Life, and All That Surrounds It

Slowly Getting Better

Caroline is slowly getting better from the bronchiolitis that hospitalized her last week. I had expected her to bounce back quicker but it has taken a full week and she is still not 100%. Since it is a virus, all we can do is treat the symptoms and let her get as much rest as possible to help her body fight it off. She has been sleeping a lot (as long as she is in someone's arms) and she is getting better but she still has a nasty cough that sounds horrible.

Jeanne took the week off from work and stayed home with her and they got a lot of mommy-daughter time. This worked well for the two of them (who both needed to catch up on sleep) and we hope that Caroline transitions back to daycare ok next week. Hannah has struggled this week throwing more fits and tantrums than usual, which we assume is related to the stress of having her sister sick and her mommy spending more time with the baby. By the end of the week Hannah was doing better and we hope that everyone is moving in the right direction.

When Caroline is awake and happy, she continues to be full of smiles and is absolutely adorable (in my completely unbiased opinion). The problem has been that she doesn't have much energy so her mood shifts quickly to being tired and cranky. Each day she has a little more energy, and we see more glimpses of the "regular" Caroline, but it's been hard seeing her so sick and miserable so much of the time.

But when she's in a good mood we can capture moments like this:

And some pictures from the past couple weeks:

Hopefully by this time next week we are back to our regular routines, because this week has been really hard on all of us.

Posted by Pete at 10:26 AM

A Night in the Hospital

It's never fun when a baby is sick, but worse when she has to go to the hospital. Caroline had been sick for a couple days with a bad cough and a runny nose but on Friday she got worse. She is normally not a good napper but when we got a call from daycare that she had spent pretty much the whole day asleep we knew something was off. We called the doctor and brought her into the emergency room to get checked out.

They gave her a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia (negative) and checked mucus in her nose to rule out RSV (also negative). They eventually diagnosed her with bronchiolitis, an infection of the bronchioles (small air passageways in the lungs) that is not uncommon in kids under 2 (and is the leading cause of hospitalization in infants). They said she was borderline to be admitted to the hospital overnight. She could go home, but we'd have to watch her closely and then bring her back on Saturday morning to be evaluated. Or we could have her stay overnight in the hospital. We made the clear choice to have the help of the nurses in watching her overnight; it was definitely the right call.

She started on regular nebulizer treatments which pumped a mist into her airways that included saline and albuterol to help open her airways. She had a rough night which lots of coughing fits, but the nebulizer treatments were effective as she calmed down and slept immediately afterwards.

By mid-morning she was doing better but they wanted her stay through the day so they could keep an eye on her and see how she progressed. Jeanne had stayed in the hospital with her, getting as much sleep on a folding cot as she could and nursing her to help keep Caroline hydrated. Hannah and I were at home and went in on Saturday afternoon to visit.

Hannah was really great with her and Caroline immediately perked up at having her big sister around. The two of them played in the crib watching TV and Caroline started to get some of her energy back. She would still have coughing fits, but they were less frequent and less severe.

She was discharged back home on Saturday night with a home nebulizer which allows us to continue to administer the medicated mist to help her breathing every few hours. She'll be on that for a couple days as we continue to monitor her progress and hopefully she can get back to her normal self by the end of the week.

We were really impressed by the facilities and staff at Winchester Hospital, a community hospital about 20 minutes from our house. It was a well-run pediatric unit; we were impressed with the nurses and doctors, and Hannah was impressed by their collection of kids DVDs and toys.

It's been really sad seeing our baby so sick, but she's been sleeping well which has been good and in the times she is awake and content she can still be her normal smiley self. Hopefully in a few days she'll be herself again.

Here are some pictures from her brief stay in the hospital:

Hannah did manage to have some fun this weekend. She went over to friends' houses on both Friday afternoon and Saturday mid-day which was great for her to get to focus on having fun with friends. She seemed concerned about Caroline, but was able to put it out of her mind when baby dolls and arts & crafts were in front of her. And with our first snow of the year, she got outside with her friend Olive for some snowy fun on the slide:

Posted by Pete at 10:35 AM

Turning a Corner

In the past weeks I've felt like we've turned a corner with Caroline as we start to figure her out more and more. She is becoming more predictable which makes daily life a lot simpler as we can plan around her schedule and moods. Switching to feeding her every 2.5 hours instead of 3 at daycare has made a big difference as they are able to catch when she is hungry but not yet starving. And we've gotten better at feeding her rice cereal in the evenings which has helped with her sleeping.

The other thing that has helped is how responsive she is. She has been a smiley baby for a couple months, but has really started to laugh and react to the world around her in such a great way. It makes it so much easier to take care of her when we can play games and entertain her rather than just feed and change her. And the best entertainer is her big sister.

Hannah continues to be great with Caroline and has really enjoyed as Caroline is able to react more and more to her. Hannah can still get upset when Caroline is crying, but when everyone is in a good mood, things are great.

Here's a video of Hannah playing peek-a-boo and getting some great belly laughs:

(What you don't see in the meltdown each had about 4 minutes later: Caroline because she was tired and Hannah because I was making the wrong type of pasta for dinner. Ah, isn't being a parent wonderful?)

And here's another one showing off Hannah's habit of making up songs while she is engaged in another activity. This is a pretty typical scene in our kitchen in the evenings while we try to keep everyone occupied. (It's a little long, but I wanted to show that these are not short songs):

Posted by Pete at 10:29 AM

What a Year

It has been a crazy year and we can't wait to see what 2012 brings. It was a wonderful year as Caroline joined our family but also a really challenging year as we figured out how to live life as a family of four. Someone said it well that having one kid is an adjustment and having two is work. I really agree because with the first child it certainly changes your life, but it just takes some adjustments. With the second, it takes a lot more work to manage both the older child and the baby. And add two full-time jobs into the mix and it makes for a very busy time.

We made New Year's resolutions to focus more on the four of us around our home during 2012. We're still going to travel to see friends and family when we can, but want the overall focus of the year to be on us at home and not try to push ourselves too much. We've learned that small outings around town can be just as rewarding and fun and don't leave us as drained as a full day (or even weekend) out and about. And with the fun we had hosting friends during December, we want to continue that in the coming year.

It's so hard to predict what the year will bring, but we're really optimistic as it gets started that it'll be a great year for us!

Christmas was the typical craziness of visiting with family on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We also managed to light the Hanukkah candles on all 8 nights which was pretty impressive given all that was going on. Hannah was excited on Christmas morning, but not as much as we thought she might be. It's the side of her personality from me to not go over-the-top with excitement but instead be more measured in her joy.

The week between Christmas and New Year's became a week of outings with fun adventures for Hannah each day to fill the time when school was closed: