Sick Babies

We are finally on the up and up after a couple of weeks of a very sick household.  It all started with        
Walter, i remember laying in bed litsening to his croop set in.  Just thinking about it makes my stomach clench in knot.  After all our experience with it I have learned to let him sleep as long as he is able to. It was about 6 in the morning when it woke him up.  He felt warm which was unusual because he has never had a fever with any other episode. After finding the thermometer and realizing he had 102 fever we started him on tylenol.  As soon as the doctors office was open I called and got an appointment. In the meantime he layed in the recliner eating popsicle after popsicle:) I have a steriod prescription at home I can give him but it tastes nasty and you have to do it in seven different squirts.  It is much easier to take him in and have them give him the shot.  At the doctors he was still having severe problems breathing so they did a breathing treatment along with his shot.  He was upset about the shot and this is the first time he remembered it later. Throughout the day he would rub his leg and do his best to tell us about it.  This series of events is usually enough to stop an episode, but that was not the case this time.  He came down even harder with it the next night and we spent lots of time outside breathing in the cold air.  This is the first time I truly felt like a mother of two, Usually i can just focus on what he needs and not worry about anything else. But I found myself juggling his needs and the needs of his sister eating every hour and half.  So for the first time in the two years of being a mom I had to wake Jason up for some help during the night.  Together we made it through the night and headed back to the doctor the next day.  They were very concerned where it wasn't following its normal pattern so they ran some tests and sent us to get some chest xrays to rule out pneumonia.  There we found he had bronchittis. We got a prescription for him and along with one day of a lot of sleeping we got it under control.  He still has his nasty cough back though,  We had finally gotten rid of it.  The first night of this episode was exactly one year later after all of this started. While he was still getting healed up Miss Allis came down with the flu. A four week old baby should never have to throw up, there should be a law against it.  After a day she seemed to be doing better so I sighed a breath of relief.  The next day I came down with it and found myself stuck in the bathroom with two babies who needed me to take care of them.  I remember at one point(all kind of hazy) sitting on the toilet having to nurse Allis there and asking Walter in all seriousness to please not need me just for one day.  That afternoon Allis was much fussier than her normal self  but admist everything I tried to not think to much of it.. Jason took the next day off of work to help. I was so thankful he did because I started my morning out sending a text to my sisters asking for advice on a then five week old baby with a fever.  I called in and snagged the last appointment of the day her doctor had.  It wasn't until 2:20   When we got there they found she had a double ear infection, They decided to draw some blood to insure it wasn't bacterial.  They started out with the traditional heel prick they finally thought they got enough blood after some serious trying only for the test to come back inconclusive.  So they moved on to actually drawing her blood.  They first attempted her arm after they stuck her they had to dig around.  Allis is such a content baby, I have never heard her cry like she did.  It was heartwrenching.  Thankfully Jason had the foresight to take Walter out of the room before they began. She finally cried so hard she gave up and just layed there while they dug around.  They finally quit and called the doctor in.  He didn't have any more luck after a few trys elsewhere he finally drew blood out of a vein in her head.  I was pretty much sobbing at this point, and scooped her in my arms as quickly as I could.  While we waited for results we went to the cafeteria to eat there Walter dumped chocolate milk all over.  We just sat there and stared at it for a minute before we found the umph to get up. Thankfully the lady working could see the look of defeat on our faces and was a sweetheart while she did most of the cleanup.  We went back to the doctors and kept waiting and finally found out it wasn't bacterial so she could get an antibiotic shot.  So once again they held my baby down to stick her with two very long needles.  I hope I never hear that cry out of her again:(  We then waited yet another 20 minutes to make sure she didn't react to it.  Bless Walter's little heart he tryed to be good and patient but 4.5 hours at the doctor was pushing it for sure.  Anyways we finally got home and got everyone settled just in time for her to start throwing up.  After consulting with the doctor on call we decided holding off taking her in unless she threw up again.  After a very long night with a sick baby We woke the next morning with me thinking she was ok.  Just as I let everyone know she was good she started throwing up again.  I hauled Walter with everything for his birthday and Christmas to a good friends house.  She met up with his Aunt Jaymie in fort collins for me while I took the baby into the er.  Jason headed in from work and met me there.  They gave her a nausea pill to settle her stomach and started her on pedialite through a bottle.  They were taking this route in hopes of not having to admit her and letting me care for her at home.  We left 5 hours later.  With Walter at Jaymie's jason was  able to go back to work and I could focus solely on Allis.  Over the next few days we did mostly pedialite and very frequent feedings.  Everytime I would attempt to get her back solely on milk she threw up again.  On the morning of the 24th I met up with Tyler to get Walter back home for the rest of his birthday and Christmas the next day.  It felt so good to hold him I hate when he is away from me.  That night we had fun celebrating his birthday.  Allis threw up again:(  Back to pedialite.  Christmas we all healed up and waited for Jason to work half a day before we celebrated.  Somewhere among all of this Jason had the flu too, I honestly can't remember when though.  After two follow up appointments this week with both babies getting thumbs up we are finally smiling again at our home.   Lots of info I know , soon I will put Allis' blessing photos, pics from visitors, walters birthday, and christmas on here to share!  Right now my little man just woke himself up from coughing.  Motherhood calls:)