to the hospital and back...

6 weeks to the day miss ruby... We wound ourselves back to the hospital.
It all started on Tuesday, you had begun with just a small little cough. We happened to be at the pediatrician that day for Levi, and she said if Ruby gets this, we'll need to see her. Well, Thursday we trekked back to have you checeked out. The Dr. said you were not bad enough to go to the hospital, but you did have RSV and we did need to watch you very carefully, and if you got a fraction of an ounce worse we were to head straight to the hospital.

Well, Thursday night you began to become more irritable, you were refusing to nurse, and you began to retract... so at 3:30, you and I baby girl, began our trek to the hospital. Of course we were in the middle of a snowstorm and a normal 15 minute drive took a 1\2 hour. We arrived at 4, and were seen right away as there was no one in the ER.

We got in and into a room right away, and then the slow pain-staking ER wait began... We were moving along, but then the shift change happened and all went to pot. They had done a chest xray, a urine sample and that was about it. They were not giving you any oxygen at that time, even though your pulse ox was a low. I was extremely frustrated because they didn't seem to be concerned about you retracting AT. ALL. At first, they didn't seem to think you were bad enough to admit for RSV. They did the urine sample to see if you were dehydrated, and it came back with high white blood cells, but they thought it might have been a dirty sample, so then they did a catheter on you (yea, that was awful) and took another urine sample... but to find out if you had a UTI they had to do a 48 hour culture thing..(which for the record, the UTI never worked out to anything, which wasn't really surprising)

Meanwhile they finally got the pedatric dr on call down to the ER and when she heard you weren't nursing well and were lethargic she immediately said they were admitting you... so... at 3:30 yes. 3stinkin 30.... 11 1\2 hours later we were admitted to the hospital and got a room.

It was so scary Roobs... Mama tried so hard to be brave, and make sure I was doing everything in my power to help you. I was never so relieved as when they said they were going to admit you. I just knew in my gut that it was not good, I just had to convince them of it. I was so thankful the pediatric dr listened to my concerns.

Once we got to the ped floor, they got you going on everything which helped, but I think you had just fallen so far behind during the day because the ER did so little for you.... they couldn't believe i'd spent all day in the ER they thought it was crazy when they saw how much you was struggling to breathe, baby girl.......
Friday night you struggled to wake up at all to nurse, so I basically pumped. They were giving you fluids at that point so it wasn't quite as scary... early Saturday morning you began to destat quite a bit so they got you on some oxygen and called for a breathing treatment, and did this deep suction thing where they fed a small catheter tube down through your nose and sucked gunk out... throughout the weekend they sucked close to 300ML of fluid out of you..

Once you got the O2 you were able to nurse a bit more and you slowly improved ....they tried taking you off the O2 early last night, and you did well for about an 3 hours, but began to destat when you were nursing so they put you back on... around 1 this morning they pulled the O2 again and baby girl, you turned the corner, and it was so easy to see. your breathing became easier, you became more alert........ you were awesome, and by 10 this morning they'd pulled the O2, the pulse ox, and all the monitor junk off of you, which made it much easier to snuggle you.. all those wires attached made it hard to maneuver you around...
we spent the day up there today and they monitored you when you nursed and checked your diapers to make sure you were outputting a good amount and finally just before 5they said we could go home!!

Baby girl, we're so very thankful for modern medicine, for capable people taking care of you, and to the Lord for healing your little body. There were SO many people praying for you. I know of 3 churches who had you on their prayer chain, and so many people all over the country, and even the world, who were praying for you! There is nothing greater than knowing that you were in the hands of our Lord. We are so grateful and we give Him the glory.

And.. just so you know Ruby? You've earned your once in your life (at least while you live at home) trip and consequent stay to the hospital... Mama would like to never ever ever do that again. EVER. got it?