The Rest of the Story

It's tomorrow, right?

Doozer and I were transferred by ambulance while The Hubby went home to pack for the night. No, we didn't drive there wildly, sirens blazing and lights flashing. The ambulance took it nice and easy. Doozer was in her car seat which was strapped on the stretcher. She also had a cool red light on her big toe that reminded me of E.T.'s glowing finger. They had it plugged into a machine on the ambulance to keep an eye on her oxygen saturation, which is the whole reason we were in an ambulance.

Doozer promptly fell asleep after protesting for a bit. So I chatted it up with Paramedic Chad, and he made me feel much better. He had a perfect blend of humor and concern, exactly what I needed. We were able to talk the whole way to the hospital. So, Paramedic Chad, if you're reading this, thank you for helping me stay sane.

Once we arrived at Doernbecher they showed us to our room and tried to suction her nose. Not much came out. At this point I told our nurse that I would be co-sleeping with Doozer and I asked if I needed to sign a waiver. The nurse's response was the best. She told me that she could set up the monitor closer to the "parent bed" so Doozer's wires would reach. She also told me that technically the hospital discouraged co-sleeping, she had to inform me of that, and that she personally agreed 100% with me on the whole co-sleeping thing.

So started my stay in the hospital with my baby. It was a wonderful and awful experience. The nurses were great, very understanding and sweet. The sick baby, however, not so great.

The Hubby then showed up fortified with a pair of sweatpants for me and a sack of Taco Bell burritos. A different nurse came in at this point and did a swab for RSV. Which came back positive. Which made us even more anxious. See, babies can die from RSV, which my little sister almost did when she was just three months old. I grew up with my mother telling us all how dangerous RSV is. Her advice for every new mom is "Little babies don't cough. If they cough something is wrong." Thankfully Doozer never coughed, she just had a lot of trouble breathing.

She also had an eye infection and a yeast diaper rash on top of everything. The doctor at the hospital told us this was because her body was trying so hard to fight off the RSV that it just couldn't fight the other stuff.

And, quite frankly, there's not much else to say. We stayed nearly 24 hours in the hospital and left with the eye ointment that we came with and new diaper rash cream they gave us. We also had our baby girl. And although I know I wasn't even close to losing her I feel like I was. I had a feeling of "That really could have happened!" It could have been worse and it wasn't.

I just love my little girl.