Life at Warp Speed

Ever have those days or weeks (months, even) that seem like they fly by at warp speed?  That's sort of how my last two weeks have been.  First it was a sick baby. Then it was a recovering baby and a husband on a business trip.  And to add some spice the week on Tuesday it was ER visit number two in seven days time with another child.  Since then I feel like the days are coming at me as fast as can be.

Katie is doing much better now.  We're finished the round of explosive poo diaper antibiotics.  If I tell you we had a crappy week I mean it in so many ways.  Caring for a child who is ill is draining and pretty stressful.  We had three days where we had to dropper feed Katie liquids because she refused to eat or drink.  I am so grateful that we were able to avoid repeat trips to the ER to hydrate her.  She would not have been happy to be hooked up to an IV again.  She's still pointing at the bruise she has from the IV.  If she spends too much time pondering it she'll hold out her hand and cry about it.

This past Friday Katie had her 18 month well visit with the pediatrician.  She weighed in at 19lbs 10oz.  I felt physically ill when I saw her weight on the scale.  She weighs less now than she did nine months ago.  The doctor reassured me that she will regain her appetite soon and her weight will go back up to where it should be.  Her legs are still chubby, but her face is thinner and her torso seems to have lost a lot of it's chub.  We can see her ribs and feel her spine now which bothers me so much.  I feel like I have an emaciated baby, but I know that's not actually the case.

I suppose you're probably wondering about the second ER visit, right?  On Tuesday we were having a great day.  Katie was doing so well the previous few days that I decided that we'd actually leave the house and run a few errands.  And the weather was gorgeous, too.  So we went for a walk around the neighborhood, ran to the store to buy sandals for Katie and then headed home and went in the yard to enjoy being outside and have a snack.  So as I'm having a great time with Katie and thinking how great it is that she's doing better and things are going well considering that Bryan is away and usually super stressful while he's gone and my cell phone starts ringing.  The caller ID says it's Ellie's school.  I answer the phone and it's the school nurse telling me that Ellie has had an accident on the playground and I need to come pick her up.  She collided with a pole and another child and had two small lacerations on her face (12 days before her First Holy Communion).  I am not one of those moms who handles emergencies well.  With Bryan in Denver there was no chance of him coming home and handling this situation.  So ten minutes before Katie's lunch (you know, my skinny child who lost 2 1/2 pounds the week before) I find myself en route to Ellie's school not knowing what I was going to do.  I was contemplating whether I should cry or scream.  Somehow I managed to do neither.  I called Bryan and asked him to call the pediatrician and find out whether I needed to take her to them or the ER and then I started to think of what I needed to do with Katie.

 Bryan had called back and said we needed to go to the ER.  Not knowing how long we might be there I needed to make arrangements for someone to take Katie for me.  I also needed to line up someone to pick Madeline up from band practice in case we weren't out of the ER by 4.  A good friend of mine was able to take Katie for me and was also able to pick up Madeline if we weren't back in time.  I cannot tell you how much of a relief it was to know I had two of my concerns covered.  Thank God for awesome friends!  I have plenty of them and feel so blessed to have them.

Once I got Ellie from the school I was happy to see that the cuts weren't huge and that they were nice and straight.  It gave me a lot of hope that they could be glued together instead of needing stitches.  Ellie was such a trooper.  She was upset but she didn't cry and was so calm about it.  After dropping Katie off at my friends we headed to the ER where I was certain we were going to sit for hours.  Color me shocked when Ellie was brought into triage before I could even finishing texting Bryan that we were now in the ER and waiting.  They were just as great this time around as they had been the week before.  I think we waited about 45 minutes to an hour from the time we made it through triage until she was treated.  They did a concussion test and then glued her back together with dermabond.  That stuff is AWESOME!  No stitches, no needles.

I was a bit surprised when they gave me discharge papers and I read the part about her having a mild head injury.  True to form, I had no idea that the cuts on her face were the lesser concern.  No one said anything about a head injury.  Not the nurse, not triage and not the nurse practitioner that treated her.  Bryan did ask if they checked her at the school for a concussion but it didn't register with me.  If it had, I probably would have been freaking out the entire time.  I tend not to pick up on the seriousness of medical ailments until after the fact.  I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.  So I wound up having to keep a close eye on Ellie for the first 24 hours.  That included having to wake her up a couple of times in the middle of the night.  Not an easy task when you're dealing with a child who sleeps as soundly as her daddy.

On Friday we brought Ellie in for a follow-up visit with the pediatrician.  She's fine and shows no signs of a head injury so no more worries there.  Now we just have to wait for the dermabond to flake off on it's own.  It's starting to come off on the edges.  I have no idea what it will look like on Saturday.

Thursday afternoon Bryan was back from Denver.  Even though we had plenty of excitement while he was gone, I'm glad this trip wasn't too hard on us.  Sometimes he goes away and everything seems to fall apart.

This weekend went pretty well.  Bryan and the older girls got some yard work taken care of while I stayed in the house with Katie and cleaned the windows and cleaned the family room furniture.  The house is getting to where it needs to be for Ellie's communion party this Saturday.  Madeline's soccer game on Saturday got cancelled due to field conditions from Friday's heavy rain.  That meant the girls and I were able to get to confession on Saturday afternoon.  I was trying to figure out when we were going to have time to get there before Ellie's First Holy Communion next Saturday.  Bryan had soccer duty over at the soccer complex today so he was gone most of the day.  He and Madeline went over there to set things up early in the morning and then they came back so I could go teach my class.  Once I came home he had to go back there until dinner time.  Katie didn't sleep much last night so Bryan and I were both going on about 2 1/2 hours of sleep.  I attribute this lack of sleep to a little snafu I had this morning over at CCD.  I was telling the DRE about a concern I had in my classroom and wasn't paying attention to my surroundings.  Add that to the list of things said without thinking.  It's a long list in case you were wondering.

I'm also trying to make some diet changes after making an interesting discovery last weekend.  I just downloaded a new NFP app from CCLI and spend a few hours last week putting all of my charts from the past year into the program.  After looking over the charts in the program I noticed something that I hadn't picked up on with the paper charts.  So after paging through Fertility, Cycles & Nutrition I'm trying to make a few changes to see if it makes a difference.  It's funny on some level because many of the things I'm cutting out are foods Bryan has been telling me to get rid of for years.  Namely, my beloved sugary junk foods.

The week ahead looks like it will be every bit as busy as the last two weeks.  I have a lot to do to get ready for Ellie's First Holy Communion.  I'm so excited for her.  She's looking forward to her big day.  I'm praying that this week goes smoothly and doesn't have any surprises along the way.  I'd like very much to say that we didn't visit the ER this week.