Another Holiday Season in and out of the Hospital :(

So last year we were in the Hospital around the holidays because we were having Linnea. Then we were in the ER on Christmas Eve because Linnea was dehydrated. This year unfortunately wasn't much different (except none of the trips to the hospital were to have a baby!). Linnea's one year appointment on the 22nd went as well as it could. She is a healthy 19 pounder. She got 5 shots and had to have her blood drawn again to check the lead level. Everything went downhill after that though!

I was sort of leary on having the shots done because I knew she had been battling a bit of a low grade fever and a cold the night before. She, however didn't have a fever when they took it at the office so they went ahead with the shots. Well, 11pm came and we heard a different cough and cry come from Linnea's room. So I rushed in there to find the peanut burning up. I immediately took her temp and saw the dreaded 103.9, almost 104. I woke Chris and we decided to call an on call nurse to see what to do. I had a feeling we would be sent to the ER but with shots, babies sometimes get fevers so we thought we would double check. We had also been giving her infant tylenol and it was still this high. So the nurse listened to her symptoms and then listened to her breathing and determined her breathing was too rapid and we needed to go in to get her checked. So we packed the diaper bag quick and bundled up and out the door we went.

Luckily there wasn't a wait so we were seen right away. She still had her fever, but it was very hard for the nurses to listen to her breathing since she was screaming just from the stethoscope being taken out. I think she was still traumatized from the 5 shots earlier that day. Little did she know something worse than shots was coming...anyways, we made it to an exam room and waited for a doctor to come in. After listening to our story they decided they needed to be on the safe side and take urine so she had a catheter put in, take blood so she had an IV put in and then we did an X Ray. Quite possibly the worst thing I've seen her go through. She needed to be strapped down for the X-Ray and I had to hold her head straight and no binkie was allowed. TERRIBLE! But they did find a bit of pneumonia in her chest. A very small bit, but enough to have part of the antibiotics put in her IV. At least the IV was already in. It was hard for us and the doctors to decide what to do because the fever could have been from the shots but since I knew she had a fever before I didn't think that's what it was from.

SO I am glad we decided to go but very glad we didn't have to stay the night. We headed home around 3am and were told we needed to either come back in 24 hrs to get the rest of the antibiotics or go to our clinic to get it. When morning came, I decided to call the ER to make sure I understood our directions correctly. I am glad I called because they said the radiologist who looked at the X Ray in the morning didn't see pneumonia after all so after talking with that nurse and our doctor we decided not to bring her back in. I kept her appt on the 24th at the clinic just in case her fever was back or she seemed sick but ended up not using it. We thought she was better.

Linnea and I headed to my parents house late afternoon on the 23rd so we wouldn't have to get there on the 24th by ourselves (Chris had to work until 2:30). We had a great time baking and decorating cookies and watching A Christmas Story and Linnea seemed to be on the mend until about 11:30pm when she awoke and couldn't get back to sleep. My mom rocked her while I cleaned up with my dad, then we all went to bed. Linnea with me. She just couldn't do it on her own. I thought something else was wrong now. In the morning though she seemed better again, not a real high fever. Just one that she always gets after her shots. So we didn't go to the appt. The weather was pretty bad and I thought she was okay. So we went on with Christmas Eve.

We went to the 3:00 church service and when we got home Linnea was very hungry and tired. Megan gave her her bottle and then laid her down. She slept for like 2 hours! Missed dinner but got up for some gifts and leftovers but didn't seem quite herself. Boo. We went home that night and woke up Christmas Day and had our lil family gift opening and breakfast, took naps and then headed over to my parents again. But we only stayed until about 5 before deciding to go back to the ER. Linnea wouldn't eat without screaming and her temp was back to 102.5 on tylenol and motrin.

SO this time when we went in we said it seemed like she had a sore throat. They took her temp, which had gone down (yay) and looked in her mouth. And there they saw the problem! She has been battling Stomatitus, a viral infection which attacks when the immune system is down and leaves painful canker sore type sores in people's mouths. It's quite common but who would think to look in babies mouths, until they show signs of painful swallowing and chewing which didn't happen until Christmas Night.

So anyways, they were able to prescribe some medicine for her to help make her more comfortable but suggested she not attend the wedding because she was contagious and really needed to rest. So Brian and Megan got married without a flower girl in attendance, but Grandma Sarah and Aunt Allison got to watch Linnea who was really on the mend!

We took one more trip to Urgent Care on Sunday the 27th because we were worried she may be getting dehydrated. It is so hard for her to eat and drink since it hurts so she has been consuming less which leads to less wet diapers. She only had 2 barely wet ones all day. So in we went to Pediatric Urgent Care. They confirmed she was slightly dehydrated but not enough for an IV. They said we just need to keep trying different ways to get her fluids. So we bought a variety of pedialyte, pretty much baby gatorade and water down everything she eats and so far she has had enough wet diapers!

Whew. I truly hope next year we stay out of the hospitals and I hope that all of you who read this and your kiddoes are all healthy! Sick babies are no fun! I'ts so hard to know what is wrong and what to do!

The good news is, is she is getting back to normal and her lead level went from 8.3 to 2!!!! Hooray!