Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Room 4128

If we didn't feel like parents before, we sure do now. This post comes to you from the hosptial. I will start off by saying everything is OK. On Monday, Gracie's eye got really swollen. She's had issues with her tear duct ever since she was born so we'd been putting ointment on it, but it'd cleared up -- until Monday.

After Grace woke up from her afternoon nap her eye was very swollen. When Jay walked in the door that evening I said we needed to call the pediatrician. Since she had a fever they told us to come to the ER at Children's Hospital. I had somewhat expected that we'd be given some new ointment and be sent home. But that wasn't the case. Once we saw the doctor we were told she'd need to have a urine test (via catheter), blood test and spinal tap -- standard protocol for newborns with fevers. They don't want to take the chance that it's something more serious -- little ones don't have the capability to fight off infections like we do. And that wasn't all, because the eye was affected they wanted to put her on 48 hours of IV antibotics, meaning she'd needed to be admitted to the hospital for at least two nights. Jay and I looked at eachother, shocked. That said the staff was great in explaining to us why this needed to be done. They also said the next 45 minutes would suck (when they were doing all the tests) and the next two days would be boring. And they've been right.

We were given the option of leaving the room when they were taking blood, urine and doing the spinal tap, but we couldn't imagine leaving her. It was a lot to watch your child go through, but she was a real trooper through all of it. Probably stronger than we were : )

From that point on I've spent the majority of my hours in room 4128. We've been reading, watching TV and napping in between antibiotic infusions and visits from nurses and doctors. The first night both Jay and I stayed but we realized that it made sense for one of us to go home to get a good night's sleep (the cot and pullout couch/bed weren't the best : ). That person (Jay) would then let the other person (me) take naps throughout the day. Ella's appreciated having one of us home too. I hear she's been wandering around the nursery looking for Grace and I.

We found out Tuesday morning that we'd actually have to stay 'til Thursday morning, so I've been in a hospital more in the last month than I have in my entire life. Grace's fever went down the first night and her eye started looking better the next afternoon. Even though it's not the most fun experience, the staff's here has been great. Gracie's been great through all of this too (even thought she looks kinda pathetic with the IV hooked up to her tiny arm). She's kept us in good spirits by being especially smilely and entertaining with lots of faces and cooing. I hope to post some photos when we get home.

We'll I better get back to our "sleepover" (what I've been calling these nights in the hospital). I need to gaze at little face for a little bit before we go to sleep ... at least I'm hoping "we" go to sleep.

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