Amelia had one of the roughest weeks of her life; the Sunday before, she fell and hit her nose so hard that we thought for sure it was broken. She literally looked like she had been in a boxing match! We took her to Urgent Care; unfortunately, there were about 30 other people there as well. It was the sickest-looking group of kids I have ever seen! We were super nervous about Noah and Amelia being around all the sick kids, but the staff at the front desk refused to hand out masks or call our cell phone when it was our turn. The wait was clearly going to be over two hours; we spent a good amount of our waiting time in the car but obviously had to spend some of the time in the waiting room. We would have just left if we weren’t so worried about Amelia’s nose. Anyway, turns out it is almost impossible for a two-year-old to break their nose, since its mostly cartilage. However, the doctor said it was very good that we brought her in, since there is always a risk of internal bleeding from the swelling. So, no broken nose but we did find out that both kids had pretty severe ear infections.
Lo and behold, the next afternoon, Amelia starts showing signs of pink eye! I had made an appointment with her ENT because she shouldn’t be having ear infections with the tubes in her ears. A few days prior, I had seen a little blood draining from one of her ears and had taken her to her pediatrician who said they didn’t have the proper tools to see if the tube was still in place, because they couldn’t see past the dried blood. The ENT was able to give her medicine for the pink eye but couldn’t tell if the tubes were still in place without “vacuuming” out her ear. It is as painful as it sounds, and a team of nurses and I had to hold her down while the doctor vacuumed out her ear. Afterwards, he still wasn’t sure it the tube was out, so we were instructed to come back in a week to check again.
I thought the worst was over, since they were both on medication for their ear infections and she had medication for pinkeye. However, late Tuesday night Amelia started having difficulty breathing and her temperature started rising. We checked on her all night and made an appointment first thing in the morning with her pediatrician (NO MORE URGENT CARE!!!). Thankfully, Mike had the day off and was able to take her to the doctor. I was worn out from taking her to so many different doctor appointments in the past three days and from getting my house ready for my mom, brother and two nephews to come, and I was happy to stay home with Noah. Mike ended up at the doctor’s office with Amelia for over three hours. By this point, her temperature was 103 degrees, she wasn’t breathing well, and had developed a nasty cough. Poor baby had to get a chest x-ray and had to have a tube inserted down her nose to check for RSV. This was especially painful because her little nose was still so swollen and black and blue from her fall. After being checked out thoroughly, they ruled out RSV and the flu . . . but her doctor was really nervous about how bad this virus was and not being able to pin down what was making her so sick. She prescribed a Z-pack and breathing treatments and said if her fever didn’t go down in 24 hours to take her to the ER.
By this point, it was clear we couldn’t have anyone over to our house since Amelia was so sick. Noah was so bummed, and I felt badly about calling our neighbors to tell them we couldn’t have it here. Well, everything worked out! Amelia started doing better the next day (thank goodness for modern medicine!). My neighbors had Thanksgiving dinner at their house, and we were able to go over for a little while, thanks to a video monitor on Amelia while she slept (they literally live across the street). It was great to spend time with my mom, brother Jason and nephews. Amelia had a hard time resting as much as she should have, because she was having so much fun with her cousins.
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| The kids had a blast playing out in the leaves in our backyard! Amazing that we had a Thanksgiving where it was almost 80 degrees outside! |
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| Amelia had already had a bath but couldn't resist jumping in when she saw Nana giving Preston a one. My mom was soaked by the end! |
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| Mike made an amazing Turkey and my mom helped with all the side dishes and desserts, I am so thankful for them both! |
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| Noah set up a kids table next to the adult table; we had a second Thanksgiving meal on Friday after Jason and the boys got there. |
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| I love my husband and I love how much he loves to cook! He spent ALL DAY in the kitchen on Thanksgiving! |
