Where have 2 years gone?

Yes, tis true... my baby girl turned 2 a week ago today. We are working on downloading the pictures but they are going to need some photoshop magic. Little One has been through the ringer the last few weeks. As I write this we are waiting for a bed to come available at Mercy Gilbert Hospital... Ok, I guess I should start at the beginning... Baby girl, this is how you spent the month of your 2nd birthday.

We all know that it started a few weeks ago with the fall at the park... Fell off a bench flat on her back and had a cut towards to bottom of her head. 2 staples later we were leaving the ER and heading home for a big dose of pain killers. Now, a few days before that we were actually at the doctor because she developed an ingrown finger nail that had become infected. By the time we went back to the doctor to have her staples removed the finger continued to be infected and the eczema that was on her face had turned into infantigo... So, staples out and another round of antibiotics...

A week passes... and it is January 30th! WOO HOO! She is 2... we had a great day... Megan, Aubrey and their friend Adam helped us celebrate with presents, homemade cake and of course her favorite pizza. The kids had so much fun running around etc... Mike and the older girls took Adam home and I went to put Alli to bed... next thing I know she is throwing up. Here I thought she was just overly excited... But, 8 hours later we made the call that she was not overly excited about her birthday and had a bug... Back to the ER we go... IV fluids and anti-nausea meds and she is released late the next morning.

Recovered from that and went this past Monday to her 2 year doctor appointment. Unfortunately, lost 2 pounds and is back down to 23 pounds... the 5th percentile. Concern sets in and they say we will have a weight check in 3 weeks... if she has not gained her weight back and some she will go the lab for tests (thyroid, etc)... I of course volunteer that if she needs a fat transplant they can take some junk from my trunk but they advise me to just up her calories. OK... so I head home and add calories every which way I can to her food on Monday and Tuesday....

Tuesday night Alli is saying "OW" and pointing her mouth and crying... I give her Motrin thinking teeth right? Well all night long she is up crying and coughing... Mike takes her to Urgent Care first thing Wed morning... She has those yucky blisters in her throat (the ones she had in August when she was SOOOOO sick)... yep, they are back! No congestion AT ALL... so we go on a codeine based cough syrup to suppress the cough and just give her relief... He also gave us antibiotics saying if she spiked a fever we are to start those because that means she is fighting an infection... in the mean time we find out strep and RSV tests are negative. Wed night she hits 104! So, antibiotics start AGAIN. Cough continues to get worse and fever continues. This morning she wakes up with 101 and now has yellow mucus in her nose. Back to the doctor where I have spend the next 8 hours at the doctors office getting breathing treatments, chest x-rays, finding out again she does not have pneumonia, RSV, strep or the flu... just a bad bronchial infection.... Her blood oxygen stats hovered between 87 and 91 and would hit 93-94 only after treatments... (She should be consistently at 98-100)... We call EVERY hospital and their are NO BEDS... I had a major deja vu to 2 years ago. So, Dr Khurana tells me to head to the Mercy ER where the attending is waiting to get me into a room. There is a waiting list and we have just been moved to the top of it. I get there and there is a line out the door for admitting... Sick people EVERYWHERE in the waiting room. I am taken right back and her stats are up to 94-95. They still want to admit her but there are NO rooms... So, instead of sitting in the gross waiting room they send us home to wait it out. It is 1015pm and we are still waiting. We just did another double dose breathing treatment that amped her from 7-10pm and we finally just got her to sleep. We just talked to the hospital and they are thinking that no one will be released until morning so Mike and I are taking shifts to stay awake and watch her all night. He is taking until 3am and I get up at 3am and take over. We will see what tomorrow brings.

I knew I hated February!

So, obviously Alli's birthday party is cancelled tomorrow. We cancelled the cake and balloons today and let everyone know yesterday. Such a bummer but we have re-scheduled and hope she can be healthy soon!

Keeping with my New Years resolution to see the glass half full... there is nothing like a memorable 2nd birthday.... We keep trying to keep a sense of humor and imagine what life will be like when this happens to her little one and she is calling us freaking out. I am sure unfortunately, it will happen. These little ones keep us on our toes! Thank God for medical insurance and someday we will all sleep again (I think). And she has given up her binkie/plug/pacifier... we did not give it to her last night because it seemed to egg on the cough and was not making the infantigo completely go away... She woke a couple of times but went right back down after we rocked her. Never once got fussy for it today and went down tonight without it... So, I guess there are some positives to this crazy experience.

We will keep you posted. Let's hope her 3rd birthday is not as eventful as her 2nd!