Hospital Visits

Before I had kids I had only been to a hospital once unless you count when I was a little girl and caroled at Christmas time with my girl scout troop. The only other time was when I was 23 or 24 and I twisted my ankle while playing tag in the park with my husband's three year old cousins. Since having kids I have been to the hospital more than I would like. Aubrey is a frequent customer at All Children's because of her eyes and she was also there when she had nursemaid's elbow. Finley has already been there twice and she is not even two months old. She was there for an ultrasound on her hips and just the other night because of a high fever. So basically I'm a horrible parent, well maybe not but sometimes it sure feels that way.


My littlest in a teeny tiny hospital gown

Last Thursday I noticed that Finley was a little bit stuffed up. Aubrey had a runny nose most of the week so assumed that she had just caught big sis's cold. Typically this would be no biggie but Finley was only 6 weeks old and a 6 week old who is sick is kind of scary. Aubrey didn't get her first cold until she was about 8 months old so I was a little panicked as what to do with such a little one with the sniffles.

I called my doctor and she had me bring Finley in on Friday morning. She told me what I had suspected, Finley had most likely caught Aubrey's cold. She told me what I should expect and to keep an eye on her fever. That morning at the doctor, it was 99.8 which is high but not terrible. She told me to look out for anything 100.4 or higher and to call them if that were the case. We made it through the weekend pretty well. Finley's sleeping wasn't great because she was having trouble breathing out of her nose but other than that she didn't seem too warm to me. Tuesday afternoon while I was nursing her, I noticed that her head felt particularly warm. I decided to suck it up and take her rectal temperature and found that it was 100.5. I called the doctor and she advised me to take Finley to the ER because she didn't want to take a chance with her being so young with a fever.

We dropped Aubs off at Joey's mom's house and headed off to All Children's Hospital. Going to the hospital is like one big waiting game. Out of the four hours that we were there, we were only with actual doctors or nurses for maybe a half hour. The worst of it was when they had to take samples from Fin to check for infection- blood, urine and mucous. It is the worst feeling in the world to see your child go through all that poking and prodding. Thankfully her white blood cell count came back normal and we were able to avoid a spinal tap. We were sent home and told to keep a close eye on her temperature which thankfully has stayed down.

Being a parent is tough. I always knew that I never wanted to see my children in pain but actually going through it is a different story. I feel fortunate that while my kids medical records aren't completely clean that they are still relatively healthy children. My heart goes out to all the parents who spend more time than they ever had imagined in hospitals and at doctor's offices with their little ones. I have only had a taste of what it is like and I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy.