Worst week of Miriam's short life

On Wednesday April 22, I brought Miriam in to the doctor because she had caught the "cold" that the other kids had and it just seemed like it was getting worse instead of better. Here eyes were goopy and she was having coughing spells. It just broke my heart. I felt somewhat silly taking her to the doctor over a silly little cold, but I wanted to make sure it wasn't something worse.

As it turned out, she ended up having Pertussis (whooping cough) which is the "P" in DTaP, a vaccination that they don't get until they are 8 weeks. We went in again to the doctors on Thursday to check her blood oxygen level and then again on Friday. On Friday her levels were at about a 90% so they checked us in to Holy Cross Hospital. Humph...I honestly had thought she was doing better because we actually slept the night before.

She couldn't have gone into the hospital on a worse week, but emergencies never seem to be convenient. Alan, who is usually working from home, had something going on every single day including going out of town on Tuesday night and all day Wednesday for a job interview. Lucky for us we have such wonderful friends who were more than willing to shoulder the burden of our 4 other kids. Plus all of the people who brought in meals so that those who were watching my kids wouldn't have to worry about making dinner. Grandma Boss was able to come a couple of days early from what she was already planning to, to help out. How blessed we are, and what a comfort it was to know that our children were well taken care of. It makes me feel very loved!!

On Tuesday, April 28. We were going to be going home. Miriam was doing great. She had been able to keep her stats up when she was off of oxygen and everything was going perfect. The doctor thought it would be good to get an x-ray just to make sure that everything was getting better. Shortly after that the doctor informed me that we wouldn't be going home because she now had a viral pneumonia that is sometimes caused from pertussis and she wanted to make sure that she wasn't going to get worse, which would make it so that we would have to go back in. About an hour later she was back on the 1/8th liter of oxygen, just to make it so she wasn't having to work so hard while sleeping, when she made a funny sound. She had stopped breathing. I looked over and she went from a normal color to a deep red. I jumped up, picked her up and began to pat her on the back and jump up and down trying to will her to breath. It was the scariest moment of my life that seemed to last much longer than it did. Come to find out that apnea is another side effect of pertussis. They transferred us to Children's Hospital in DC so that she could be more closely monitored and if needed have an ICU within the hospital. It gave me purpose to being in the hospital. It would have been a lot worse had I not been there to immediately respond. Our nurse and doctor were in with other patients at the time and came as quickly as they could but it was a couple of minutes before they got there.

At Children's we ended up having the same doctor that I had when Eden was there a 1.5 years ago. It was kind of fun that he recognized me and remembered that my husband was a doctoral student. He was just as wonderful this time as he was last time. I really like doctors who will listen to me as a parent, instead of thinking that I don't know anything. We stayed another 3 days and if you would have talked to me on Friday morning I would have told you that we were going to be staying at least another day maybe two. Every time they would try to take her off of her .1 liter of oxygen, Miriam's blood oxygen level would drop. Around 1 p.m. on Friday we tried again and she was able to keep her levels up. We then moved the blood oxygen probe to her ear, which is really hard on babies, but it is a more accurate reading. What a difference it made.

She was able to keep her stats up while eating and sleeping. I knew what that meant!!! We were going home!! It was a very long week but there is always a positive side;

• She can now sleep at night in her own bed without being snuggled up to me,
• She gave me her first real smile,
• We had much needed quiet time so that we could bond,
• and I felt completely loved by all of the prayers that were spoken in our behalf.

The kids were thrilled, some more than others, to have us home. It was so wonderful to sleep in my own bed, and to take a shower in my shower, and to have all of my clothes readily available.

Thank you for all of those who transported, cared for, and fed my children and family. Thanks for all of your support and prayers. I really appreciated all of the phone calls and visits. How wonderful it is to be so loved by so many!