RSV

This cold and flu season has been worse than any I can remember! Two weeks into January and both Ava and Aiden got bad colds. Then, just a week after they were finally both healthy again, Aiden came down with another one! Although we tried our best to keep him away from Ava, she fell sick again too. This time around it hit her much harder. On Thursday night, her breathing sounded shallow. We called Papa and he came right over and said it sounded like brochialitis and that we should take her to the doctor in the morning.

The next morning, Ava's breathing was still shallow and now had a wheezing sound to it. Her oxygen levels were tested and the numbers showed that she wasn't getting quite enough. That meant admittance into the hospital.

Our poor little muffin was hooked up to breathing rate, heart rate, and oxygen monitors as well as given a canula in her nose to supply extra oxygen. Ava tested positive for RSV, a respiratory virus that affects lungs and breathing passages. It's most likely that Aiden had it as well, but because Ava's breathing passages are already so small since she's a baby, it affected her much worse. For the first day and night we were there, she had snot sucked out of her nose and nebulizer treatments every two hours. Needless to say, we weren't getting much sleep.

The next day, nebulizer treatments came every 3 to 4 hours. Although she still wasn't getting quite enough oxygen, she was in great spirits and was able to stay hydrated without an IV - thank goodness! Toward the middle of the day, her oxygen levels were great when she was awake, but they dipped again when she was sleeping since babies breath shallower when they sleep. That meant another night in the hospital. Sunday was a big day because Ava made it though the day and night without needing oxygen and we were able to go home on Monday!

Playing peek-a-boo with dada.

Holding her own bottle for the first time while hanging out with daddy.

We never would have made it through this without my parents. Aiden wasn't allowed at the hospital, so they were a godsend. They took Aiden for us on Friday when we were admitted, and then had him all day Saturday and Sunday and part of the day on Monday. Because he was a little nervous and knew things weren't quite right, daddy took him home to sleep each night to keep some sense of normalcy. He even got Fro Yo one night for being such a trooper.

During the day, Eric relieved me so that I could go to my parents' house and spend some quality time with my little man. It was pretty rough on all of us! Grandma also came to sit with me in the evenings. She brought a delicious dinner each night and sent Eric and Aiden home with the same. Then she stayed with Ava and I until bed time.

Snuggling with grandma. Ava absolutely adores her.

Sunday: Ava's first full day without oxygen since we had been admitted.

Monday morning. Ava was finally unhooked from all of the monitors and I could hold her cord-free! Heaven!

Ava was visibly happy to be home! After I bathed her, she, Aiden, and I all laid down for a 3 hour nap! We were all beyond exhausted! Ava cried at first when I laid her in her crib, but after she looked around and recognized where she was, she stopped crying and started smiling and kicking her legs. I felt the exact same way!

Aiden was pretty happy to have us all home too! These two sure missed each other!

 Ava was still pretty sleepy while we were eating dinner. She passed out in her chair. 

Our time in the hospital was probably my toughest parenting moment thus far. Obviously your baby being so sick she has to be in the hospital is incredibly stressful. On top of it, it just about tore my heart out to have our family separated for these 4 days, especially when we would FaceTime at night and Aiden would ask me to come home. I was really proud of the way Eric and I pulled together and made sure each of us was spending quality time with both of our babies every day. I am also eternally grateful for all of the phone calls and texts from friends and family who were checking in. A big thank you to nana and papa for stopping by to cheer us up and for sending Ava a gorgeous rose, to Jessi who made us a meal and did some grocery shopping for us, to Katey for bringing us Starbucks, and to Erin for being so willing to bring us lunch! And of course endless thanks to my parents who went above and beyond to make sure we were all taken care of! We are so blessed to be so loved by tons of incredible people!