The baby is in the hospital

Please pray for Baby J, our new little guy, who is just 5 weeks old. He was admitted to Children's Hospital on Thursday night with RSV. His breathing is pretty bad and they have him on a lot of oxygen. He was not doing very well at one point and the doctor was afraid she was going to have to send him to another hospital so he could be admitted into the PICU (pediatric ICU), as the one at this hospital is full. However, yesterday (Saturday) the doctor said she thinks he is out of the danger zone now. They were able to slightly reduce the amount of oxygen he was on and he handled it well. Today, (Sunday) they will try to reduce it again and see how he does. If he tolerates this change, I may be able to give him a bottle tonight. I have felt pretty bad for him because they won't let me feed him. They are afraid that he will aspirate the formula because the oxygen he is on is pressurized. This means it is forced into his nose (and he has been on the max amount of force). If he were to try to eat at the same time this oxygen is being forced into him, it could cause him to choke and the milk to go down the wrong tubes and wind up in his lungs. He is definitely hungry and was crying to be feed the other night and it was so hard for me to hear his cry and watch him root for a bottle and know that I couldn't give him one.

It's been a very rough week with very little sleep at our house. Last weekend, two of my children came down with the stomach flu. Those same two also got a head cold, which Gracie also picked up. Grace has been a hot mess. She's been really whiny and clingy and has not been sleeping or eating well. She's got a double ear infection and has an antibiotic for that, but we have to force her to take it and hope she doesn't throw it up when we force her. She has reflux and she has an extremely sensitive gag reflex. So those three were all sick on Christmas Day. One of the stomach flu kids is better now, but a fourth child and Daddy picked up the head cold. Most likely everyone with the cold has RSV and Baby J picked it up from them. I tried to keep people away from him, but we do all live in the same house. RSV usually manifests as just a cold in bigger people, but in a infant who was a preemie, like Baby J was, it can be very serious, even deadly. I'm thankful for modern medicine, as this is something that you would have lost your baby to 100 years ago. So we've had 5 sick children and one sick parent, and Luke and I have been the only ones not to get it. Please pray that I do not get it because I need to be at the hospital with the baby and I should not be there if I have RSV as well. Baby J started to go downhill on Wednesday evening, so I took him and Grace to the pediatrician on Thursday. That where I learned of her ear infections and that he had RSV. At the time, his oxygen level was at 99, so they sent us home with instructions to take him straight to the ER at Children's if he spiked a temp or if his breathing worsened. When I got home from the doctor, Baby J went on a two hour visit with his mother and by the time he came back he was already going downhill. She had been pretty concerned for him. By 10 that night, he was scaring me so I decided to make the 45 minute trek to Children's. They admitted him right away and his oxygen level dropped to 86 not long after we were here (95 to 100 is normal, under 90 is very bad). It dropped to 78 at one point, even while he was on oxygen, but thankfully it didn't stay that low for long.

I've tried to be at the hospital as much as I can, but with five other children at home, four of whom are sick, it's been difficult. Thus far, I have been with my kids during the day and have spent all night the last three nights at the hospital. Baby's J's mom was supposed to be here in the daytime, so I thought this arrangement would work out well so that he was not here alone. She was here Friday but sadly, she did not show up on Saturday. Thankfully, we are in a long weekend so John will be off on Monday. I have not been able to take anyone up on the offers of help with my kids because my kids aren't well yet and I don't want to get any of our friends sick, but a wonderful friend brought my family dinner on Friday night and that was so helpful. Dinner was the last thing I wanted to worry about and knowing that dinner was coming for my family allowed me to leave and get back up here as soon as John got home from work. I'm hoping Baby J's mom comes to spend the day with him today, but I don't know what will happen there. I am going to stay home tonight with my family. My kids make a lot of sacrifices for foster care and I don't want to take our New Year's Eve traditions away from them as well. So I will be home to celebrate with them tonight and probably back here in the daytime tomorrow, depending on what baby's mom decides to do. Baby J will probably be in the hospital a few more days. RSV is a virus, so there really aren't any meds they give for it. It has to just run its' course. They help him be able to breathe and they have him on an IV so his body is getting everything it needs, but other than that you just have to wait it out. It usually lasts 7 to 10 days and we are on day 5.

If you have been waiting for your Christmas card from me, it's still coming. It's just not top priority at the moment.

To learn more about RSV, go here and here.