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November 29, 2007

reflux update

We've got kidney reflux. We had the test this am at TC Thompson and Caroline has grade 2 (out of 5) on the right side. We're thankful its a low grade and hopeful that it will correct itself, which it does in 2/3 of the cases.
So she'll be on a low dose of antibiotics everyday until we retest at 9 months. I'm meeting with our pediatrician tomorrow morning to discuss everything. I have tons of questions: the affects of long term antibiotic use on her little body and the necessity of getting a urine sample ANY time she has a fever and several others that I'm sure I'll think of in the next 24 hours.

I feel tired, but probably from lack of sleep and no nap for 3 days now. I think our over all attitude with this is. . .bummer. Thanks for the prayers, we're thankful it wasn't worse than it is and something that is treatable.

Posted by JennR at 12:40 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 28, 2007

vcug

Caroline is having her vcug tomorrow morning. I'm a tad nervous going into this test. I hope we won't be dealing with kidney reflux and all that it entails. I'm also dreading the test itself, not that it will be too painful for her but the holding her still part. No one likes to see their little one upset.
Please pray that the results show everything functioning normally.
I'll try to post tomorrow afternoon.

Posted by JennR at 2:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

more words from toddlers

I was reading the story about Mary and Martha from the bible to the girls and at the end of the story it asked these questions, "What would you do if you could be with Jesus? Would you rather eat dinner? Or would you rather listen to Him talk about God and heaven?"

Lizzie: "I would listen to Jesus cause I want to hear about heaven, I'm going to be there in a hundred years. Oh, or maybe a thousand."

Julia: "I'd rather eat supper."

Later that evening we were all looking at a book together and there was a picture of a dinosaur and that morning Lizzie had learned that they lived a long time ago. So I asked her, "are dinosaurs around anymore?".

"Nope." (YES!)

"That's right Lizzie."

"They live in another country." (ah, so close)

We also saw a picture of an astronaut and the book asked "if you were an astronaut, where would you travel to?"

Lizzie: "I would go to the store and come back."
Wow, that's adventurous.

They crack me up with some of the stuff they come up with.

I took their pictures over the weekend which was another adventure. This is not something I should do very often because I just am not very patient. And they take my instructions so literally and to an extreme. . .
"please put your chin down more, NO not on your chest!"
"smile, no not so big!"
"lift your head up, no keep looking at me though!"
AHHHHH, its really unfair to all of us to put them through that. But I think we got some good shots. I wish I had professional lighting, I rely on the natural light but at least it saves us some money and makes grandparents happy! :)

Posted by JennR at 11:31 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

November 26, 2007

little smarty pants

While the family was eating dinner last night and I was nursing the baby Lizzie was talking about church and asked why I hadn't been able to come.

"I had a long night last night with Caroline and I was so sad not to able to go with you guys."

"Are you still sick mommy?"

"I'm getting better, I'm just tired and need some good rest."

"You shouldn't have had a baby if you wanted to get some more rest."

Thanks honey!

Posted by JennR at 1:29 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

November 15, 2007

Too much for one so little. . .

For those of you who have heard bits and pieces about our experience last week or who maybe didn't hear at all- here's what happened with our Caroline.
On Saturday evening she felt a bit warm and had a temp of 101 to 102 by the middle of the night. I still wasn't alarmed and thought she was just fighting something off and for some reason I had 103 as the magic number before calling the oncall Dr. I hate calling the on call Dr!!! At about 8am on Sunday morning it hit 103.3 and I made the call. We were soon on our way to TC Thompson to be "evaluated". I was a bit annoyed by this (I think since this is my third child I was a bit desensitized to the seriousness of fever in a newborn).
Her temp at the ER was 101.6 and they took this very seriously, a fever in a newborn is anything over 100.4. Oops- so much for my 103 theory.
The nurse that was attending us mentioned getting a blood sample for the lab, which was not surprising, and she mentioned something about starting her IV at the same time. This sort of went over my head, but I did think- why do we need that? They also took a urine sample, trying to figure out where the infection was located. Then the Dr. came in and told us how seriously they take fevers in infants and that they would do a septic work up- blood, urine and spinal tap and we would also be admitted for 2 to 3 days. WHAT!?!?! This was quite a shock to us. Once I heard spinal tap, I completely lost it and didn't stop crying for a good while (even after the procedure was done). All in all our poor little one had a blown IV attempt in each hand, one blown IV attempt in her arm, IV in her ankle (finally!), lab work drawn from her other arm, heel prick, and spinal tap.
We were admitted that afternoon and stayed in the children's hospital for 3 days. They immediately saw white blood cells and red blood cells in her urine and so we were treated for a kidney infection. They culture all samples for 48 hours- all came back clear except her urine which continued to grow bacteria.
We are so completely grateful that we got a clear diagnosis and that the infection didn't spread or get worse. She responded great to the antibiotics in the hopsital and continues to be on oral antibiotics here at home.
Through it all she continued to eat and sleep normally, which is such a blessing since I am super hyper about how nursing is going. It's going so well in fact that they felt like I was providing enough for her and she didn't have to receive fluids through her IV. (they weighed every single diaper)
It was crappy the first day or so and lonely the rest of the time. It was hard to be separated from Andy for so much of that time. He was with me in the beginning obviously but once she did well, he spent his time between the girls and work. I wanted him to be with me, although that would have meant just sitting around the hospital and he needed to be here with our girls. It stunk. It was depressing to call home, I wanted to be with my family so bad.
But now its all behind us, it seems so strange. It was so tramatizing but now seems like forever ago.
We have no idea how someone so little gets an infection like this and will be doing a VCUG once we are done with antibiotics. They want to see if kidney reflux could have been the cause, we hope not but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.
Thanks so much to those of you who prayed for and with us. We have an amazing community around us and I felt it so much in the hospital. It's so comforting to know that we have friends to call on who will take in our girls, we appreciate you more than you could know.
Praise God it wasn't something worse, and it was treatable and she is getting better. I certainly do not want to ever go through it again!

Posted by JennR at 10:23 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

November 5, 2007

aggravating

Today is my first day solo and I'm actually showered, pretty well fed and even took all three to the Dr. Julia went last week and has bronchitis and Lizzie started coughing this weekend so I took her today. She has yet to develop bronchitis and just has a bad sinus infection. So they are both on antibiotics. I just couldn't chance anyone missing school or mothers day out! And wouldn't you know while we were there I noticed a white spot in the baby's mouth! Great! Now we have thrush as well. This is so irritating to me and worries me to no end because I just don't want anything to ruin nursing. I've worked so hard and am still cracked on one side! I know thrush doesn't ruin it, but it sure does become a nuisance and it makes me want to cry with discouragement. She's been fussy the past two days and I'm thinking now its probably yeast in her system and it might be causing her gas pains. I dropped off the prescription for nystatin but am toying with the idea of using the blue dye stuff (genetian violet, or whatever). It's just such a mess but could be over with in 3 days instead of 14 days of treatment. Any suggestions?

So my first week alone is not really off to the greatest start, but we'll continue to press through. Andy let me sleep an extra hour this morning till 9 which was nice but now we won't see him till 5:30 or later. Oh well, its the price we pay.

My girls have watched an excessive amount of TV today which I'm trying to be fine with. I've joked that my helper this week is PBS, see so I'm not alone. LOL

Posted by JennR at 4:00 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack