well, there's a reason i haven't updated in over 10 days. it's because the illness in this house exploded and involved a few scary moments. on the 18th, abby developed worsening cold symptoms, including a major cough that made me worried she had picked up my pneumonia. so, off to the doctor we went. they did a chest x-ray and didn't see anything, so that was a relief. however, she did have a raging ear infection (in the doctor's words, "red and bulging eardrum"), so we got antibiotics for that. the next day, she started having trouble breathing, and of course i flashed back to when she had croup last year and couldn't breathe. so, off to the doctor we went AGAIN, where they prescribed her steroids to reduce the inflammation in her airway. she's now being evaluated for asthma since she's had these breathing problems twice now, and having had RSV as an infant puts her at higher risk for asthma. so she missed school thursday that week, and then school was canceled due to snow the next day. the weekend passed relatively uneventfully. then on monday (the 22nd), ian's nose exploded, and he started coughing. i could tell by the cough that he had croup. so, we did the home remedies for croup, which didn't really work too well. then he had a terrible night of sleep. the next morning, he was having trouble breathing, and was wheezing quite a bit. so, off to the doctor we went again. they were pretty freaked out by his breathing, so they gave him a nebulizer treatment of albuterol, which didn't help at all. they decided to send us to the ER, so we went to borders so brian could take abby home while ian and i went to the ER. we got there about 12:30, and they saw him pretty quickly, and gave him a nebulizer of something else (something epinephrine) and a shot of steroids. all of that helped him quite a bit, but they still decided to admit him to the hospital to stay overnight. this all happened exactly one year to the day after abby had her croup experience and ambulance ride to the ER. december 23rd is heretofore known in this house as "croup day." they discharged us the next morning and he's been doing much better. i decided i wasn't comfortable bringing the kids to church that night, which i would have had to do because brian was working, so my very nice sub agreed to fill in for christmas eve.
abby was VERY into santa this year, so that was entertaining. we read "twas the night before christmas" before bed, and put out the cookies and milk for santa. we also sprinkled reindeer food on the patio. we used the NORAD santa tracker, and she was very interested in seeing all the places he went. after she went to bed, brian and i stayed up and wrapped like crazy. i had to go to bed before it got too late, though, because i had gotten next to no sleep in the hospital with ian, so brian did the majority of the wrapping.
christmas morning, abby was up before 7, despite getting to bed late, so we all got up and opened presents. the kids loved everything we got, and we had a nice relaxing time. then we packed up to head to menasha, and got up there around noon. had a nice lunch there (hot beef, macaroni and cheese, cheesy potatoes, pickles, veggies and dip, and christmas cookies), then opened presents. ian was a grump most of the day because he was sleep-deprived and still not feeling too great, so that was unfortunate. lots of nice presents, and abby had fun playing with james and hayden. around 4:30 we headed over to my parents' for supper (pork tenderloin, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, raspberry applesauce salad, and christmas cookies). ian ate a gigantic supper and was definitely ready for bed, so we decided to postpone presents till the morning. and we decided against going down to springfield due to weather and ian's illness. so presents the next morning went very well, and it was a low-key day. i got a mini-stepper, which abby calls the "mommy-stepper," so we're all calling it that now. brian got a new ipod shuffle to replace his old one that broke. we came back last night and all slept very well.
so, that's what's been going on here. next thing we're looking forward to is brian's week of vacation sometime in january. if we can find a good deal, we'll go up to the dells and stay a night up there someplace with an indoor waterpark and let the kids go nuts. new year's eve is the 9th anniversary of brian and i meeting, so that's a special day for us too.
No comments:
Post a Comment