Sick for Christmas :-(

Well, we have had a quite a memorable Christmas this far!  Most of our plans to see all of our families and extended families have had to be cancelled due to quite the sickness going around....:-(

December 21
On "our" Christmas Eve (the day we celebrated Christmas because we would be out of town on Christmas), December 21st, Summer came down with the stomach flu :(.  Both of her ends were unhappy on the 21st, but it seemed to be mostly turning into a cough/cold by the end of the weekend, so we went to my parents' house for Christmas as planned. 

December 24
Colton and I were next.  On Christmas Eve, I woke up with the stomach flu :(.  Colton came down with a pretty bad cold....he was so hoarse he couldn't even cry...it was so pathetically cute, poor little guy. 

December 25
Christmas Day I woke up feeling much better, but the kids still had pretty heavy colds. We were supposed to leave the next day for our 6 hour drive to Chicago to see my mom's side for Christmas, and after checking to see if they still wanted us and our germs to come, they emphatically said YES, COME!  (We only get to see them twice a year.)  So...we set out for our drive....

December 26
Once arriving in Chicago on the evening of the 26th, we met my Grandma for dinner, and Colton seemed much worse, Paul was getting a cold, and my mom and my sisters' fiance Eric started coming down with the stomach flu :(.  Spending that night in the hotel room with our two sick kids resulted in very little sleep for Paul and I....!  Maybe a few hours?!?!? :-)

December 27
So, the next morning, we decided it was best for us to skip the Chicago Christmas family reunion and drive the 6 hours back home again (we did NOT want to get anyone else sick).  BUMMER!  I was SOOO excited to see my cousin's new baby and all the other families, but there was no way we would intentionally infect everyone else with this stinky flu bug.  So, unfortunately we got to spend 12 hours driving for nothing :-(  (My parents, Kristin, and Eric also had to skip the family Christmas due to the flu, but couldn't drive home yet because they were so sick :-( )

When we arrived back in the Twin Cities that night, we stopped at urgent care for Colton (his cold was worse than I had seen him suffer from before).  After checking his oxygen level, they called for a chest x-ray which came back ok, but they wanted us to take him to the ER that night to have his oxygen level monitored while he was sleeping.  By this point it was almost Summer's bedtime, so Paul quick unpacked enough of the car to get her to bed while I gave the kids a late dinner.  Then we tucked Summer into bed, and my friend Rachael was able to come over and sit for Summer while she slept and while we took Colton to the Children's hospital in St. Paul.  (All of our twin cities family was out of town Christmas--it was weird not having any family nearby!)   THANK YOU RACHAEL!

Happiest wheezing kid in the ER :-)

Colton was quite the trooper through our ER visit.  I was worried about keeping him up so late when he was sick, but he was smiley and such a sweetheart.  His oxygen dropped too low while he was sleeping, so they told us he must sleep in an upright position.  We also had to learn how to use a nebulizer with him (put a big mask over his face and he gets medicine and cool mist from a machine).  We have to do this with him ever four hours, around the clock.  It takes about 20 minutes each time :-(.  They also gave him some steroids.  It turns out, he has RSV.  This is most dangerous for kids under 6 months old, so thankfully Colton is 8 months.

I was most worried about how we would get Colton to sleep in an upright position.  From birth, Colton has never liked sleeping in that position (Summer loved it, Colton hated it!....He wouldn't fall asleep in the car until just recently...as a newborn he would scream for up to 2 hours if we had him in the car when he was tired).  Thankfully, he now falls asleep in the car, but literally like a light-switch will wake up as SOON as you take him out of the car!  However he was so tired this night that (literally) for the first time since he was born he stayed asleep in his carseat when we took him out of the car at midnight that night.

December 28th AM
At that point we had to figure out how to assemble his nebulizer and Paul had to go get Colton's prescription filled.  Just as we were both climbing into bed around 1:30am, Colton woke up :(.  So my poor, tired, sick hubby (who had already driven 8 hours that day) spent the next hour and a half driving Colton around town to get him to sleep.  To top it off, the roads were slick and it was snowing!  Paul is amazing.  I cannot imagine doing this without him as a teammate!  They came home in time for Colton's next nebulizer treatment.  Holding down a screaming wiggling 8 month old for 20 minutes =  challenge!  Now it was Paul's turn to sleep so I drove Colton around for a while until I felt it was dangerous to be on the roads any longer in my sleepy state :-).  Unfortunately, as predicted, as soon as I got Colton out of the car, he woke up.  I tried turning on our dryer, rocking him, etc etc and finally around 5am, I held the little wiggling screamer in a body lock against my chest for about 15 minutes until an exhausted Colton finally fell asleep.  What a sweet moment when he finally did fall asleep!  We slept together for about an hour and a half until his next nebulizer treatment. 

December 28th
We were supposed to leave today to see Paul's family for Christmas in Fergus Falls.  I am SO bummed we had to cancel :(.  I miss them! But after all of this we felt it was best to stay home.  I made Paul sleep as his cold was getting really bad, and I spent the day trying to unpack a bit and take care of the kiddos.  After Colton's doctor appointment that afternoon, it was my turn to sleep and the Paul did dinner with the kids.  Thankfully, this first full night went way better than I expected!  Colton slept well in his vibrating bouncy chair and even stayed asleep for the first half of several neb treatments.  Paul and I both got a lot of sleep.  YAY!

December 29th
Unfortunately my stomach flu relapsed this morning, so Paul let me sleep all morning and he had kid duty.  However, when it rains, it pours!  Paul threw out his back this morning lifting both kids at the same time, so it is pretty excruciating for him to move at this point!  My parents got back from Chicago last night and came over to take Summer out for a special date, make a grocery run for us (we had thought we were going to be out of town for a week for Christmas so we didn't have much in the house!), and bring some medicine.  My friend Jessi just dropped off two meals for us (WOW!  Thanks, friend!)  I feel overwhelmingly blessed by all the love our friends and family have been showing us.  Thank you for all the prayers everyone!  I think it can only get better from here.... :-)