Vroom

Some days you just gotta do what ever makes the baby happy.

And yes, that means using the potty seat for a steering wheel.

#vroom #gottaloveimagination

Project: Finish Basement

What am I doing today?

Painting trimwork for the basement.

We cleared out the table from the dining room and spread out a giant sheet of plastic.

I have about 60+ different pieces to do...this day is beginning to feel a bit long.

But the thought of being done with this project is great motivation.

Florida

Jason and I had booked a long weekend trip to Florida about two months back. It was just for the two of us to get away and reconnect. A time for rest and rejuvenation. We were both so excited for it since it had been 8 years since we had taken a long weekend for just the two of us. I had spent the past 7 weeks researching hotels, flights, activities, and restaurants. I was so ready to get out of this cold Minnesota weather and enjoy some sunshine and see the ocean.

The problem: Our trip was to start on Thursday morning and Hattie had just been discharged from the hospital Wednesday afternoon. What should we do?

It was so hard. I felt so incredibly conflicted. If you know me at all, you know that I am a hand's-on-mama. I love being with my kids and I like being the one to be here at bedtime. I love taking care of them and I love being their mama. So for me to take a vacation was a rather big step. To take a vacation when my sweet Hattie had just gotten home from her hospital stay was...well....difficult. I spent a great deal of the evening crying. Crying because I didn't want to leave her, crying because I didn't want to miss out on something important for my marriage, and crying because I knew that our tickets were non-refundable and we would simply be out the money if we didn't go. After much convincing, I packed my bags and left the decision to leave based entirely on how Hattie fared during the night. If her fever broke, then we would go, feeling comfortable that things were moving in the right direction. If the fever remained, then we would stay home and I would continue to care for Hattie and see her through this nasty virus that she had picked up from who-knows-where.

***

The fever broke.

***

Since Hattie's fever had broken during the night and all signs pointed to her being on her way to recovery, reluctantly Jason and I set out on our trip. Jason and I arrived at the airport and boarded our plane.

It was a nice, smooth flight. We left at 7am and arrived in Orlando at 10:47am. The whole day lay ahead of us.

The first thing we did once we got the rental car, was find some lunch. We stepped out of the vehicle and were greeted with sunshine and 85 degree weather. It was absolutely beautiful. It's hard to be crabby or have a bad mood when you are surrounded with weather like that! I called home to get a quick check on Hattie and things seemed to be progressing towards getting back to normal.

We went to Downtown Disney and walked around, looking at the shops and people watching.

Whew...Minnesota snow-bird showing off her tan. ;)

By evening I called again to check on the kids and especially Hattie. I was trying so very hard to be in the moment and enjoy Florida, but my heart was still back in Minnesota wanting to be there to see first-hand how she was doing. To snuggle with her on my lap. Read her books. Tell her she was doing so great and that by tomorrow morning she would be as good as new.

Friday morning proved to be another beautiful day in sunny Florida. Forecast said we were going to get up to 90+ degrees. It seemed like the perfect day to head to Cocoa Beach and enjoy some ocean time!

 

We rented an umbrella and a beach chair. I was amazed at how strong the sun was. This fair-haired girl was a little worried about getting a sunburn, so I spent some of my time under the umbrella enjoying the shade. Here was my view:

While I was sitting and relaxing, I made a call home.

Mom said that Hattie had some yucky diapers and per our instructions from the hospital, if she started to show any signs of moving in a direction we didn't like, then I was to call the pediatrician on Friday to have her seen before the weekend. So...I sat at Cocoa Beach with tears in my eyes as I dialed the clinic office. I spoke with the pediatrician who said she didn't need to see her, but because of the diapers, I needed to push the fluids hard to try and avoid dehydration and watch for the signs...because if it came back, she would need to go to the ER again.

It was a surreal feeling...being surrounded by so much beauty but feeling so sad and heartbroken on the inside. It made for a rather difficult day.

(Jason did a lot of swimming...that's him in the center...way out there.)

We returned to the hotel, freshened up, and went to Disney's BoardWalk.

After that, we drove to Universal's CityWalk to grab some supper. We weren't sure how much longer we were going to have in Florida so we decided to try and fit in as many things as we could.

While at CityWalk, Mom called. Hattie had thrown up again right before bed. The tides were turning and I didn't like the direction they were choosing what-so-ever.

I went to bed that night with tears in my eyes. My baby was sick and here mama wasn't even there to hold her and comfort her. I felt utterly helpless.

We awoke the next morning and headed to the Orange/Grapefruit grove while we waited to hear how Hattie was doing. Would today be the turning point for her or was she going to continue to just get worse?

While in the grove, I called home yet again. Hattie wasn't doing well and my mom was getting concerned. I spent half my time at the grove parked under an orange tree talking with the ER at Children's Hospital, looking for advice on what we needed to do for Hattie. Once off the phone with them, I dialed the pediatrician and spoke with her. It was becoming increasingly apparent that there was going to need to be an early flight home. I called Mom and told her what they had told me and that I was going to try and catch a flight home. We got in the car and headed for the hotel.

Once back at the hotel, I started to fold my clothes and get things organized so in case I needed to leave, I could. I called Mom and while I was on the phone with her Hattie started throwing up again. I looked at Jason and I said "Get me a flight home, I' m leaving." We began hastily throwing things in the suitcase and hurried out of the hotel.

While on the way to the airport, I booked a flight home to Minnesota. God was watching out for me as I was able to get the last seat on the plane. I had less then an hour to get checked in, go through security, and make it to my gate. I hugged Jason good-bye and through tears he let me go. We knew that he was going to have to stay behind and take the originally planned flight home as this emergency ticket cost us a lot of money and we just couldn't afford two of them.God made it all happen and as I stood at the gate waiting to board, I knew that in only 3 short hours, I would be there with my little girl.

***To be continued***

And More Sick...

Unfortunately, things did not get better for Hattie. Mere hours ago we were at this. And our day took a drastic turn for the worse.

By 1:30pm, Hattie had thrown up seven times and it didn't seem like things were improving what-so-ever. I placed a call into the nurse to get some advice, and after a 15 minute phone conversation knew that I needed to get her to the ER. She was becoming incredibly listless, very lethargic, and when you would move her even a tiny bit, it would cause her to throw up again. There was nothing left in her tummy and I couldn't even get 1/4 of a teaspoon of water to stay down. I knew I needed to move and I needed to move fast.

With my pajamas still on, I slipped my feet into my shoes and took her out to the van. I enlisted my mom to ride with us knowing that if Hattie threw up on the way, she would be back in her seat all by herself and I couldn't stand the thought of that happening. Not to mention the safety, or lack-there-of, of a baby throwing up while be strapped into her carseat.

We arrived at Children's Hospital ER in Minneapolis and thankfully there wasn't a long wait to get called back and seen. They did a quick check of her and knew that they needed to get her rehydrated with fluids. Zofran, an anti-nausea med,was also on the list of things she needed.

Hattie was so listless and lethargic that I was having a hard time even keeping her awake at this point. The number of times she had thrown up was now up to 12. Literally, I would move her just to sit her up a bit and it would cause her to throw up again. She didn't even flinch when they put the IV in nor did she even bother to look at the doctor while he fiddled with things. She would just stare into space. I have to say, it was scary and one of the most heart-breaking things to watch. Hattie was just so incredibly sick. The docs got her IV up and running and put the Zofran into the line. And within about 15 minutes, color started to return to her face. I've never seen her lips so incredibly pale before.

While they had the IV in, they also drew blood in order to run some labs to try to figure out what was going on. Her glucose level came back at 58, which is quite low, not surprisingly since I couldn't get any drop of liquid to even stay in her stomach. They immediately pushed dextrose through her IV as well and that started to perk her up.

Her electrolyte panel also came back as abnormal. Again, not surprising. Her bi-carbonate level was low. We were told that anything under 15 usually calls for being admitted to the hospital and Hattie's was at 13. The ER doc said that he was on the fence for admitting her...she seemed to be going in the right direction now and her glucose had risen. He felt like he just wasn't quite sure if we needed to stay over or not...and he left the decision with me. While this whole conversation had been taking place, Hattie got super tired again, lethargic, and fell asleep in my arms. Or rather zonked out in my arms. My gut told me that it just didn't seem like a good idea to leave just yet and I asked if we could stay a few more hours, repeat the tests, and see what numbers we got back. He agreed that the idea seemed very reasonable. I just couldn't get Hattie to wake up and I just felt like something still wasn't right. 

After about 2.5 hours, blood was drawn and the labs were repeated. They came in to tell me that the electrolyte panel still showed the same numbers, and that if we were comfortable, we could go home.

And two minutes later, they came back in and said that her glucose had again dropped to the too low level of 62 and he was making the decision to admit us to the hospital overnight.

They pushed more dextrose through her IV and she started to wake up again.

We were admitted and brought up to our room around 11:30pm. We had just spent the last 8+ hours in the ER and this day was quickly becoming very, very long.

Hattie and I shared a twin bed and my mom, who so graciously stayed with us the entire time, slept on the fold-out couch.

Once we were in the room, the nurse did her once over of Hattie and realized that she was starting to get a fever. A check 45 minutes later showed that she was now at 101..and a check another 30 minutes after that showed a 102.5 fever. Tylenol was given and another check 45 minutes after that showed it had only gone down to 101.9. I then asked for motrin as well. Hattie was clearly uncomfortable and not feeling well and I really needed her to get some relief. Another check 45 minutes later (by the way, are you seeing a pattern of nurses coming into the room...that means there literally was no sleep by me until sometime around 5:30am) showed that her fever was finally coming down due to the meds and she was able to rest.

By morning, Hattie was showing signs of improvement and was even asking for some toast to eat. Along with water and pedialite, she was also taking in fluids on her own. By 2pm, the pediatrician was discharging us and her IV was taken out. We were on the right trajectory and things were really looking up.

We arrived home to a decorated house as her brother and sisters were so happy to see her. They had all been worried about her and missed her.

**For my own memory keeping...Ella's hand written message:
You're my snuggle bug,
You're my double dipper,
You're my glow worm,

I love you Hattie Cakes!

By evening, Hattie was walking around with a banana in one hand and a graham cracker in the other. I scooper her up and we went to bed snuggled up against each other.

During the middle of the night, her fever broke and her temp returned to normal. All signs pointed to one day of recovery and then everything would be back to normal.

...or so I thought.

sick...

I woke up to a sick baby this morning.  Which,  in case you were wondering,  is never a good way too start the day.

It's a bit after noon right now and poor Hattie has thrown up 5 times. No fever...but miserable.

To top it off, Jason and I are supposed to be leaving for Florida in less than 48 hours.  Prayers for a speedy recovery and that no one else gets sick would be appreciated.

Let It Go

Hattie loves to sing the song Let It Go from the movie Frozen.

I had to record her because her little voice is just too cute. And it won't be long until it changes from a little toddler voice to that of a big kid. The days just slip by so fast.

By the end of the movie, Let It Go took on a whole new meaning however...

Project: Finish Basement

Carpet is going in today!!! Hurray!

This is going to totally and completely transform the space.

And the bonus: after carpet is installed, only the moldings and mantel remain. Sooo close to the end!

PS...the red is the carpet pad...