*: The last 2 weeks in 1 post

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a good thanksgiving! We did! Here's what has been our lives since then.

I got back from California on a Friday (weekend b4 thanksgiving) to the family and noticed some wheezing from Vann. Sam said it happened that Thursday. He's been on a nebulizer basically since he's been born so I thought he'd be fine through the weekend and I'd take him to the doc on Monday. We'll I got nervous so I took him to a recommended doctor on Saturday - of which I will never take the kids back to - and he chalked up Vann's symptoms to "the weather". I loathe when doctors say that.

Anyways - if you remember, Vann was born under respiratory distress. The nurses showed us what to look for to tell if he's in distress. It's call retraction and there are 2 spots on him you can see it. When we were at this "weather doctor" I saw them look for it and showed them what I thought was retraction but they didn't seem worried. I came home, told Sam I was still worried but he assured the the doc was probably right and to just keep an eye on him. So we went to Newnan for Thanksgiving and Vann wasn't himself. I knew the Wed we got back he had his well visit appt so I was going to use that to see the doctor and force them to tell me what was wrong with Vann.

We started talking about his stats: 65% in weight and 50% in height and head! Then to his breathing. I mentioned how long it had been happening and what that other doctor told me. They checked his oxygen of which was 94. Its supposed to be 97-100. They gave him a breathing treatment to see if that increased his O2 levels and it didn't so guess were we spent the next 2.5 days....yep, that's right. The hospital.

He had to wear this for 8 hours. Yes, you read that right 8 HOURS

And they gave him an IV, of which got infiltrated* twice (then I told the nurses they would not be giving him another one)

*Infiltrated means that the IV needle came out of his vein and all those fluids were just draining under his skin so his arm swelled up so badly you couldn't see space btn his fingers. It was horrible!

He's getting used to it now

He was still trying to be happy!

Finally asleep and not yanking on the oxygen

This was us bring and early the first morning. Excuse the hair :) I slept in the crib with Vann and Sam slept on the lovely pull our chair. I was so thankful he stayed. I thought I could do it w/o him - but I needed him there. He was a blessing - and actually patient! :)

Oh and he learned to sit up while he was there!

Ready to go home!

Sweet chuck of love

So it turned out Vann has bronchiolitis which is the infection of the airways and a viral infection. I still think both of my children have a type of asthma as I did as a child but the doctors will not test for it until they are older. Forgive the lack of proper terminology - baby's breathing rate should be in the 30's. Vann's was 85. He was basically gasping for air and what I saw in his chest WAS retraction. Because he was breathing so fast, he became dehydrated - which explained why he always wanted more milk but he'd choke on it every time he tried to eat it. Because his breathing rate was so high he couldn't eat b/c the milk could get into his lungs and cause pneumonia and when he was eating he couldn't breath so that's why he's choke and quit eating. So he couldn't eat from 9:30 am until 7 pm when his breathing rate finally decreased to 60. So long story short - we had to stay until his O2 was above 90 on his own. Prior to that - he was on O2 to prevent him not getting enough.

So we finally were discharged on Friday and I couldn't wait to see Annyson and get a Christmas tree. She picked one out all by herself and while Dad was taking a phone call, A and I ran through all the trees and had a ball!

Boo!

This is one of my favorite pictures. She asked for the window down and was singing at the top of her lungs. I loved it. She was happy we were home. I was happy we were home.

Sweet boy finally enjoying being back in his jumper!

Ok - now to the next dramatic moment.....Sam was chasing Annyson around w/ the dustbuster when she ran SMACK into the corner of the countertop. It happened so fast I had no idea what happened. I just heard same yell "Crap", throw down the dust buster and pick her up. We talked her into putting an ice pack on her eye. Luckily, like me, she doesn't bruise easily and she didn't get a black eye!

And to the next dramatic moment of our lives. We went to an indoor swimming party later that day (after the eye accident). Annyson had a ball and loved it. She took a break for a snack so we took off her swimmies and chowed down on some popcorn. She told me she was ready to go back in so I took her off my lap, looked down to get her swimmies to put them back on to the sight of Annyson jumping with so much joy into the pool. Instincts took over and the next thing you know, I was walking down the stairs, into the pool - fully clothed mind you - to get her out from under the water. It happened so quickly many people didn't even see it happening. This was our discussion on the way home after we talked seriously about the safety of swimming:

Me: You silly willy - you jumped into the pool with out your swimmies on!

Annyson: You silly willy - you jumped into the pool without your bathing suit on!

Touche Annyson, touche.