A crazy week...

We're finally getting back to normal after a crazy week. It all started on sunday after Aidan's pinewood derby. We had the girls with us at Oxford Valley mall to see Aidan participate in the district race. The night before Brynn was up coughing through the night with what sounded like croup. We gave her some tylenol in the morning and she was her normal self so off we went to the mall. Aidan's race was at 1:30 but by the time all the boys register it seems to take forever. Aidan's car ran in two separate races the first one he lost and the second one he won. They have a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner for overall times. He didn't place in those but was still thrilled to be able to race and win one of them.

By the time the race was over Brynn was starting to punk out and fell asleep on the way home. She took a 3 hour nap and when she got up had a fever. We gave her more tylenol and she kind of just laid around watching tv. Every time her medicine would be close to wearing off her fever would spike again. We noticed too that her breathing seemed to be like she was out of breath, taking quick short breaths but she didn't have any wheezing or seemed to be bothered by it that we thought it was just the fever. Monday morning she didn't want to get up in the morning. We brought her down to our room and she kind of just laid on her bed dozing on and off. I called the pediatrician and got an appt for 1:30 all the while she was doing the weird breathing on and off. Tim was working from home so he took her on his lunch break. When the pediatrician saw her she checked a pulse ox to see her oxygen level and it was down to 87. She said the best bet was for her to be at the er to get checked out. Later Tim told me that she was considering sending her by ambulance but decided to let Tim drive her right over.

I met Tim at the er after Grammy came to stay with Molly. Brynn looked pretty sick lying in the bed. Her fever started to come back up and she was still very lethargic and doing her short breaths. The pediatrician that saw her didn't like how she sounded. She said her one lung wasn't passing any air and the other had some crackling. We found out the weird breathing she was doing is a classic sign for respiratory distress. She ordered her to have a chest xray but wanted to start a continuous breathing treatment for an hour to get her lungs opened up. For those of you who know our Brynnie we thought for sure we were in for a battle. She was unbelievably good the whole time. She did everything the doctors asked of her and wore the mask for the breathing treatment without any complaints. She went to get a chest xray and it confirmed she had double pneumonia!! We couldn't believe how sick she was when less than 24 hours before she was running around. The pediatrician ordered her to be put on iv antibiotics , a steroid and zpack to take by mouth. She also wanted her to continue having breathing treatments every 2 hours through the night. We were glad she was able to stay at Abington because there was talk of sending her down to CHOP. They had a hard time to get her iv in, partially because she was dehydrated from the fever and her chubby little hands they couldn't find a vein. That's how we knew how sick she was when they poked her and she hardly gave a fight. She cried that it hurt but was so good. After 3 nurses and 5 sticks later they got her iv in her elbow. It ended up being a male nurse that she had in the nicu that got the iv in on the first shot. He laughed that we remembered him but at the time they were newborns he was the only male nurse in the nicu and he's a big guy it just seemed funny to us. Besides he reminded us so much of our sister-in-law Christine's brother. He has the exact same voice and looks a lot like him. On side note one of the funny things to happen in the er is Tim said when they first got her back in a bed to check her out one of the nurses asked if her lips were swollen Tim was like no that's her normal lips. Shiloh Jolie-Pitt has nothing on our little girl's pouty lips!!!

We finally got up to a room around 7 pm after being in the er since 2. Brynn was pretty tired but was a trooper the whole time. They put an oxygen tent over her so she would be more comfortable through the night and we would have to hold the flow by tube by her mouth. I stayed until about 10 and she was sleeping pretty sound.Tim stayed the night with her and slept on a cot in her room. He got up every couple hours to help with her breathing treatment which just consisted of holding a tube near her mouth for 10 minutes. He said she would wake up a couple times and ask for his hand. He really is the best Daddy around. I came back the next morning. Molly and Aidan were well looked after from Aunt Donna, Aunt Chris, Aunt Patti and Aunt Nancy. They all took turns covering them so we didn't have to worry and could focus on Brynn. I stayed the whole day tues. Brynn looked a lot better and talked to me most of the day. She still didn't have much energy and stayed in bed watching tv. She also had no appetite but they weren't concerned because she had the iv in. They continued the breathing treatments and the oxygen throughout that day and night. She didn't need to sleep with the oxygen tent that night because her levels were staying up. Tim slept over again. What a trooper he was. I came home a little earlier that night to be with Molly and Aidan. Molly did ok without Brynn around. The only time she asked was when it was time to go to bed. She wanted to know where she was because she wasn't in her crib. I guess she must've thought she was sleeping all day. The second night she asked again and started to whine a little for Brynn and Daddy. I told her that maybe the next day we would take her to visit Brynn.

I called Tim on Wed morning and he said Brynn had a great night and that the pediatrician wanted to stop her oxygen and iv and see how she made out on her own. They wanted to make sure she was drinking enough too. Her appetite started to come back and she ate a banana and soft pretzel for breakfast. When I got to the hospital it was almost noon and she just was back in bed getting her last iv antibiotic. Tim said she was running around the whole floor for the past 2 hours. They said as soon as she was done that she could go home. We were amazed. The doctors were so impressed with her rapid recovery. So around 1:00pm she came home with 2 antibiotics, a steroid and a inhaler that she needs for the next week. We came home and surprised Molly and Aunt Nancy when we came in. Molly and Brynn gave each other the biggest hug!! It was so cute. Of course it wasn't long before they were back to fighting over toys. Brynn had her appetite back and ate another banana at home, goldfish, yogurt and pizza for dinner.

Today she is back to her old self you would never know she's even sick. She's been ok with taking the medicine and the inhaler. One of the antibiotics is horrible tasting which they warned us. I gag at the smell of it. We give it to her with a dropper and then give her a hershey kiss after and so far she's been ok with it. I'm sure that will change after a few more doses of that. Of course that's the one she's on for a week 3 times a day. The others are only once a day and they're finished tomorrow. Today was such a beautiful day that the girls were outside playing all day. Hopefully the fresh air will do her good. Brynn loved being outside and back to playing with her sister!!! We're happy to have her home!!!