Admitted

The past couple of days have been some of the most eventful of our parenting lives. On Friday afternoon, Israel woke up from her nap burning with fever. We gave her Tylenol and she seemed to perk up, played for a while and ate her dinner. But by 7:00 pm, she was falling asleep in my arms (she usually goes to bed at 8:30). I put her to bed and left JP in charge while I went to a birthday party for a friend from church. When I got home around 11:00 pm, she was sleeping with JP on the couch. I took her temperature and it was 103.3. We gave her more Tylenol and put her back to bed.
The next morning she woke up with a 101.6 fever. Knowing she's been struggling with bronchitis and an ear infection, I decided to take her into urgent care.
When the nurse checked her oxygen levels, they were at 87%, which is very, very low. They gave her some mild steroids and a nebulizer treatment, and also took a chest x-ray -- which just so happens to be the very worst thing a parent could ever watch their child go through. It was like willingly placing my daughter in a mini torture chamber. They put her in a very uncomfortable looking bicycle seat sort of thing, then they had me hold her arms up in the air over her head. They then took a clear plastic tube and enclosed her in it so that she was stuck with her hands above her head. At that point I had to go behind a wall (since I'm pregnant) while they did the x-rays. Rae could see me out of the corner of her eye and was looking at me in terror, screaming her lungs out. I was bawling. It was horrible. Thankfully, it was over quickly.
The x-rays came back clear, and her oxygen levels were on the rise, but the doctor was watching her breathe and was not pleased with how hard she was having to work for each breath. He sent me to North Memorial's ER to have them evaluate her and decide whether she should be admitted for the night.
After nearly 3 hours of sitting in an ER room with doctors and nurses going in and out, the ER doctor agreed that Rae should stay overnight. We waited even longer for a bed to open up, and finally around 5:00 pm we got into a room.
At this point, Rae had gone all day without a nap (she usually takes 2 naps per day) and was becoming delirious. I tried to get her to sleep in the hospital room, but the big metal crib was so scary and she had wires hooked up to her to monitor her oxygen levels -- it just wasn't going to happen. We ate dinner and had to have ANOTHER chest x-ray done, and after that, she fell sound asleep on JP's chest.
Later, JP went home and I tried to transfer her into the crib. It was still too scary, so after a while I just brought her out and let her sleep on the couch with me. She preferred this very much and slept pretty well. I didn't sleep a wink. Every time she moved or made the smallest noise, I was wide awake to make sure she was ok. And every time her oxygen levels got too low, a machine would beep and I'd be wide awake again.
At about 12:45 am, the nurse came in and said her oxygen levels were staying too low (about 86%), so they gave her a nebulizer and I held her down as they stuck plastic oxygen tubes up her nose and taped them to her face. Poor baby. She hated it at first, but exhaustion finally won out and she fell asleep next to me again. Her oxygen levels stayed high the rest of the night and she slept very soundly.
This morning she woke up without any fever and behaving very pleasantly. The doctor listened to her lungs and said she sounded good, gave us our instructions, and sent us home.
She seemed pretty tired and on edge today, but not too bad. She has little marks on hr face from where they peeled off the tape that was holding the tubes to her face. She is in bed with a slight fever right now, and I plan to check on her a couple times throughout the night to make sure she is breathing easily.
We want to thank all of you who were praying for us yesterday and have been praying for us the past couple of weeks. Things have been hard, but God is good. I am exhausted, though, and will need miraculous rest tonight.
Here are a couple pictures I took at the hospital last night and this morning. Special thanks to "G" (JP's mom) who brought us food, "Grandma" (my mom) who brought books and fruit, and "Gammy & Grampies" (JP's dad & step-mom) who watched our dogs for us all weekend long. We love you guys.

Cuddling with Grandma -- notice the wire hooked to her foot.

Exhaustion takes over

Just before she woke up this morning

Just after waking up -- cutie pie bed-head!

Walking around with her tubes and wires. These are the yellow "prison pajamas" they had her wear during her stay.