easter 2013

Our Easter weekend was FAR from the ordinary.

We had saved some Easter activities for the last minute, like egg dying and doing our Resurrection Eggs.  I also needed to finalize church clothes and get Easter baskets ready.  All the stuff that you do at the last minute, when you tend to be a last-minute person.  And when you don't have much else planned for the day, there's time for these things.

 

But instead we woke up to wailing screams coming from Gavin's room on Saturday morning.  He has never woke up like that, and being 6am and knowing he never wakes up that early, my booty got out of bed pretty fast to check on him.  His heart was racing and was struggling to breathe. I had no idea what was going on.  I wondered if he was having an allergic reaction to something. We've just begun dealing with some food allergies, so I had no clue if this could be it.  He hadn't been even the slightest bit sick when we put him to bed Friday night.  We tried his new inhaler and waited for it to work. 

But as more time went on, I didn't think things were right.  So we headed to immediate care. I felt more comfortable having a doctor tell me he just has a cold and some chest stuff going on and breathing treatments will do the trick.

Poor thing moaned and groaned and his heart continued to race as he was breathing so hard.

He got an x-ray, the doctor on call called his normal doctor and by noon we were being checked into the hospital.

While Dave and the kids were at their soccer game, this was us in the exam room...

 

 

 For a few minutes right after a breathing treatment, he got a burst of energy.  Poor thing had to go through quite a bit of torture to get x-rays, a throat swab for RSV and blood work.  He screamed bloody murder every time anyone touched him besides me.

 

 We had no idea how long we'd be in the hospital.  We weren't sure at first if it was just for them to evaluate him for a bit, or if we were just waiting for his doctor to come and tell us more.  We didn't know what plans to make for the kids, or Easter, or anything.

Daddy got there shortly after the soccer game (good thing those are only 20 minutes long).

And he became a Daddy's boy for most of the rest of the day.

 

He was put on oxygen right when we checked in and didn't get to take that tube off till we were leaving.  It is no fun for anyone when a 16 month old has to wear an oxygen tube and a oxygen monitor for 2 days.  I'll let you imagine him climbing chairs and beds, and also the ordeal as he slept and tossed and rolled around his crib...all with tubes connected to him.

 



While these 2 boys were doing just fine on their own for awhile, I snuck home to get things ready for Easter.  I didn't know yet if we'd be home that night or in the morning or what.  But I figured I'd get their baskets ready just in case.

 

 



Back at the hospital, we watched more March Madness.  Well, as much as you can watch as you chase a baby on steroids around a hospital room and untangle his cords constantly.  And some sweet friends brought us Applebees at 10pm, and it was just what I needed!

 

 

The first half of the day he was dead weight, laying on top of us and not moving an inch. The 2nd half of the day we could tell our little boy was coming back to us.

Sometime in the day we ended up finding out that we had to stay there until he could sleep without his oxygen levels dropping.  So we would be there one night for sure, and possibly a second.

It was a rough and short night.  4 hours of sleep for all of us.  And then a very very cranky and hyper boy from about 7am on on Easter morning.
It was not the way I had planned to get my heart in the right place for Easter.  To be honest, there were a few times that morning I forgot completely about it being Easter.  I was thankful for worship music on Pandora more than ever before.  Even if I was cranky and trying to entertain a little boy, our room was filled with songs of praise, and it helped me focus my heart during the breaks in chasing.

 

 

There were 3 hours in the night that  Gavin seemed super agitated and overly tired but wouldn't go to sleep and yanked his oxygen tube off in anger about 25 times until finally passing out. I was thankful Dave had stayed for part of this time before going home to sleep since there was only one bed.  And so he could take the kids to church in the morning.

 

 

The kids stopped by before church to bring Gavin's Easter basket to him and so Dave could give me a quick 30 minute break.  As much break as one can get when trying to sit in the same room with everyone and tune everything out.

 

 

I think the kids were relieved to see their crazy brother climbing on everything he possibly could and acting just fine. The only problem is that he did not accomplish sleeping the night before without oxygen levels dropping too low.  So we were possibly looking at another night.

 

 

I was glad to be at the hospital for most of the day on Saturday.  I could tell our poor baby was sick enough that I knew he was being taken care of.  But after he started bouncing back after getting breathing treatments in him, and the constant oxygen, it got harder and harder to be in that room.

 

They finally let us unhook him from oxygen and leave the room.  We enjoyed our Easter lunch in the hospital cafeteria.

 

After lunch, Dave and I switched places and I went home for a nap, and to get out of the clothes I had been wearing since the previous morning...knowing that we may be needing to prepare for another night.  I left him with the goal of getting Gavin to nap, as this "sleep time" was our only hope of getting another shot to see if he could keep his levels up.  If he could accomplish this at naptime, maybe we'd be able to go home. 

When I got home and laid my head on my pillow, I got a text that say "he's sleeping, and his levels look good!"  I fell fast asleep and woke up to another text telling me the Doctor finally got there, and was dismissing him!  YAY!

We finally found out it was pneumonia.  And on top of that, we may be dealing with asthma also.

We were glad to finally have answers and know that we can go home and treat it.

 

We made it out about 4pm, and dinner with Dave's family had been moved to 5, hoping we'd be out by then.  So we made it just in time.

In all the extra time that the kids had at Nana and Papa's, Taylor designed the centerpieces - one table had Jesus on the cross, and the other table had him rising from the grave.

 



And the kids finally got to dye some Easter eggs.

 

 

I considered trying to get the kids to do a non-hospital picture all together, but I think I was too tired to even mess with it.  So no cute Easter pictures of the kids our the whole family.

But I think the pictures we do have are a good depiction of our Easter.

 



 But there was nothing like finally being back home.
And so thankful our little one was feeling much better.

 

He's been a breathing treatment champ.  He sits perfectly snuggling into us during most of them. He claps for himself when he's done.  And he has even asked for them a few times, or gotten upset when it's finished.

 

It's no fun seeing your kiddos sick. But in between the steroid induced hyperactivity and fights with the oxygen tubes, it was really a sweet time with our littlest one.  And I think he was loving the one on one attention. We are just praying that if asthma is in his future, these stays at the hospital do not become all too common.