Through the Storm

As I sit here writing this post, I am in a place I thought I'd never have to be with Lilly...the hospital. I look back over the past couple of days and wonder how we got here...should I have known something was wrong sooner? I push these thoughts aside knowing nothing happens unless it passes through the hands of my Lilly's Creator. All of this is for His glory :)

So, how did we end up here? Here's the story:

Lilly had been fussy and not quite herself since Monday but we figured she was going through a growth spurt. Wednesday was the peak of her fussiness and I was becoming concerned. Early Thursday morning at 2 am I noticed Lilly felt really warm so I took her temperature and it was 102.5. Dave went to Walgreen's for some Tylenol. I ended up calling the triage nurse because the box did not give a dosage amount and she told us to come to the ER at CHKD because of her fever.

Thankfully, the waiting room at CHKD was empty and we got right in. Lilly's fever had broken by the time we arrived and much to my delight it has never come back :) I'm not sure how long during the night Lilly had had the fever but I'm so glad I caught it at the spike or we may not have come to the ER. So, after a urinalysis and blood culture we learned that Lilly had a UTI. Her pediatrician said it would be okay to treat her at home on oral antibiotics since we they had caught it early. We were home by 8 am :)

Later Thursday evening, I went to Walgreen's to pick up a few things and when I got home, Dave came to the car and told me the doctor from the ER had called and we had to take Lilly back. If I'd known what we were in for once we got there, I would've prayed for more strength...

This time the ER waiting room was maxed out but we got right in with Lilly. After the ER pediatrician spoke with Lilly's pediatrician, it was decided that Lilly would have to be admitted and be on i.v. antibiotics. Then the nightmare began when they couldn't get the i.v. in...in all, Lilly was stuck 6 times before there was success. I didn't know that there was an actual professional person who could do it better than the people that had been sent in (we went through 2 people before the vascular specialist was called...had I known any of this, Lilly wouldn't have been stuck until the pro had been called...). After the 4th attempt, everything within me collapsed and I just cried right along with my baby. My heart just hurt so bad for her because she is just so little and fragile and people just didn't seem to care that she just might need a specialist to get her iv started.

We were told that there were no more rooms available and that we'd have to stay in the ER but thankfully a semi-private room opened up for us. The nurse said she didn't know Who we were praying to but Someone was watching out for us :)By that time it was 11 pm and we were informed by the nurses that two more blood cultures had been ordered, which meant more sticking. The nurses were able to get blood during the first round but were not successful the second round. Nana and I just broke down and cried and the nurses called off the second blood culture. Thankfully, Lilly's cultures have come back negative so she hasn't needed another one. Although her i.v. fell out last night, the same lady put in another one without too much trouble.

Even though Lilly's blood cultures are negative thus far, she will have to stay at least 10-14 days in order to get the full round of i.v. antibiotics because she is so young. Better to be safe than sorry but I hate for her to be here that long...

On the bright side, we have had excellent nurses and clinicians taking care of Lilly and everyone who comes in just loves her :) They had heard what a horrible night we'd had Thursday and said if any sticking had to be done, the vascular specialists would be called :) Lilly is in excellent spirits and is back to her old smiley, giggly self.

Because I am a pensive individual, I can't help but think about the past couple of days and how fortunate we were to get Lilly in the ER when we did. I give all the glory to God because He allowed me to catch her fever at the right time and has given her doctors wisdom to use caution in this situation. Even though my nerves have been stretched to the limit, I know that my God will see me through everything He allows :) Lilly will not remember any of this in years to come, but I will tell her the story of how her faithful Creator had His hand over her little life and over her parents as well :)

To God be the glory, great things He hath done!

Love and Marriage

I'm not quite sure what possessed me to start a project that I really don't have time for, like blogging, but here goes...

Every story has a beginning and mine is exceptionally unique :) My adventures in motherhood began with a man named David. Our adventure began before we even officially met. We happened to see each other in a Mexican restaurant that both of us frequented quite a bit. Dave was there one Sunday afternoon in 2006 (sometime before May...just don't recall the exact month) eating with mutual friends when he saw me walking in the door. According to him, this gorgeous lady rounded the corner and he was transfixed by her beauty. As this beauty walked to her table, she stopped to talk to the friends he was eating with. He was surprised to find that his friends were her friends too! Although no introductions were made that day, Dave was sure the pretty lady had to be taken so he didn't ask about her.  I noticed him too and wondered who he was but didn't think much about him after seeing him because I'm pretty sure I was fed up with men at that point and was ready to be single for the rest of my life :)

Fast forward a month or two to May when these mutual friends asked if I was seeing anybody. I said "no." They said, "We have someone we'd like you to meet." I said, "Okay." But I somehow thought this guy was going to be a big dork, so I put off meeting him (I'm bad, I know). I delayed the meeting until May 21, 2006. The four of us met up at the same Mexican restaurant where Dave and I had seen each other before. Dave said he didn't remember what I looked like but only knew that I had been gorgeous :) Not only was the pretty lady he had seen a few months before his date, she seemed excited to see him too :) Our friends inhaled their food (so it seemed) and left us to ourselves. Much to Dave's surprise, I suggested getting dessert at Bruster's but we ended up at Dairy Queen. The more time we spent together, the more I knew that this guy was different. I discovered that he and I were so much alike that I thought to myself "this is what it must be like to hang out with me." :)

To make a long story a little bit shorter, Dave and I were pretty much inseparable after that first date. We were engaged on his birthday just two weeks later and we were married two months later on August 19 :) Fast forward three and a half years to January 3, 2010 when we discovered that we were expecting an addition to our family. And so it began...the adventure of a lifetime :)