An update I wish we didn't have....

Last week Joe was home for spring break. We enjoyed it by getting the worst head colds of our lives. Body aches, chills, fever, cough, congestion, severe headache's... you name it and we were feeling it. We did the best we could to keep it from five week old Grace but our germs were everywhere. We noticed Grace was really fussy on Friday morning and then very sleepy on Friday afternoon, but we did not think much of it, babies are fussy and sleepy a lot. Saturday morning around 3 am I noticed Grace had a slight fever. We took her temperature and it was 99.8. She continued to be very sleepy but was still waking to eat every three hours. By Saturday afternoon she was not waking herself up at all, and even when I woke her to eat she was not nursing well. On Saturday evening it had been six hours since Grace had eaten well. I tried to wake her up and couldn't get her to open her eyes. She felt very warm. I finally got her to open one eye and tried to nurse her. She would not open her mouth, or keep her eyes open. We took her temperature and it was 101.1. I started to panic and called our doctor who told us to go to the ER immediately. After my initial freak out Joe gave her a blessing and we had a family prayer, ( thank goodness for a calm husband with the priesthood). I then headed to the ER with Joe promising to meet me there as soon as he got a hold of his parents to watch the kids.

On arriving at the ER and telling the front desk our situation we were immediately taken back and they began testing. The doctor told me it was very dangerous for such a young baby to have a high fever and that they needed to test for everything to be safe. They took her temperature, ( now 102) and stripped her to her diaper to cool her off. It was one of the saddest moments of my life to watch them giver her tiny hand an IV, prick her heals to take blood, take a urine sample, a chest X-ray, and lastly, but by far the worst, a spinal tap. Grace did not cry much, only whimpered, which made it even harder. They then admitted her to the NICU to monitor her, wait on the results and to pump her full of three different types of antibiotic.

I stayed with her and slept on a small cot right next to her in the isolation room. It was hard to hold and feed her with all the cords they hooked on her. They came in every hour to take her vitals and temperature, and then took blood every three hours. I am so thankful to say that after 24 hours her fever began to go down and after 48 hours it was gone. Her tests all came back normal and we just returned home on Tuesday afternoon. My mom arrived on Sunday afternoon and has been a huge help emotionally and physically as well as my sister Jani. I am so thankful our little Gracie is home and safe. I definatly take it for granted that we have such healthy children. That small experience really makes me feel for parents who deal with medical problems with there children, they are incredible people!!

Here are a bunch of pictures taken in the small isolation room. Most are taken on the end of day two when Grace was feeling better. When we were in the worst of it pictures were the last thing on my mind. The lovely woman in the pictures is my amazing mother. It was my mom's first time meeting Grace. They bonded right away.