Let's celebrate

As you can probably guess, my birthday wasn't all that fun without Conor here and being worried about Elle, and then having to take her into the hospital again.

So yesterday we made cupcakes (by we I mean I made a batch that didn't turn out, so Conor did the next batch and I helped ice them!).  We went to the grocery store and bought picnic stuff and headed to the park. 

It is awkward picnicing with a 16 month old!  She just kept grabbing this and that and taking a bite and throwing the rest on the ground.

I think we did get some good into her and Finnian before we dug into the cupcakes.  They were yum!

Conor was going to make me an ice cream cake... but I think instead we will make it (as well as some cupcakes) for the little birthday party we are throwing for Finn in a couple of weeks.

"Dr" cupcake for Conor, "30!" Cupcake for me... the other two are self explanatory!
(I don't know why it does this some times... but if you are reading this on a laptop or desk top you have to click on the picture to see the whole thing)

Hospital trip #2

Well I was right. Elle took a long time to fall asleep and woke up again at 12:30 breathing faster so I gave her the inhaler. I went back to bed but I could still hear her breathing, and it wasn't slowing down 20 minutes later.

I already had our bags packed so I woke up Finn, got his shoes and jacket, called our friends to say I would bring him there (as was per-arranged) and got Elle and our stuff into the car.

Finn seemed like he was going to be okay, but then started crying when I tried to do the hand-off. So Kate stayed in the car with Elle while I went in and put Finn to bed. He was so cute, his lip was kind of quivering and he had years in his eyes, but I tucked him in and said Mommy or Daddy would get him in the morning and he could play with his friend Tom when he woke up... He said "I love you Mommy" and went to sleep!

Elle and I got to emergency, and this time her oxygen levels were perfect, so we weren't rushed back.  Glad she didn't need to go on oxygen, but we then had to wait over an hour to see a doctor.  It was okay though, she was pretty happy playing and wandering around.  We finally got in, and they did the "blast" treatment where they give her the 2 puffers every 20 minutes for an hour, and that really helped the wheeze.  But after that she was still needing the ventalin puffer more than every 3 hours, so the ER doc referred her to the pediatrician to see if we should go home or be admitted.  He thought she would be in around 730, but we had to wait until nearly 11!  Meanwhile, I brought her back to the ER waiting room because they had her on a regular bed in the ER and I couldn't keep her occupied there without her trying to get off... and I couldn't let her walk around the ward because the rooms were only partitioned by curtains and she would just wander anywhere.  While hanging out in the waiting room, Conor's plane arrived from Rome... so he came straight to the hospital.

So the pediatrician finally saw us and decided to admit us just to make sure we could start spacing out her puffers more that 3 hours before going home.  She mentioned that it's looking like this IS asthma, which they usually don't diagnose this early, especially before 2.  Since her last episode was at the same time as a cold, they weren't really concerned about it BEING asthma.  But this time there was no runny nose, and just a dry cough, so the pediatrician said that if within a month if she has another NON COLD related breathing problem, she will probably start Elle on a preventative asthma plan. So instead of just giving her the inhaler when she has breathing problems, they will prescribe a very low dose steroid inhaler that she will take every day to prevent any breathing problems.

Pray this is not the case, because that's obviously a pain, and also just scary, we don't want her to have some "chronic" illness, even if it's as manageable as asthma is these days.

Conor got us settled upstairs, let me grab some lunch, and then he went and got Finnian and they had some nice nap time and time together.  I was told around 4 that Elle was doing really well and they were just waiting for the doctor to come officially discharge us... any minute they said.  FINALLY at 7, Elle was exhausted and had only napped for an hour because there were some loud patients and nurses in our room, they called the doctor to see where he was and he came about 20 minutes later.  Discharged her with a prescription for prednisolne and told me to give her the inhaler every 4 hours the next day, and then just a couple times the following day (today).

Conor and Finn picked us up, we picked up the prescription, got home, fed the kids a bit, got them to bed and then had dinner ourselves and just rested for a bit.  I was HOPING for a big sleep in, since the kids went to bed late... we all woke up at 7am though.  Which wasn't all that bad considering both the kids slept right through the night and Conor and I both got 9 hours of sleep :)

My 30s, so far

- Elle woke up at 5:10am.  Happy Birthday Mommy!!

- She was coughing... cue paranoia about breathing problems and hospital trips.

- Gave Elle the inhaler around 7 because she was breathing a bit fast.

- Elle had a short nap at 9, I turned on the TV for Finn and crawled back into bed for a bit.

- Dropped the kids off at our friends place so that I could go out for lunch by myself!!

- Picked kids up, Elle not sounding good again.

- Got home, gave Elle the inhaler, put her down for nap.

- As I knew would happen, she took FOREVER to fall asleep.  Whenever she has a morning nap, even if it's short and really early, it always means she will have a later afternoon nap... plus the inhaler which sometimes makes her a bit hyper, I think she fell asleep around 245.

- She woke up at 345, blah!

- We hung out, played, read books, ordered pizza hut for my birthday dinner :)

- Inhaler again at 630... bedtime at 730... it's now 9 and Elle is STILL not asleep, I gave her the inhaler AGAIN!  The breathing is not nearly as bad as it was that night I took her to the hospital, but it's still a bit fast.

I'm pretty sure we will have to go in again in the middle of the night.  I want to go to sleep right now to get some sleep, but there's no point if she isn't asleep yet.  I have her stuff packed and a bag for Finn packed and if we do go I will bring him to our friends place again (THAT should be interesting, I don't think it will go over to well with him!)

Oh, and did I mention I rented a movie to watch tonight?  Yeah, total waste of $6 since I have to return it by 7pm tomorrow.

Happy 30th!  haha.

We're still alive!

Well we didn't have a great day yesterday, so I never got around to blogging.

Friday was great though.  We went to playgroup and then over to the Andersons for lunch and some fun.  When we got home there was a notice that there were two parcels at the post office for me.  Yay! The two parcels I have been waiting 2 months for!  So as soon as Elle was up we went to the mall and picked them up and then came back home.  One parcel was my maternity clothes from mom and a few goodies for the kids.  The other was from Conor's brother and sister-in-law, some last minute things we couldn't fit in our suitcases they shipped us as a going away gift :)  Finn was happy to see some more of his books.  All evening Finn was being soo sweet.  Anytime I asked him to do something for me he would just right up and do it.  When I would do anything for him, give him a cookie, give him dinner, grab his book, he would say "thank you mommy for this" in the sweetest little voice!  He also kept coming up and randomly saying he wanted to give me a big hug.  What a kid!

Saturday was NOT so great.  I did manage to make pancakes in the morning... but I was just getting over it a bit.  I missed Conor, Saturdays are just family time, so without Conor it was just like every other day, and I was bored and just blah, we were all blah.  We went grocery shopping in the morning and to the park before dinner, just the same old.  Dinner making was AWFUL!  Elle likes to eat, as soon as she sees you in the kitchen making something she wants to eat it RIGHT NOW.  I tried giving her little bits of food here and there but she was wanting to sit and eat dinner.  Eventually we made it to the table and ate, and then it was straight to bed!  She hadn't napped for very long, so I put her to bed a bit early.

Oh BOY did I regret that this morning when she woke up at 5:20am!!!  This was my facebook status "Kill me now!! 5:20am on a Sunday?!? Please tell me how we are supposed to get through 9am mass and a birthday party RIGHT at nap time when Elle is up at 5:20 AM!!!" 

We barely survived mass.  She was having total meltdowns out in the foyer, it was awful.  I do NOT want to get into the habit of leaving mass until it is completely finished... but as soon as the priest gave the final blessing we were outta there... I'm sure the hymn was really nice, but we were over it.

We got home, ate some snacks and then Elle went down for a very early nap.  We had plans to go to a bday party at 2pm.  Elle normally naps at 1:30pm.  If she wakes up SUPER early, I will give her a 9am nap, just a short 30-45 minute one so that she survives the morning.  But mass was at 9, and she wasn't going to get her afternoon nap.  So I bumped up nap time... there is the danger though of her only sleeping for 30 minutes if it's too early... anyways, it worked out for us today.  I put her down around 11, and woke her up at 1:30 to leave for the party... Finn also had his quiet time and I had almost an hour nap!!

Then we went to the birthday party.  The father of the kids just started working at Conor's school, he is Australian, and his wife is American.  They studied at the institute before us, and then moved to the states (and adopted two kids, celebrating their 4th and 3rd birthdays).  So now they are back... and our new friends!!  I was soo glad to be invited today... we really needed to get out and see people and do something different, especially after the blahs of yesterday.

We got home around 5, there was left over spagetthi in the fridge, and since the kids didn't really have lunch I just made grilled cheese sandwiches for them, Finn had some yogurt too, and I had the spag... I was not going to deal with dinner prep meltdowns.  We played outside a bit, I gave Elle a bath, and then it was bedtime.

And now I say goodbye.  Conor will be home in less than 2 days!!

So goodbye to you, and goodbye to my 20s... it's been fun :)

Half way there

Well 5 of 10 nights down... 5 to go. And just 4 full days.

Yesterday and today were really low key.  We didn't actually go anywhere yesterday, except in the backyard in the morning, and to get the mail and back to the backyard in the evening!

I'm really actually learning a lot about myself and parenting these last few days.  I can not BELIEVE how affected Finn can be by ME.  He's 4, he has his little "moments" everyday where he doesn't listen, or does something he knows he's not supposed to do.  If I react calmly and consistently they are actually pretty few and far between.  If I react in ANY other way, OH BOY!

I had been getting sooo upset and frustrated recently because time outs were just NOT working.  I used to put him in time out on his stool by the bathroom... but it was causing problems because Elle would always go over there and bother him, so then I would have to distract her and I would get frustrated because usually I was needing to give timeouts while making lunch or something so having to go and distract her so that I could punish Finn was annoying.  So we transitioned to time outs in his room.  But since we got back from the hospital he was being SOO bad, he was getting a lot of timeouts, and as soon as he would go in there he would just start screaming and kicking.  And I was tired and overwhelmed by the hospital stay that I would just loose it, in many different ways... none of which were helpful AT ALL.. I'm actually terribly ashamed of how I couldn't control my emotions for those little moments.  It was awful.  It's the worst I have ever felt as a parent.

Anyways, I KNEW for this week to work at all with Conor gone, it was ALL about ME... I was the one that needed to change something in order for Finn's behavior to change.

First, patience.  Every day, every night, and all through the day I have been praying and praying for patience... to handle those moments that I have not been capable of handling on my own lately.

Second, let the housework slide.  I'm a chronic tidier.. I know I waste so much time in the day just tidying up things that are just going to get messy again.  Which means that all those moments where I could be just spending time with the kids is wasted.  I should say, I do not want my kids to need me to be playing with them 24/7... but for this week I have been making a conscious effort to really just leave things be and get down on the floor with them and just play, and read books, and connect.  This will not always be the way, but right now we all needed it.  The only thing that NEEDS to get done every day is the dishes... and if it doesn't get done during the day, I can always do it as soon as the kids are in bed.  Not the end of the world.

Third.... almost no time outs for Finn right now.  It was at the point that as soon as I would mention time out he would FLIP.  So we are resetting.  Since I'm spending so much time right there with them anyways, I have been able to stop the bad things from happening before they happen (pushing Elle, taking toys from her, etc).  Otherwise I'm just trying to repeat over and over again to be nice, to be kind and gentle with her, to share, to make her smile... and if he doesn't want to play with her that's fine but he needs to go somewhere else then and play by himself.  Anyways, while I make dinner or something there will usually be at least one little incident with him or her... but it's going to happen, and I'm just trying to find a way to talk to him about it that works for him.

Because of this he's actually been playing with her more consistently and for longer periods of time than ever before.  She was loosing it while I was making dinner tonight, and without me asking he kept trying to get her to come play with him, or he would bring her books to distract her.  Also heard often the last couple days, "baby, come follow Finnian, baby!"  over and over.  They both have little ride on toys so he likes her to follow him up and down the hall.  She usually gets bored before he does, thus you hear him say that again and again! haha.

Also, when I have given him time outs, after warning him if he does a certain something again he will need to have a time out... he will generally go in there and stay in there until I tell him he can come out... it's a work in progress.  I do want time outs to work, but not the way they were before.

Hopefully the rest of the 10 days goes as well as the last.  Tomorrow we have playgroup, Saturday we'll need to go grocery shopping, Sunday is mass and then we've been invited to a birthday party (new friends! yay), and Monday I get to drop off the kids and go out for lunch by myself!!

There's a doctor in the house

At 4pm Roman time, Conor started his doctoral defense.... and he was very successful!  Summa Cum Laude!

And we have successfully completed night 4 of 10.  Yesterday was actually a really great day.  The kids slept til 7, we played a bit, had a good breakfast, and then went to my bed and just cuddled and giggled.  It was SOO nice!  Finn wasn't being to rough with Elle, and Elle was just loving laying on him and rolling on him.

Today I don't know, we were all up before 6:30 and Elle is being VERY clingy and crying a lot... it will probably be a long day.  But at least the kids go to bed good... so no matter what, 7:30 pm will come and I will get some rest! haha

Funny Finn

Well I kind of think I'm rocking this solo parenting thing :) haha.  Monday was a bit rough because Finn woke up early and then didn't nap, and you could tell.  Everything was met with "no" or crying for no reason.  But we made it through.  I even managed to have the dinner dishes and dining room cleaned up BEFORE the kids went to bed.. which meant as soon as they were in bed I could lay donw on the couch until MY bed time.  We have now done 4 of 10 nights, almost half way through :)

Anyways, I was jotting down some things that Finn has been saying or talking about lately.  Here they are......

When we were driving home from the hospital I asked Finn if he missed Elle and I while we were away and he said no :(  But then he said he doesn't miss us anymore because we aren't at the hospital anymore.

Then later I asked him where Elle was, and he said she was in the hospital... then he asked me if the baby in my tummy came out while I was in the hospital.  Poor kid is confused because I tell him that when the baby's ready, mommy will go to the hospital like last time and the baby will come out.  So I had to tell him that first my tummy has to get bigger and bigger, so he got all silly and started showing with his hands how big my tummy was now and how big it will get before the baby comes out.

He's got a great memory!  He remembers that I went to a hospital to have Elle.

Also, the other day we went to Albury, 4 hours away, and when we got to this one intersection I told him that we might see farms.  Then when Conor was driving to the hospital with him the other day, when they got to that intersection he pointed the way we turned and told Conor that that was the way to the farms with the cows and the haybales!

I don't know if it's just because Conor is away or what, but the last few days, numerous times a day, he will tell me that he doesn't want to be in the "new house" (our house here), and that he wants to go back to the "big house" (the Sweeney house in Canada).  I'm already a bit homesick not having Conor around, so it makes me sad when he says this :(

Baby #3 - 16 Weeks

If you are doing the math you might be confused as to why this update is for 16 weeks and not 15 weeks.

Last week Elle and I left the hospital Wednesday morning only to return the next afternoon (with Finnian) for an ultrasound!  Now this was mainly to check my cervix, but they decided to "date" the baby as well, to see if my dates were accurate.

It was actually a terrible appointment!  It was Thursday afternoon, the ONE afternoon Conor teaches - and our close friends that I would have called upon are also not available on thursday afternoons, so I had to bring both kids with me.  Elle was GRUMPY at having to stay in the stroller, I had a student doing the scan so it took longer, she should have made me go pee before the appointment but she didn't (so I stripped down, did part of the scan, had to put my clothes back on, got the kids and I to the bathroom, back to the room, strip down again for the rest of the scan - UGH!), and then on the way home Finn flipped out because he peed his pants (so he said, don't believe him, he didn't!).

ANYWAYS, lots of good news though.  My cervix is nice and long, so no worries there (at least not right now, I think we'll keep an eye on it later in the pregnancy), and there's only ONE healthy baby in there!  They didn't really look at all the stuff this time around (skull, heart, all that stuff), just did some measurements and then told me that instead of being 14 weeks 3 days at the time, I was 15 weeks 2 days!

The new due date is April 30th!
I really did mean to have a picture for this week - but Conor took the camera to Rome, so next time, I promise!!

How far along: 16 Weeks

Size of baby: (from whattoexpect.com) : Turnip (5 inches, 5 ounces)

Total weight gain/loss: I think I'm about 69.5 now.  So up 1 kg (2.2 lbs) from 10 weeks.

Maternity Clothes:  I've been waiting for my maternity clothes to come from Canada, but couldn't wait much longer.  My pants had been feeling tight for a week or so, so I finally went and bought a belly band so that I can undo my pants and wear the belly band overtop.  Either way this will last me awhile, but hopefully my clothes get here soon anyways.

Gender:  Still saying a boy... although I kind of hope it's a girl, since Elle and the baby will be so close in age, I think it will be nicer to have a girl for her to be close to.  I know that it really doesn't guarantee they will be friends, but so far Finn doesn't look like a good candidate, haha.

Movement: I THINK I felt a little kick or flutter after my ultrasound, since they had been poking around so much... but not sure.  Probably not.

Sleep: Yeah, I'm still pretty tired.  I don't have any pregnancy insomnia or anything, but I could definitely use more sleep!

What I miss: Still miss being able to stay up past 9:30.  I think it mostly has to do with Elle waking up so early though (still!) so in order to feel at all rested 9:30 is the bedtime.

Cravings: Not really having any actually.  I still want bad food over good food... but really that's just normal.  When Conor gets back we are getting Pizza Hut for my belated birthday dinner! haha

Symptoms: All the nausea, extreme hunger and random dry heaving all seem to be gone.  I do get hungry, but not like before... otherwise just being tired.

Best Moment of the Week:  Seeing the baby at the ultrasound.  I didn't get to hear the heartbeat, and unfortunately Elle was freaking out a lot so I didn't get to just stare at the screen, but I got a glimpse of him/her :)

A "real" family now

I've always thought that when you had a child your whole life would change. And not just the day to day stuff: changing diapers, midnight feelings, carseats and strollers. But YOU would change

To be honest I never really felt that way when I had Finn. It just felt so natural that I didn't feel like I was becoming a *new* person, but more like parts of me that were always there were just now being put to use. To me this really signifies that God did make us male and female with some specific ingrained "roles"... but anyways, that's not where I'm going with this!

Then we got pregnant with Elle... and again I wasn't really afraid (until my water broke the day that my in-laws, whom we lived with, we're going to Ottawa for a week!) of what was going to happen/change. And when she was born, again, she just felt like a natural addition to our family that I never really thought about it.

But for some reason this pregnancy feels SOOO different, in a few different ways.

1. I actually feel exhaustion which I just don't remember feeling with the other two.

2. I'm terrified... seriously! I know most of if comes from the fact that this is our first baby out of Canada, different medical system, different hospital than Elle and Finn (which kinda makes me sad!), away from family. Especially live-in family!! It just seems surreal and I don't know how I will cope emotionally!

3. This is the one that seems more significant to me, but for some reason this baby, having 3 kids, makes me feel like we have (will have) a "real" family. And I don't even know where that comes from or what that means. Maybe it's because Conor and I will now be out numbered? Maybe it's because they always say 2.5 kids is the average and now we'll be past that? I don't know, but THIS baby, the third child, somehow makes it all seem real to me.

I feel "old". Not the old as in I'm 29-and-holding... But just grown up or something. I really can't put into words what exactly it is, maybe when the baby comes?

Solo day 1

Well Elle woke up at 6am as usual! ha.  I think she was actually upset that Conor wasn't here.  Normally I keep trying to sleep while he reads to her and then she wanders around the house a bit and comes back.  Today I was trying to read to her and she kept getting upset and then she left the room and was just crying and crying out there.  I think she was looking for Conor.

Anyways, it was finally 7 and Finn woke up, so we all got up and had breakfast.  I got the kids ready for mass and away we went.  We lasted in the pew until just before the consecration!  Elle's age is the most awkward for going to mass... but I had snacks and books and held her off for as long as possible.  Then we went into the foyer and there's a little kids liturgy room (it's never being used during that mass) so I let them walk around in there and I stood by the door to try to keep them in one spot for the rest of the mass.  So not the best mass ever, but it could have been worse.

Mass ended at 10 and Elle was tired since she was up so early, but I wanted to hold off naptime and didn't want to be at home with her being all grumpy! So we went to the mall.  I had to buy a cord for my ipod anyways.  Conor took the iPhone and charger, so I had to other ipod touch, but he left the cord at work.  So we went and got another cord and then went to the playplace there and the kids played for awhile.

After that we headed home and had a bit of an early lunch and then naptime!  I slept a little bit, dunno how long, cuz Finn had to go pee, and then I had to go in once to tell him to be quiet... but it was a nap none the less.

While he watched his shows I blogged a bit and then got the big idea to make breadsticks. They were so delish but I only shared 1 with the kids and ate the rest and BOY was I full after that.  I had planned to go for a walk with the kids to a farther park, but I didn't think I could handle it after eating so much, so we just went to the close park.  The kids still had fun.  It's hot out today, 26 degrees still and it's almost 7pm.

I was still full, but knew the kids needed to eat so I fried up some chicken, cooked some rice and cut up some raw veggies.  First dinner with the kids and they are both eating pretty well.  So I'm gonna say this has been a good day!

After this it's bathtime.  And then after the kids go to bed I have to do dishes, bring the garbage to the curb, have a shower, and hopefully sit back for a bit before I'm too tired to keep my eyes open anymore :) haha.

The weekend BEFORE the hospital

On Saturday we drove 4 hours to a country town called "Albury".  About 4 years they started a new Catholic school there, currently k-10, will have year 11 next year and add year 12 the following year.  Conor was asked to speak after a dinner there for the parents talking to them about the JPII Institute where he works.  About the courses they offer and the mission of the school.

So we drove up and stayed with a family who were one of the founding families of the school.  It was really really great actually.  They have 9 kids, I think 7 are still at home? or 6?  I lost count! haha.  All the kids at home are girls and love babies and kids, so they had a lot of fun entertaining Finnian and Elle.

Halloween kind of ruined Elle, because she got SOO scared of the masks that the trick or treaters were wearing (we got 3 groups, which was actually a lot for Australia!).  She was really really traumatized.  Screaming everytime they came.  Unfortunately it was right before bed too when the last group came.  She would not stop crying and screaming.  I put her to bed and we eventually just brought her back out because she was crying so much.  I think it ended up taking us a couple hours to get her to sleep.

Anyways, I say this because I was worried about how she would sleep there.  We were going to go out to this dinner and leave the kids with the girls to be put to bed, but since Elle had been having so many tough nights after halloween (every night afterwards was the same thing) I decided to stay to get them to bed.  Conor went with the parents and I stayed, put Elle down, in between going in to pat her bum I went and put Finn to bed, and then Elle was still crying, but just needed patting, so the oldest girl there did that and I left.

I got to the place just as they were about to eat, so it was good timing.  I think Elle fell asleep fine after a bit, but Finn woke up a couple times upset that we weren't there, but he was okay.  So it was nice!  Conor and I got to eat out without the kids and stayed out as late as I could handle! (We ended up staying awake very late though because we stayed up chatting with the parents for awhile, I miss just having people around the house after the kids are asleep and just chatting in the living room!)

They have a great property there.  50+ acres, and a big "lake" in the back caused by a local dam.  Finn even took off his socks and shoes and wadded in with some of the girls!

On Sunday we went to mass with them, and then another family with 5 young girls came over and we had a BBQ before we drove back home.

It was a nice weekend... when we walked in the door at 630 Sunday night Elle threw up all over me, and thus the fun began!

Overwhelmed

I broke down yesterday afternoon.

I think it all finally hit me. I did really well in the hospital with Elle, only really crying that one time when they said we'd be in for another day.

But yesterday afternoon, with Finn behaving badly re-adjusting to Elle being home, and Elle screaming at the top of her lungs, the exhaustion and the fear and worry all hit me like a ton of bricks.

I tried to keep it in around the kids, but when we picked up Conor from the bus stop the dam started to break and when we set down to dinner I had to leave the room.

Darn female hormones!

Now that this has happened I'm confident in my ability to see if Elle is in distress and know what to do. i know where emergency is now, and how it all works. But it's actually the "right now" that I'm unsure of. I'm supposed to give her the inhaler probably once or twice a day for yesterday and today, but I just don't know if I should or shouldn't!

Add to the fact that Conor flies off to Rome on Saturday and I'm a wreck!

Having said that and got it out of my system, I am determined to keep positive while he is away (at least on this blog and Facebook!). My goal is to write something good on my blog each day he's away, even if its just one little thing, like being happy that I got the dishes done! Haha.

So today (even though he isn't gone yet) my good thing is Elle's almost completely walking now! Around the house I've only seen her crawl a few times, and I made sure to put her real shoes on today so that when we went to the mall she could walk around the play center, and walk she did!

She is just SOO happy to be out if the hospital - what a trooper!

Home!

Quick update: We are home!

Now I have a million loads of laundry to do and back to two kids, so that's all for now :)

Hospital Day 2

Before Elle went to bed last night the nurses were saying she was sounding much much better and we would likely go home in the morning.

It took a while for Elle to fall asleep (there were two other ppl in the room and one started coughing and crying a lot around 930, so when they moved her to another room Elle finally asleep.

She woke up at 4 and has a bottle and almost fell right back asleep until 8am! I was so surprised because another girl was coughing and crying a lot at 630 (which is when Elle normally wakes up) and she just kept sleeping!

I'm was all geared up to go, but then the nurse said that she was still using a lot of oxygen and to prepare myself for another night. Cue crying from me:(

It's not so much the sleeping here but spending the WHOLE DAY here. With Elle in the crib. Having to entertain her for hours by myself!

But then they took her off the tubes and machines and let me give her a bath, which we both enjoyed! I assumed she would have to come back to the cot, but they said she could play for a while! So she got to play in the toy room, walk around all over the ward, play with Daddy and Finn who came (she was very sad to see them go!) and now she's having a nap (its noon) without oxygen!

It's still likely she will stay another night, because your oxygen levels drop naturally at night they want to make sure she's doing really well before going home. So while its not ideal, it's best, and she and I are happy she's had a bit more freedom today!

First ER trip

It's 10:30am Monday, last night around 10:30pm (12 hours ago) Elle and I headed into the ER for the first time (for me too with a kid!)

She had a cold and went to bed at 730 last night, but then woke up fussing at 9 and her breathing was really fast and shallow, and it stayed like that so I called a nurse line and they said to head into ER.

Well we did, tried puffers, got the nose tubes in with oxygen. But the rapid breathing was still there, so we weren't going home that night.

When she stabilized a bit (really once they got the oxygen up to the level she needed) we got moved to pediatrics, I think that was around 5 am.

She slept until 730 or something, I got 1.5 hours sleep, and now she's napping and I've gotten a bit more sleep here and there.

It's almost 4pm Monday now, and while they say she definitely sounds better (no wheezing or crackling) we will be here another night because she's still breathing a bit fast (and sometimes working for the breath more than others) and she is still on oxygen.

Once she is off the oxygen (which they have started to decrease) and is at the point where she is still doing well 3 hours from the last puffer, then she can go home.

I'm tired but grateful the hospital seems good and all the doctors and nurses are very nice.

Elle has really been in good spirits, she's not acting any different than normal... she HATES getting the inhaler though!!

I'm praying, and you can too, that she continues to improve and that by morning she is off oxygen and hasn't had the inhaler on a few hours, would love to go home!