Adalyn, 2.5

My Dearest Adalyn,

I'm not sure where the time has gone.  In a blink…maybe even faster than a blink of an eye…you have become a little girl.  There isn't much of anything baby about you anymore. Well, except for your diapers - you just are not quite ready for potty training yet.  We tried about a month ago, but it was a bit too much of a battle for mommy and daddy, so we will try again after our vacation in March.

You are SPUNKY!  You are STRONG-WILLED.  You are LOVING and always want mommy to be "happy".  This morning, you put your muffin in time out.  When I asked you why, you told me that it wasn't listening.

You have quite the imagination and also love to make me "soup" with your toys on a daily basis.  You are still obsessed with Halloween and ROAR at things around the house, including your little sister.  You are my helper - always happy to get a diaper for baby, help me make coffee, turn on and off the lights.  It amazes me that I have a child that can open up the fridge and get her own yogurt and then a spoon from the drawer.

I can no longer ask you to give me a smile or I get this:

In fact, you now run away when I get my camera out, so I have to resort to bribery.  Even candy doesn't always work…

 But I LOVE all of these, because they are just YOU.  Your bright, spirited, loud, and hyper personality shine right through them.

Oh Adalyn, you and I are going to battle when you're a teenager.  You still might look just like your daddy, but your insides are all Mommy.  At your 2 1/2 yr  doctor's appt you were 32lbs and 37", I think.  You were hopping across the floor and going "ribbit, ribbit, RIIIIBIT" and your dr. asked, "Is she always like this?".  Yes, you are constantly moving and I love you for it.  You are still attached to your "baba", aka pacifier, but you know that they are only allowed in bed.  Most nights, you don't even suck on it, but rather have a pile of 4 or 5 in your bed.  You sleep from about 7:30pm to 6:30am and take a one hour nap.  I actually wake you up after an hour because otherwise you don't go to sleep at night.  Now that you are out of your crib, you won't stay in bed unless you are really tired.  You have to have your water bottle sitting on your little side table and always take a drink and ask me to sing "Amazing Grace" and the "Nite Nite Song" (aka Silent Night).

Your favorite activity right now is your Music Together class with your sister.  You are always the star of the "free dance" portion and I'm currently debating soccer or dance class for you in the Fall.  I wish we could afford for you to have both, but we made the decision to place you in a 3s program for the Fall as well.

We love you crazy girl.  xoxo Mommy

A Soul Marker

I always assumed I would end up in the ER with one of our kids at some point  - twisted ankle from soccer game, a few stitches from a fall outside…but I NEVER pictured rushing to the hospital, or having a hospital stay, with one of our babies.  

Remember the fevers the girls were having 2 weeks ago?  Well, Adalyn quickly recovered, and so when Eloise spiked an alarmingly high fever, I didn't think much of it - just another virus, I figured.  But our sweet Eloise did not recover like Adalyn did.  For 4 days, I waited out the fever because there were no other symptoms other than fussiness and crying.  But by Thursday, I decided to take her in and have her ears checked, just in case.  Well, ears were clear, flu test was negative, and given big sis' similar fever early in the week, we were told to go home and wait it out but come back the next day if fever was still high.  I waited another day because I know how those viruses can be. 

By Saturday morning however, Eloise was still 103-104 so I brought her back to pedi.  She wasn't eating or nursing at this point and was clearly getting dehydrated.  After an emergency blood draw and urine test, her urine came back with nitrates so we assumed it was a UTI and she was started on antibiotics.  And when the labs came back from her blood, it was clear that there was some sort of bacterial (not viral) infection going on her little body.  Cultures from both urine and blood take about 2 days to come back, so we had to wait it out and keep her on broad spectrum antibiotic until we found out what organism was kicking her butt.  Unfortunately, Eloise would still not drink anything and after syringing pedialyte down her all day, fighting a fever, and then vomiting up her antibiotic, it was clear that we were going to need to head to the ER.

And so we did on Saturday night. She was immediately given an IV for fluids and another blood and urine test.  IV antibiotics were started as well, and she was admitted for the night because her fever was still high.  The cages, um I mean cribs in the hospital were horrifying to look at - tall metal things that really did look like a zoo animal belonged inside.  I knew E would not sleep in there, so I signed a waiver and had a regular hospital bed brought in so that I could sleep with her and nurse her if she wanted.  She did drink some that night.

The next day she was doing a bit better, but anytime Motrin would wear off, she would have these awful, awful, awful, gut-wrenching screaming and thrashing fits.  She was just the opposite of herself.

The in-betweens were honestly just as painful to watch.

This image.  This image?  Well, it's a soul marker.  It makes me cry.  It makes my heart ache for parents whose children have terminal illness.  It makes me so grateful that whatever is likely to be going on inside our sweet little E is common, curable, and won't affect her long term.

On Monday morning, she hadn't had a fever for 10 hours and they said if she didn't vomit or spike a fever that we could go home.  An ultrasound of her kidneys revealed moderate hydronephrosis of her left kidney, which is basically an enlargement that they assume is caused by reflux of urine back up into the kidney (urine should only go down).  When she got the UTI, the bacteria was able to travel up into her kidney, thus causing all of the pain, high fever, and infection.

As if this sweet little girl hasn't been put through enough, she will undergo a VCUG this Thursday at the hospital where they will insert a catheter and dye and then take x-rays to see what her urine does.  Once we know exactly what is going on, we can be more clear of the next steps.  For now, she will stay on a low dose of antibiotics to prevent any further infection of her kidney.  We will meet with a Pediatric Urologist after the test to confirm the reflux and treatment plan.

We were so delighted to have her home Monday night, and in no time, she was back to her own smiley self.  We were also happy to learn that despite not eating for a few days, that she didn't lose any weight!

Our sweet TEN month old, at 15lbs 13oz. with 3 teeth!

She came with me to the studio today to test out my new real wood backdrop.  Oh how I love to see her well and happy.  :)