Monday the 24th was to be my first day back to work and Andy's first day of caring for Nora. Sunday night Andy and I were at church for an Awana meeting. I pulled Nora out of her carseat and thought she felt warm. I checked her temperature and it was 100.3...I waited 30 minutes or so and it was 99.3. I thought that maybe she was just really warm with the carseat and the weather outside. So, I waited. It didn't seem too high and there was no dose for her age of tylenol on the bottle, so I didn't call the on-call doctor. Nora's two month appointment was Monday, and since she had a fever the night before I added that to the list of things for Andy to ask the doctor. I woke up at 6am, fed Nora -she seemed lethargic, but I woke her up instead of letting her wake me. I went to work and struggled to remember everything after my 8 weeks off. I called Andy as he was driving to the appointment to let him know that I couldn't get the breast pump to work and I wanted to feed Nora at lunch and have him check the pump. I was a little frustrated with just adjusting. A little before noon I walked out of a patient's room and someone said, "Nora's here." I thought, "oh, good. They came to see me!" I was feeling happy. I rounded the corner to see Andy and Nora. Andy's face was full of sadness and he blurted out, "They want to hospitalize her." My brain went crazy, and I asked why. Her temperature was 103.0 at the doctor's office. She looked really sick, too. Her eyes were open but she was just sitting there very lethargic. I was thinking they would run a few tests to find the problem and send us home on antibiotics. So, I told Andy to go ahead and I'd meet him there. The manager and nurses were insistant that I leave with him. I walked out with him and finally asked if he wanted to ride together. He said he did, and he still looked very afraid. I think I must have been in logical, nurse mode because I put Nora in the car and then drove the three of us to the hospital. We found where we needed to be and then I tried to process everything. I was talking to Nora's nurse with my back to her, listening to her scream as they attempted to start an IV. They got one and all the blood they needed to run some tests and then took her off to try and catheterize her. They couldn't get any urine at all - one drop, but not enough to test. We took her back to her room and I finally got to feed her. She calmed some, but she was really hot still. Some people from church started to show up - the word surely spread fast. Her blood work came back with her whiteblood cell count being really high. They got IV fluids from the pharmacy and started those, gave her some tylenol and informed us that the doctor wanted to do a spinal tap because her WBC count was so high. I was really upset about that - I hate needles and spines. They don't mix. The doctor actually called the phone in Nora's room to speak with me about how it was necessary and said he would be in soon. We waited and held her. A little after 5:30 the doctor came and explained things. My friend Kim was there and was holding Nora while he explained everything. I signed the paper, and they took her away. When they brought her back she was sleeping and they laid her in the "cage". Andy went up to her and grabbed her feet -she started to cry and I asked him what he did. He said he just wanted to make sure she could still feel her feet and move her legs. They catheterized her a second time right before the spinal tap. The results came back positive. Oh, good. A urinary tract infection. That was easily fixable, I thought. They continued to give her IV antibiotics - one that both Andy and I are allergic to, so I was a little apprehensive about it. She didn't have a reaction, though. Finally, I left to go home and get some things and prepare to sleep at the hospital. We spent the night - a very long night. I got up at 5:30 with Nora, washed my hair in the sink, and left for my 11 hour day at work. I was able to come back over lunch break. Andy was able to stay with Nora Tuesday and then Wednesday, too. We were finally discharged from the hospital Wednesday. On Tuesday they did a renal ultrasound that showed abnormalities - possible ureter reflux. We have another test scheduled Monday morning and a doctor's appointment Monday afternoon. Hopefully, it will be good news. It's possible that surgery may be required. I have mixed feelings about it all - I don't want her to have surgery, but I want the problem to be fixed. I don't want to go through a lot of these hospitalizations. I was informed Thursday afternoon that I (amazingly) have some benefit time left, so I'll be able to go to the test on Monday and I still have 3 weeks of FMLA left if needed. I was thinking this morning that perhaps this is the reason the teaching job wasn't available - I wouldn't have FMLA if I had switched jobs and I wouldn't have accumulated any benefit time. I'm not sure if that was God protecting us financially or not, but I feel this calm assurance that He is in control. So, my first week back to work was nothing like I expected, and I'm glad that it's over.
p.s. Nora went to the babysitter Thursday and seemed to do really well. I'm again grateful to God that the childcare thing worked out so wonderfully. And, I have Fridays off. All in all, I feel pretty happy about things.
Daddy read us The Christmas Story from Luke 2. Then we opened our presents. Nora was excited about all the shiny things...it caused her first Christmas injury. She was so excited about all the packages that she lunged from me and hit her eye on the corner of a wrapped gift. She was a little upset but soon a distraction of another gift to unwrap helped her to forget her pain. I love how she wants to rip the bows off all the gifts...and, I love that she laughed and blew bubbles the whole time. I feel like I can hardly wait until she is a bit older and comes running down the stairs to jump in my bed yelling about all the presents that arrived while she was asleep. Today my biggest prayer though is that Nora will be as excited about the little baby born in Bethlehem as she is about the bows, wrapping paper, family time, good food, and gifts. And, I pray that for myself, too.
So Gwyn, my very best friend for the last 12 years, finally got hitched. I only just met the man this weekend... at the rehearsal. He seems nice, and surely after waiting for so long to find "Mr. Right" she picked a good one. It seems that as soon as Gwyn and I became good friends she has been moving away or I've been going somewhere - Anderson, Bloomington, Evansville, China, and now Arizona. I'm sure her marriage will take her many other places as well since the couple doesn't plan to stay in Arizona after school is over. I'm happy for her, and yet at the wedding I felt a little sadness over just missing girl time. But, stuff happens when you find that amazing boy that you love more than you could have dreamed when you were in high school dreaming along with your girl friends of finding that wonderful guy that would love you. So, some pictures of the day. I came home more exhausted than I could have imagined. With Nora along I ended up waking up at 4:30AM CST (did not go back to sleep) and arrived home around 9:40PM CST. I guess that's not so many hours, but with little sleep the night before it created pure exhaustion and fatigue. I admit I felt a little disappointed that I couldn't be more focused on Gwyn and instead was having to tend to Nora, but again stuff happens when you find that amazing boy who loves you...and you have a family together. I love my family, but having my little baby girl makes things different and some occassions much more difficult to participate in (especially when her Dad has to stay behind and work...how do single moms do it?)
