Starting 2010 off with a bang!

Happy New Year! It has been an eventful one to say the least, for us. New Years Eve Brody had his follow up hearing test at Children's and although he did far batter than the previous one, he does seem to have some hearing loss in the high frequency range and low frequency range. This really just seems to effect him when things are very soft (low volume) in those ranges, not when they are loud. He will go back when he is three years old to do a more extensive test.
We rang in the new year with lots of board games, a movie, sparkling grape juice (for the kids) and a glass of champagne (for me and Nathan). It was perfect.
New years Day Keira started getting a little cold, and by that night, Brody seemed to follow suit. Over the next day or two they became worse, coughing a lot, and I noticed Keira was doing a whole lot of wheezing. I joked that the poor girl sounded like Kathleen Turner if she were a squeaky toy. Sunday I attempted to take them both to the urgent care center at their doctor's office, but the roads were terrible, and I have a nebulizer at home, and decided to wait until the following day. At 1 am Sunday night/ early Monday morning I woke up because Keira's breathing was very shallow, very strained, and VERY scary. I got up, got the neb and gave her a treatment. No luck, just a lethargic, barely breathing baby. I got up, got dressed and headed into the ER. When we got there, they checked her oxygen levels and they were 92-93, not bad but not great. The did an xray, stuck this lovely tube up her nose pushed saline in her nose then suctioned it all out to do gather as much mucus as possible, she was given breathing treatments and oxygen. Her oxygen levels dipped to 88-90. The dr came in and told us she has RSV. She also told us due to her difficulty breathing without oxygen, she would be admitted and the pediatric dr would come speak to us. It was around 4 am at this point. We didn't get moved from our lovely ER accommodations to the depressing pediatric floor until 11:30am. I will spare you the frustrations during this time period, but I'm pretty sure I saw two very old men die and the lady in the next room was on her way too, because she was moaning in pain and agony the ENTIRE time. I am not heartless, I felt bad, but I am/was also extremely sleep deprived and upset and I just wanted someone to help the darn lady and give her some morphine or something to make her more comfortable!
When we got to the pediatric ward (I called it depressing because what is happy and joyful about a bunch of babies and children crying in pain and so sick?) and met her dr and her normal pediatrician came in to meet us as well. (Reasons why we love Dr. Hoder.) Her dr at the hospital was a funny, but in a kind of geeky way, young Indian dr. He was quirky and entertaining, but great at making us feel like she was getting the best care possible. Keira had a rough couple of days, needing oxygen almost the entire time. Her breathing treatments made her shaky and we had a very scary morning Tuesday where she ran a high fever, was lethargic and shaking all over. Her oxygen level had dropped to 81. Thankfully that was the very worst of it. She has slowly been making progress since that morning, albeit slow, but progress nonetheless. We were released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon because her oxygen level remained around 91-93 without giving her oxygen since 4 am.
During our hospital stay (I remained with Keira the entire time) Nathan took off work to be with the boys. Brody was seen at the doctor's office Monday for the same virus, just (as you can read about in the RSV link) just not as severe as Keira. I was more worried about him getting an ear infection. He is still coughing so hard, but isn't running a fever. We had a follow up appointment at the doctor's office Thursday morning, and I had to make an appointment for Nate also because Wednesday night Nate's fever reached 103.5. Keira's lungs sounded better, which is great news. Nate however, didn't get great news. He has pneumonia. (You're thinking we can't catch a break? I agree!) He is on meds and more breathing treatments.
I forgot to mention that Keira also has a stomach issue and has been having diarrhea since the 1st as well. Yesterday was my first day with the bad cough, and my empathy has turned into sympathy because man this virus is doing a number on me, and their bodies are just so little.
I do want to take a moment to thank my family and friends for their support and thoughts and prayers. Words can not express our gratitude. Whether it was a phone call, a message, visits at the hospital (so I could take a shower), or bringing me dinner and a magazine at the hospital, bringing us dinner and breakfast at home (which ended up being even more helpful now that I am so sick), and just being there for us. Knowing we have so many people willing to interrupt their lives and give themselves to us at such an overwhelming time, well it makes us feel very loved. I know saying two words can not convey thee true emotions behind them, but thank you.
Keira sleeping in the hospital, and her and I cuddling in the hospital bed.