hospital update

We've been in the hospital since Tuesday evening and were transferred to the ICU on Saturday. Iris has RSV with pneumonia. The pneumonia spread from her right lung to her left lung, which was why we had to go to the ICU. 

We've managed to get Sibyl care covered so that I can be with Iris at the hospital during the day and Evan sleeps at the hospital at night. We are pretty sure that we've also developed RSV. I have had a low grade fever the last two nights, and I can only assume Evan has the same considering the sleepless nights spent in the room with Iris. I've been very worried that Sibyl is also going to get sick since she's so young,  but she hasn't shown any signs of illness so far, aside from some snotty nose in the morning. 

As far as medications go, we started her on amoxicillin for the pneumonia but it wasn't working so we switched her to an antibiotic called unasyn, which seems to have had the intended effect. We also started giving her atrovent and pulmozyme to help break up the mucus in her lungs. 

When I got to the hospital this morning Evan said she had requested mac and cheese for breakfast. She also requested mac and cheese for dinner. We got her two orders of mac and cheese for dinner and she ate almost both of them. 

Mac & cheese!

She spent several hours on regular "wall oxygen" rather than on the CPAP machine today and was starting to jump on the bed. She also tried climbing off the bed one or two times. She is definitely feeling better.

CPAP mask = no fun, lots of TV

During the afternoon trial on "wall oxygen" she was at 4 LPM. They usually are willing to send us home when she gets down to 1 LPM of oxygen. (For reference, she usually sleeps with 1/4 LPM of oxygen and doesn't need any oxygen at all while awake). 

Managing a hospital stay as parents of two children has proven to be quite a feat but we've had an outpouring of support from all over the place, all of which we really, really appreciate.  

twenty months old

The last month has been mostly full of vomit. Iris is down almost a full pound but has lately been eating a lot. I have her on hemp milk now, and I think that will help a bit. I have also abandoned my vegetarian intentions for her and have been giving her (organic, allergy-friendly) chicken nuggets. Anything to get her to put on some weight in a non-dairy and non-egg and mostly non-soy way. It's not that she's allergic to those things, but they don't do good things for her belly. And eggs make her vomit.  

She had her RSV shot last Thursday and vomited that night. So the pediatrician and I agreed today that we would be creative in thinking about future RSV shots. She is supposed to have five over the course of five months. She's had two and I have no intention of letting her get another one in January. It's incredibly painful and traumatic for her to have to be held down and to get two big, huge shots in her legs. It makes regular vaccinations seem like a walk in the park. 

So we still haven't made it a full seven days without vomit since this whole thing started on November 14. I am hopeful that we'll get there this week... keep your fingers crossed. I started her on Losartan again this past weekend since it seems clear that the medication is not the thing that was causing the vomiting. She seems to be tolerating it well. 

Iris has started taking off her oxygen by herself in the morning after we put oil on the tape. Her face is red on both temples because of the tape and she hates to have us touch either temple. It definitely hurts her even though we try to be very gentle. This is a serious downside to having the oxygen off during the day but keeping it on for sleeping. 

Iris loves her morning smoothie.

Really loves it.

Iris's favorite things are playing in the park (especially swinging), reading her nursery rhymes (over, and over, and over), spinning around till she gets dizzy, looking for school buses, testing her limits with her parents, and painting with our nanny.

She has become very affectionate lately, thanks to a book called Hug Machine that she got as a present. She wants to hug and kiss everything. We went outside the other day and she said she wanted to hug and kiss the sun.

What did you say, Gama?

In the park