Spring Break

This last Spring Break I had high hopes of deep cleaning our house and cleaning out a few closets, catching up with some friends, and planning some days of fun with the girls, but unfortunately Ava had other plans. My school does conferences the Wednesday and Thursday before Spring Break so I work 12 hours days and then we get Friday off as compensation. Wednesday night Ava slept horribly but Thursday she seemed to be doing okay so Steven took her to daycare. Thursday evening Steven said she was fussy and wanted to be held a lot but went to bed okay. I got home around 8:30 and ate dinner and hung out a bit. Then I went to check on her before I went to bed and as opened her door the stench of vomit overcame me. Poor baby had gotten so sick to her tummy but did not cry out or anything. We figure she got sick, felt better, and fell asleep. So she got a bath and fresh sheets and blankets. She then was up through the night and just really not herself. This behavior continued all weekend. She never had a fever but she was sick to her stomach and just not feeling well all weekend. Monday morning I made her a doctor appointment thinking maybe she had an ear infection. By the afternoon when we had the appointment she was breaking out in hives and just super lethargic. 

Poor sick baby girl

She had hives like this all over her tiny body.

She was sleeping more than a newborn, about 20 hours in a 24 period. Our wonderful doctor checked her out and could not find anything wrong. She was concerned about dehydration since Ava was really not eating much, but said to bring her in for blood work and a urine test on Tuesday if she did not significantly improve that evening. So Ava's symptoms continued and she was just not herself one bit. Tuesday was Sophia's birthday and being that we had already spent about an hour and a half the previous day at the doctor and I knew if I took her Tuesday we'd probably be there just as long (turns out it was much longer) so luckily my mom was able to come down and take Sophia for a day of birthday fun. I took Ava back to the doctor where they tried unsuccessfully to get her blood drawn. Everyone could hear her crying so our doctor came out and took us back into a room and checked Ava out even though we did not have an appointment. She decided she wanted a second opinion with another pediatrician so she made us an appointment at one of their other offices and sent us straight there. The nurses exact words to me were "we feel safe relasing you with Ava if you go directly to the other clinic". These words made me quite nervous as at this point they were discussing IV fluids and things like that. So I headed home to give my Mom a key to our house, then headed down to the doctors office to try, yet again, to get poor Ava's bloodwork and to wait for her appointment. I called Steven on the way and luckily he could leave work to come and meet since I was pretty overwhelworried at this point.

Once we made it to the other clinic they were, thankfully, able to get her blood on the first try. They then bagged her to see if they could collect a urine sample, and luckily they were able to do that to so we did not need a catheter. Her bloodwork came back relatively normal, her red blood cells were still way off but always will be. The main things that were off and slightly concerning were her kidneys and her liver and they think that was from being dehydrated. They also did a strep test since her throat was really raw and inflamed. That came back negative as well. They said this was probably a really bad virus and to come back in a few days if we did not see a significant improvement, so we headed home- 6+ hours from when I left that morning. The next day was more of the same so Ava gots lots of cuddles and Sophia enjoyed lots of playtime with her new toys from her birthday. Thursday we already had an appointment with our regular doctor for Sophia's 5 year well child check. Ava was still not herself so I was glad we could check in with her doctor at Sophia's appointment. Then, just to add fuel to the fire, Thursday morning a few hours before Sophia's appointment, Sophia slammed her thumb in our pantry door smashing the nail, it turned purple right away and would not stop bleeding. 

So back to the doctor we went. Our wonderful doctor helped clean and bandage Sophia's thumb, she was a very upset and frightened 5 year old and our doctor was so patient. Of course Ava still was not feeling well so she would not let me put her in the stroller so I was carrying her and trying to help Sophia. After Sophia got checked out and got a clean bill of health, our doctor checked Ava out for her fourth check up of the week and said that if she was not better by Monday then to call her and we would need to figure out some next steps or referrals. Luckily by Sunday or so (11 days from initially getting sick) she was pretty much back to normal. I feel like Ava is our "go big or go home" baby girl. If she gets sick she gets really sick, if she's happy she's really happy, if she's sad she's really sad, if she's hungry she's really hungry etc.. She went big with this virus and gave us such a scare. Knock on wood she has just had one cold since then and just the cough has stuck around. I am hesitant to even post this as I don't want to jinx her since she has gotten sick so many times in the last 8 months or so. 

Seeing your baby so sick and not being able to do anything to take her pain away is one of the worst feelings in the world. Hopefully we don't have any other experiences like this for a long long time!