The Best Worst Week Ever...

This is a long one and there are no pictures...if you read you will understand why...nobody wants to see this.

You may have guessed that we anxiously welcomed sweet Audrey into our family a week ago.  It started off great with a very uneventful c-section and a great recovery.  Saylie adapted so fast and has just showered her little sister with adoration and gentle loves.  It seemed we were cruisin' without a hitch. I thought we had nailed this parenting of two thing and it would be smooth sailing. -WRONG-

I had my c-section on Wednesday.  We were discharged from the hospital on Friday because it would be easier to manage my blood sugars at home with my own pump, rather than by IV with nurses who were freaked out with all the post birth fluctuations. I felt really good about going home on day 2 and was anxious to get all our family under one roof and have more time with Saylie, as well as my family who came up to meet miss Audrey.  We headed home knowing that Audrey was borderline with her bilirubin counts and would require a watchful eye and more followup testing.

Saturday we headed to the pediatrician to check the bili and it was such an ordeal.  We got to the office and the doctor was surprised we hadn't already been to the lab to draw blood, but he had never instructed us to do this, nor had he provided a script for labwork.  The lab was then closed because it was Saturday so we had to go to the hospital to have L&D nurses draw it "as a favor".  I got there and they said they couldn't do it, so they sent me to "Special Pedes".  I got there and they said they could do it, but I had to go get Audrey registered first.  This was like a mile of walking, carrying my hefty girl, two days post surgery...awesome.
We got her registered, went back to pediatrics and they poked her heel for about the 15th time (not joking).
We headed home and awaited a call from the doctor. The doctor misread all the numbers and told us she was fine...then called back to say it was still high so the next day we would need to go get tested again...in the hospital again...in special pede's.

Sunday we went in and got heel poke number 16 and headed home to await results.  Both Chris and I, as well as the Pede nurse, thought Audrey was looking better so we didn't think much of it, but sure enough I got a call that night about 6 that she needed to be admitted.  Her bili was 19.2, which is pretty high.  In the low twenties they start looking into blood transfusions to excrete the waste and at 25 crazy things like brain damage and deafness can occur.  I was so bummed and scared and exhausted.  We packed our stuff up again and said goodbye to Saylie and headed to the hospital.  I was not excited about any of this.  I couldn't hold her because she was to stay between the light panels as often as possible.  I could only hold her to change her and burp her.  We even fed her in the darn lights.  For the crazy hormonal, post birth mom, this was a nightmare.  I felt so bad for abandoning Saylie again and I hated that I couldn't hold either of my girls.  I hated that I again was stuck eating hospital food that tasted like luke warm throwup.  I hated that I was sleeping on a child sized hospital bed that constantly deflated to keep me from getting bed ulcers.  I hated that I wanted to shower in my own home but only had access to a community shower in the the pediatrics floor. so many things I DID NOT LIKE, but mostly, I just hated that my baby was sick.  I felt like we should have just had her under lights from the start.  Why send me home early with a sick baby?  I thought for sure she would turn around quickly so when they tested her the next morning and she was coming down I thought we would be home that afternoon for sure.  But they wanted to do a follow up test to make sure it was still decreasing and so 4 hours later with ANOTHER heel prick, we were told it hadn't fallen enough and we were staying another night.  In hindsight it wasn't even that bad, but I was just a mess so I was not a big fan of the doctor when he said we were staying.  I had some tears and the pede nurses took pity on me.  They ordered the next test early so that if we got to go home, we would be home before midnight.  Long story short, she passed and we were disharged after a long 48 hours back in the hospital.

We got home that night so glad to be in our bed, but lo and behold I woke up about 3 am with horrible shivers. I had a fever and body aches and started throwing up everywhere.  It seems that while in Pediatrics, I picked up the Stomach Flu. AWESOME!  Let me tell ya-throwing up violently with layers of 4 day old internal stitches is a special kind of hell!  Chris was an awesome nurse and took care of me and ran to the store to get some medicine and stuff.  He came home, got a little nap in and went to work for a half day.  He is AMAZING!  By Wednesday the sickness had spread to Saylie and we were up to our knees in laundry.  We washed so many sheets and towels it was ridiculous!  Poor Say doesn't get sick much so she just felt miserable.  She threw up 8 times in the morning and couldn't keep down any liquid.  I brought her along to Audrey's follow up pediatric appointment and they took a look at her (she could barely keep her eyes open and was being carried because she was too tired to walk) and said we needed to get her some liquid. They gave her a freezer pop of Pedialyte and said that if she couldn't keep that down, we needed to go to the ER.  Well, by the time we left their office Say was in the hallway puking again so we went straight to the ER and waited in the lobby with what looked like a bunch of the sickest, dirtiest people I have ever seen.  We sat our crew down and a man said we may want to move elsewhere because his wife thought she may have meningitis  AWESOME! I was freaking out inside and could not bite my lip hard enough to keep all the tears in.  I was so worried that I had a newborn in such a filthy place full of germs.  I was terrified that in a matter of 2 hours my super active, playful girl was limp in my arms and could barely open her eyes. She was ghostly pale.  It was just so sad and scary!  Chris met us at the hospital, no doubt exhausted, and we got Say set up in a room in her tiny little puppy dog hospital gown.  She was so meek and lethargic, it was just pitiful.  Slowly but surely our little champ pulled through. She devoured the ice chips and apple juice and kept it down.  She was able to give a urine sample and after three hours in the ER we went home!

Chris and I just laughed each time we went to registration because we had seriously visited each of the desks and they recognized us and would give us the most pathetic smiles each time we came back.  We decided that this week was seriously the worst recovery we could have hoped for but still contained the best of events and we were so grateful to be together and recovering under one roof.  If we were at all concerned about surviving, we could stop worrying because we keep telling ourselves we have been initiated into the "parents of 2" club and that it will be downhill from here.  We seriously would not have survived without the help of my mom.  It was so nice being able to leave Saylie with her when Audrey was sick and send her home from the filthy ER with Audrey while we stayed with Say.  I also have no idea how Chris does it but he was just always calm and cool and supportive.  I was a mess and he held everything together and still got off to work and didn't complain.  I am such a lucky girl!!

The bug is now slowly working its way through the rest of our crew and Mom and Chris are on the mend, but seriously....this week is one for the books. So glad it came, but we are SO glad it is over!