Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Expect the Unexpected

WARNING - This post contains some descriptive details of childhood illness involving the stomach. Read at your own risk!

Although "Expect the Unexpected" is the theme of one of my favorite summertime shows, Big Brother (gasp, I know it's trashy...but I do love it), I do not prefer this theme in my own life. And I feel as if my life has been full of the it lately. I'm not good with unexpected. I like routine, order, and knowing what is coming next.

Unexpected Event #1 - Friday was Campbell's birthday. We had a great day together. She had her doctor's appointment in the morning (she's doing VERY well), we took Sissy to school, ran to Wal-Mart, and also got to spend a fun evening at Chick-Fil-A with my sister and her boys. While at CFA, I was relishing in the fact that Campbell was 1! After I fed her the normal baby food she eats, I thought she might enjoy a few bites of chicken. She did. So I thought she might enjoy a few more bites. She did. Then, I thought she might enjoy a few bites of my yummy shake. She did. We left CFA and came home for baths and bed. About 3 am Saturday morning I heard her crying on the monitor. I went in her room and found that she had thrown up ALL in her bed. NOT FUN! I'm not a good throw-up mommy. Thankfully Rus dealt with most of the clean-up, and I just helped Baby Girl settle back down. With her birthday party happening later that day, we decided to see how she felt when she woke up. Thankfully (or so we thought), she woke up feeling fine and we decided to go ahead with the party. We credited the throwing up to her crazy mommy that over-fed her at Chick-Fil-A. She had a terrific time at the party and the big kids had even more fun playing outside for a solid 3 hours! We even let her eat her birthday cake. Stellar move, guys!

Unexpected Event #2 - By Saturday night, Campbell had blessed us with some super, terrific diapers. We were beginning to realize that this might be some sort of bug we were dealing with. Karson was battling a cold, so we decided it would be best to keep the whole family home from church on Sunday. Sunday morning arrived and we settled into a slow, restful day at home. Both girls seemed to be feeling good, and we were glad for the chance to rest. Rus decided to meet some friends to play basketball that afternoon, when, wouldn't you know it...Campbell decided to throw up again! Okay, so now we KNEW we were dealing with a stomach bug. I called the doctor who prescribed some medicine that would help with the nausea. Rus came home and we prayed no one else would get it...

Unexpected Event #3 - Around 10 pm Sunday night, Rus was not feeling well and suddenly began...I'm going to leave that alone. Let's just say that he had caught the bug. If I'm not a good throw-up mommy, then I'm an even worse throw-up wife. I felt so bad for him, and there was really nothing I could do.

Unexpected Event #4 - At about 5 am Monday morning, Karson came stumbling into our bedroom and said, "I need a bowl. I don't feel good." She then proceeded to throw-up! At this point all I'm thinking was, "Please don't let me get it. I don't know what we'll do if I get it. Please don't let me get it." I spent the day on Monday nursing everyone at my house. Rus slept most of the day, Karson laid on the couch, and Campbell crawled around like everything was great...and then filled some more super, terrific diapers for me!

Unexpected Event #5 - I called a friend of mine to get her to cover the preschool on Tuesday. I knew I couldn't take the girls and Rus had to go back to work. She said she could and I thought everything was good to go. I then got calls from 3 different teachers saying that they had sick children and wouldn't be at work. I worked out the substitute situation and tried to not worry about it. At 10:30, I got a call from my friend that was covering for me to let me know of a "situation" going on with 2 of my teachers...let's just say, drama. I HATE DRAMA. How do these things happen on the one day you aren't there?

Unexpected Event #6 - Tuesday morning Rus went back to work, neither of the girls had thrown up in almost 24 hours, and I was really feeling like we were on the mend. I knew Karson had not eaten much the day before, so she was feeling pretty weak. I knew I needed to get her to eat something, so I offered her a scrambled egg...which she accepted pretty easily. I kept encouraging her to drink, but noticed as the day went on that she was getting paler and paler. Her eyes were very glassy and she wasn't speaking at all. I called my mom who suggested I let the doctor's office know what was going on. When I called my sister (who is also the nurse at the pediatrician) and told her how Karson was acting, she immediately said I needed to bring her in. I quickly got the 3 of us dressed and headed to the doctor. Dr. Boyd said Karson was severely dehydrated and gave her 2 bags of IV fluids. Poor baby. I hated having to hold her down while they put it in. She cried and cried. I will take her back tomorrow to see if she's better, if not, they'll have to run another IV. Thankfully, they left the central line in so they won't have to stick her again if that's the case!

It's almost midnight, and I'm crossing my fingers that we are FINISHED with all of this. But...nothing could shock me at this point. Lord, are you trying to teach me something through all of this? I know I'm a slow learner, but really, I think I get it!
On a happier note, I'll leave you with a few pictures from Campbell's party.
The birthday girl and her sissy! See her cute "1" onesie I found!
Another unexpected...the cake! It turned out cute in the end, but when Rus went to pick it up, it was lime green with a brown bow and purple flowers! I should have known it was foreshadowing!

Can you guess the color scheme for the party? I thought it turned out really cute, if I do say so myself!

Here's the birthday girl with her cake! She was hilarious! She kept trying to pick the pink dots off. Maybe she was just taking her time because she knew it was going to make her sick.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh no! What a TERRIBLE time! I'm sorry about all the poo and puke, I do know how much you hate being around that! I hope you stay healthy and that everyone else is getting better!

drbaucom said...

Oh no! Your poor babies. I hope all is well now!

Carolynn said...

Oh dear! I HATE the stomach bug! And I am so sorry that Karson got dehydrated--I always hated having to try and stick the poor kiddos that came in our office like that:-( I will pray that she is able to keep fluids down so that she won't have to have any more IV fluids. I hope everyone is on the mend!

Mamma Cakes said...

Bless your hearts!! We had that lurking around our house last week, this week it is sinus infections. Gotta love this time of year!

Linsey said...

Sorry about all the sickness going around your house. I do LOVE the pictures of Campbell's birthday. The colors were beautiful! Hope you are all doing better.

Anonymous said...

Melissa, Loved Campbell's birthday cake -- it's so you!!!! I would love to know where you found it.
Georgeann