poor quinnie

our poor quinnie has had a cold for the past week or so. she maintained her appetite, but was more whiny and clingy than usual. on monday, c got a call from daycare that she had a 102 temp, and was grunting when she breathed. c asked if she should take her to the er, since she couldn't get into q's dr., and i told her that it wouldn't hurt. she brought q to my school to pick up her insurance card, and my poor little q looked so pathetic...

after about 2 hours, and x-rays and bloodwork and nose swabs, c informed me that poor quinnie had bronchitis and walking pneumonia, and was going to be admitted. i felt horrible. i knew that one mom was going to have to stay with her all night, and the other mom was going to have to stay with r and l, so i called off for tuesday, and headed straight to the hospital after work.

when i walked into quinn's room, she reached out for me, and i immediately began a marathon cuddling session with my sick little bug. c left to go home and get me some comfy clothes and some toys to hopefully keep the wee one occupied. she was also going to pick me up dinner... and then it happened... daycare called. lu had a low grade fever and had to be picked up. uh-oh.

c dropped everything off, minus dinner, kissed quinnie, and went to pick up lu and rhys. to try and supply me with some type of nourishment, she brought me a box of chocolate cheerios. yes, a box of cereal. yum.

after i fed quinnie her dinner, i changed her clothes, and she was hooked up to iv fluids. having a toddler all hooked up with cords and wires is definitely no picnic! she couldn't walk around, so, when she got tired of being held, i put her in the high chair and let her use the ipad, read books and play with her baby doll. this worked for all of five minutes. she isn't a tv watcher, so that was out. thank goodness she was pretty tired, because i got her to sleep around 7 and successfully put her in the metal crib that was impossible to close quietly. but. i. did. it. i was home free... or so i thought.

after watching a bit of tv, i was ready to turn in myself... what i forgot was that we weren't in a hotel. the evening-every-two-hours tests and vitals checks began... ugh. every time she had a breathing treatment or vitals checked or blood drawn, she would wake up, and i would have to soothe her. what this meant was that there was zero sleep for mama. this was even more apparent, when, at 2 a.m., she decided that her bed was a bounce house.

yesterday morning, i was praying that she would be discharged. i was tired and hungry. right before lunch, the dr came in and informed me that, on top of the bronchitis and pneumonia, quinn also had rsv. my heart sank. i knew how horrible that was. i was heartbroken for quinn, and terrified for lu, who had to go to the dr because she was coughing/wheezing and had a fever. lu wasn't near as bad as quinn, and was prescribed breathing treatments every four hours. i was shocked when he told me that quinn was going to be discharged. happy, but shocked.

after lunch, and a round of antibiotics, a tired, cranky, emotional quinn and i left the hospital, made a pit stop for 'nonuts', and came home. by this time, i had been awake for over 32 hours, and hadn't eaten anything for 16 hours. i just couldn't bring myself to chomp on the chocolate cheerios.

i tidied up the house a bit, took out the trash and recyclables, fed quinn dinner, and, when c came home, finally ate dinner. we got the kids bathed, breathing treatmented, jammied up and into bed. i thought that i would crash, but ended up watching some mindless television before finally turning in. i had been up for just over 40 hours. as soon as my head hit the pillow, lyncoln started screaming. i couldn't believe it. i hoped that she would settle herself down, but, when it became apparent that she wasn't self-soothing, i went and got her, and c gave her another breathing treatment. next thing i knew, lu was curled up in my arms, and we were both drifting off to dreamland.

i slept hard. i remember dreaming about something hitting my face, and waking up to lu's feet in my face. c took her back to her room, i was awake for a bit, and finally fell back asleep. when i got up for work this morning, i was still exhausted. i was in such a fog that i was stumbling and walking into things. how i made it through today, i have no idea! the important thing is that both girls seem to be doing better today. they are both fever free and rambunctious as ever! hopefully they are both 100% very soon and stay that way for a long, long time. this mama misses sleep!