first crazy experience with sickness. (Warning, this blog is a little long, and there's lots of pics and video's so make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom!)

Christmas was a great day, but throughout the day I noticed Emilyn hadn't eaten as well as usual, her diapers were a bit runny and when we got home from celebrating, I noticed she seemed a bit warm. After taking her temperature (100.5) and calling the pediatrician, we were told that we needed to head in to the ER because anything over 100.4 could be serious with an infant Emi's age. (7 weeks) We rushed out the door, to the closest hospital that our insurance covers, and were immediately checked in to a room. The Dr. and nurses took her temp and it had climbed to 102, so they told us they'd have to do a complete check of her little body. Infants are still formulating their guts and immune systems, so a cold could appear to be something worse, and a serious illness could appear to be something less. This complete check-up included an IV (had to go in her head because they didn't have any small enough for her little arms), a blood draw, a catheter for a urine sample and a spinal tap! When I found all this out I, of course, started crying and was so sad that my little nugget would have to be put through all that trauma. Not to mention, they had to try to insert her IV three different times and her catheter about 10 times because she's so small, and the team was not specialized for children. ugh.... We did have a fantastic ER doc though, with wonderful bedside manner. (A rarity for ER docs, it seems.) ANYWAY, turned out that bacteria showed up in her urine and we had to transfer over to the children's hospital...which meant an ambulance ride for Emi and me.

We arrived at Emmanuel Children's Hospital and were ushered straight up to a room. By this time, it was about 6am and Emilyn was pretty pissed about being poked and stuck since 12am. She was exhausted, cranky and running a fever. Poor baby girl! The Dr's all examined her again and started giving her Tylenol and antibiotics, and then we were finally able to sleep for a few hours. (I think I got 3 hours of sleep within that 36ish hours.) I was running on so much adrenaline and anticipation about what was happening that I absolutely couldn't de-focus enough for sleep. (De-focus...not a word)

Monday, the 26th, we found out that we'd be in the hospital most of the week because of the bacteria found in Emi's urine, and the possible bacteria in her blood. Because of this, and the medicine, we basically spent the last four days zoned out in the hospital, watching TV, reading, hanging out on our computers and taking care of our sick baby...who slept and cried a lot. Emmanuel is a fabulous hospital and provided great staff, including an amazing Dr who specializes in infectious diseases (great for us!), women who came by to offer music therapy for Emi, movie night with popcorn and candy, and much more. We really appreciate the care we received.

After a couple days of meds, lots of sleep and lots of love, Emilyn started getting back to her old self. I started pumping because she seemed to eat better from a bottle while she was feeling yucky, and JD was able to feed her for the first time! We even managed to get a few smiles out of her! Our little chubby-face was obviously feeling much better, which helped us feel much better!

After waiting and waiting for the cultures to come back from her urine and blood, it turned out that she only had ecoli in her urine, which had come from her own little body. She didn't contract the illness from any outside source, and because we caught the infection so early, she hardly had any complications. Her little left kidney was swollen, but that is to be expected. She also didn't have any bacteria in her blood which was a huge relief!

Because Emilyn had to have 72 hours of IV antibiotics, we had to stay in the hospital until this afternoon. Now, in order to keep her infection away, she'll be on oral antibiotics for the next 11 days. We are so glad that we caught this sickness early, and that we have such an amazing hospital close by. As I type this, we are home on our couch drinking a glass of wine while Emilyn sleeps in her swing. (She sure missed that thing!) We are so glad to be home, and I can positively say that we will NEVER forget her first Christmas. It was an eventful one for sure!

Below are some other cute shots we got of Emilyn while we were there! Directly below is a shot of her zoned out...she stayed like that for about five minutes.
Here's Emi giving a little smile, even after they had to give her a new IV.


This is Emi using her super strong, skinny (but finally getting a little chub) legs to stand up straight!

The Holy Family

As promised, here are some pics of us as the holy family on Christmas Eve. :)

Every year our church asks a couple with a newborn to play these roles at the 11pm service at church. This year, we were the lucky ones asked. It's pretty neat actually...in the beginning of the service the couple does a small thing up front and "Mary" has a pregnant belly. (preggo pillow) Then, at the end of the service, as people are walking out of church, the family is in the manger scene with "Jesus" alive and kicking. As cool as it is...I'm not the greatest at acting, or being serious when everyone is staring at me. Although I didn't have to say anything, I did have to walk down the aisle at church, and let me tell you...it was so hard not to laugh and make faces at people (like I did in our wedding), so I just kept my head down. :) JD was a great Joseph. He had to light the advent candles, and had no issues with the super fancy candle lighter. Of course, Emilyn was the star of the show. She was a perfect little angel and slept the whole time people were walking out and looking at us. Some people were even questioning if she was real. All in all, it was a fun experience, and I'm sure Emilyn will love the pictures when she's older. Not to mention...this could become a family tradition, as my sister was baby Jesus when she was a little one.

Emi's First Christmas

Christmas flew by this year...partly because of the typical excitement, but mostly because of the wonder of it being Emilyn's first Christmas, and the fact that we ended up in the hospital that night. (Blog and pictures of that experience to come.) We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

This year Emi was Jesus in the church play, and we were the holy family for the 11:00pm service at church. (Pics of that to come) Emilyn got to wear her super cute Christmas dress from J.D.'s dad and step-mom, and she looked soooo cute. She slept somewhat well that night, and Christmas morning was very enjoyable spending it just the three of us. Emi and I woke up early and made home-made cinnamon rolls. When JD woke up we ate, had our coffee and opened presents, then got ready to head to hang with some family. It was a really nice day...up until we headed to the hospital (but as I said, more about that later).


Now I know Emilyn won't remember this first Christmas, but it was so much fun having her around for my favorite holiday. Having a daughter makes everything that much more fun. I hope you had a wonderful holiday as well! Enjoy the cuteness that she embodies in the pictures! :)

Oh My Hands!

Today was a pretty busy day. Emi, JD and I braved the grocery store and Trader Jo's and man, I don't think I've ever seen it so crowded. Emilyn was a champ however, and not only did she stay awake the whole time, she also stayed awake and was happy the whole time! That's a pretty big accomplishment for her. Recently, as she's been staying awake longer and longer she's been discovering her hands and her tongue. She loves to play with her tongue, sticking it in and out constantly...and tonight while she was mesmerised by the Christmas tree I caught this little gem of a video with her going to town on her little hand. She has only found her thumb a few times, but seems to be ok with sucking her knuckle. Enjoy!

More Emi Faces

Today Emi and I had a few errands to run. Not only do I LOVE the outfit I put her in...but she made some pretty cute faces. In the video she smirks and squeaks quite a bit, and her little face in the pic makes me laugh. Hope you do too!

Sooo cute!

Bright Eyed Emi!

Daddy's Belly Bounce

Some of Emi's Faces

Updates!

Hello family and friends! I've been itching to share pictures and videos with everyone of Emilyn and our family...let's be honest-mainly the baby...but am not too keen on posting everything on Facebook. Here is my solution! I'm really going to try and keep this updated so that you all can be a part of our lives and watch her grow and experience the world, even if it seems like we are worlds away. We want you all to know and love her as much as we do and be a part of our lives. (Especially since I am lacking in the talent of frequent phone calling.) Merry Christmas everyone! We wish we could see all of you around this wonderful time of year!