a not so fun weekend

over the weekend our little princess had her first hospital experience! and not a fun one! on friday night we went out to dinner and reagan was fine.. she had been eating really well that day and went to bed like an angel. i woke up around 2am because i heard her babbling in her crib. 'what on earth is she doing up right now?!', i thought... i was tired. here she wasn't awake, she was moaning in her sleep! poor baby had a 102 degree fever. after giving her tylenol and comforting her for a little while, she fell back asleep until the morning. drew was already at work when we all woke up around 9 (it was a long night :-) ).. reagan once again had a very high fever- 103.7! i tried giving her tylenol but she couldn't keep it down and threw up three times that morning. her fever wouldn't go down below 102 for well over an hour and i was growing more and more concerned. i called my mom to see what she thought i should do and she immediately said to call my aunt wendy. my aunt is the "medical expert" in our family; everyone is always going to her for advice. when she said that she would take reagan to the emergency room, i didn't even consider anything else. drew quickly left work and came home. we met up with my dad and sister so they could take hayden home with them, sparing him from the trauma that was to follow. in the five minutes it took to get to the children's hospital from where we left my dad, reagan looked 100x better. she was smiling and her fever was down to 99. drew and i sat in the parking lot in front of the ER wondering whether or not we should actually take her in. i could just imagine them laughing at us and questioning why we brought a healthy baby in...

better be safe than sorry! we decided just to take her in to make sure she was indeed better. i honestly thought she just had the flu. thank God we took her in! although all the testing was heartbreaking to witness, it was what she needed. after getting a urine sample (which involved a cathetar and lots of crying), bloodwork (from her hand, which left a huge bruise, and her head), and a chest x-ray, the doctor told us that reagan had a very bad UTI. they admitted her and moved us up to our own room. back up really quick... i helped hold reagan while they tried to take blood from her hand. it was awful. she cried soooo hardthe whole time! when they wanted to take blood from her head and insert an IV, i had to leave. my brave husband stayed and tried to comfort her. i waited outside and it was heartbreaking listening to her scream. i cannot imagine what it must be like for the parents of children who have serious medical conditions and have to endure testing and lengthy hospital stays!

my poor baby after having the IV put in.. :-(

the IV

so we got to our room and the nurses got the baby all set up. the doctor soon came in and told us that we would be in the hospital for a couple days. they were going to give reagan a strong antibiotic to get rid of the infection. this was about 5pm. the rest of the evening, my poor baby was miserable. my parents came up to visit and my mom held her most of the time. she wouldn't stop crying. it was so sad. it's so true when parents say they would rather go through something than have their children suffer.. i would have given anything to have been able to trade places with her.

poor reagan, so sick

so little in the hospital crib

saddest picture.. she was so miserable

i spent the night with her in the hospital saturday night. drew went home to get some "good" sleep and bring back stuff for me. not a good night of sleep at all. i slept for like four hours. when i woke up at 6am, the nurse was cleaning reagan up because she had pulled her IV out of her head. apparently it wasn't as pretty as the bows she normally wears... so she had to go and get a new IV put it. this time they were able to put it into her arm. yay! and the nurse told me she didn't even cry! whimpered a little, but other than that was a very brave girl.

new arm IV

so we spent all day sunday in the hospital. reagan was like a new baby! she was so much better, you wouldn't even know she had been sick. the nurses all loved her and kept commenting about what a good baby she is. we were glad that she was better, but would rather have been at home. there are only so many channels on hospital tvs and i was sick sick sick of law and order. haha. and i missed hayden. i never not see him for more than a day and it had already been two, going on three! drew had to go home that night because he had to work early monday morning. another lonely sleepless night spent at the hospital for me. the next morning i had barely woken up when the nurse came in to bring us down to ultrasound. the doctor had ordered an ultrasound of reagan's kidneys to check for infection. she was a little wiggly but a pretty good patient. the doctor came to check on the baby and told us that there was no kidney infection! praise the Lord! we were going to be discharged! my dad, sister and hayden came up to get us. we were very very ready to get out of the hospital!

happy to be going home!

so now we are home and reagan is on an antibiotic to continue to kill the infection. next week she has her six month check-up, and once there the doctor is suppposed to order a VCUG. smart sounding, huh? it's basically a test to check for urinary reflux, which can cause UTIs. they insert a catheter into the bladder and fill it completely with a liquid that can be seen through x-rays. once the bladder is full, they'll take x-rays to make sure no urine is going back up into the kidneys. not very fun, but hopefully it will be negative and this UTI won't be a reoccurring thing!

thank you so much for all the prayers and well wishes! they are very much appreciated and were definitely effective! :-)