Wisconsin and Final Leg of Minnesota

Once back to the Laschen’s the kiddos quickly changed and hopped into the pool.  We all got ready for dinner and were just about to sit down to eat, when the beginning of Elin’s sickness happened.  I put her in her high chair and up came everything, we were hoping she had just swallowed too much pool water, but when everything came up for the next 2 hours.

We made a call to the Children’s Hospital Call Line in Denver (seriously the best thing ever-if you want to know about it message me).  It is free and you talk to a nurse who tells you what to do AND you don’t have to live there.  They told us to head into an urgent care so off we went.  Once there they checked her out and gave her some medicine to stop the vomiting.  We then had to try to occupy a super tired and hungry babe for 30 minutes when all she wanted to do was nurse and sleep.  After she was able to keep down a popsicle and milk we were sent home for some much needed sleep.  Thomas and Nana Kathy had been enjoying a movie and the little guy kept her awake waiting for us to return. On Monday morning we had a special trip to the zoo planned with the Laschen family.  We had a behind the scenes tour and guide scheduled and we were all hopeful that E could hang and make it.  The zoo trip started and we were all enjoying ourselves learning about the not so obvious things from our tour guide.  About 45 minutes in, Elin puked again, all over right by the camels.  YUCK oh and poor little girl, she was miserable!  We had a change of clothes and we fixed her up and proceeded along with the tour.  That was the last time she threw up thankfully at the zoo and we were able to enjoy the rest of the animals and the dinosaur exhibit.  Thankfully there were lots of arms around to carry the kiddos because, just sayin’, those dinos might have come alive and gotten us all according to Thomas.  He has such a love hate relationship with those things, he wants to see them so badly, then is slightly terrified the whole time they are around. 

After the zoo we went home for some rest and more swimming time.  Elin even got her toes wet and then fell asleep while her Nana rocked her.  It was a very chill and relaxing way to end the long vacation.On Tuesday we packed ourselves up and headed off to the airport.  All had been well and we had prepared our bags just in case disaster struck.  It is comical to write about this experience now but oh what a disaster the trip home was.  Seriously! I don’t know if we will ever be able to top this, I hope we won’t!  Anyway for the record if your squeamish stop reading now….Our trip started off fine.  Elin nursed during the take off and then fell asleep.  All was well until about 30 minutes into the flight in her sleep she woke up and puked all over me.  Then we hit a patch of turbulence seat belt signs on, hold on to your seat turbulence. With fantastic timing,  Thomas started to get fussy and the bumps weren’t helping.  He doesn't get fussy like that and I told Mike to get ready.  Before I could finish prepping him for what was to come (getting the bags we had packed) Thomas blew EVERYWHERE.  Blahhhh.  There were bumps, seat belts on and 2 kids who were now puking everywhere.  It seemed like and eternity of 10 or so minutes before the seatbelt sign went off and Mike and Thomas were able to get to the bathroom.  T was feeling crummy and wanted to stop puking badly.  He was where Elin was 2 nights ago and we were an hour flight still from landing in Seattle.  The flight attendants were great we had bags upon bags and clothes for the kids and ourselves (our clothes were a fluke as we didn’t have room to pack them all in our baggage).  We landed and the puking didn’t stop and Elin was not herself.  Another call into Children’s and we were headed to the ER.  Once through triage they gave Thomas and Elin both another dose of Zofran, that stuff is seriously amazing when it is needed.  Elin also had her blood sugar checked as they thought that could have something to do with her lethargy as she was still hydrated from nursing.  By the time we left both kids had stopped puking and Elin was more herself and Thomas was running laps.  I am talking running out of the ER with all of us looking at him like he was nuts!  We headed home for showers and sleep after a super long and very crazy travel day!

Icky Sickies

Blah, the kiddos have the crud. Go anywhere that kiddos are and you will hear a couple very distinct cruddy coughs. Apparently, it is nation wide but this crum needs to vacate my house and life promptly!   It feels like we have had it forever, but it has only been just over a week. 

It started with a little bit if a stuffy nose for Thomas. He then told us his nose hurt a "little bit." That was on Tuesday and by Wednesday he was a coughing mess. He didn't have a fever but his mood said he felt crummy. He went to bed early and was up every 10-15 minutes hacking away. After trying all the stuff that normally helps clear him up and a particularly bad hard to breathe croupy seal bark stridor cough we packed the kids up and headed into the ER. We decided to take Elin in too as she had also just started with the runny nose and cough.  We figured she was about a day or two behind Thomas with the same nasty bug.  After a short visit they were able to give both kids some oral steroids to help them breath better and hopefully rid themselves of the cough. We all went home and tried to get some much needed sleep.

Over the weekend Thomas' cough seemed to get better and Elin's started to get worse. Monday night he had a fever of 100.4 so I checked in with her doctor on Tuesday and she said if she wasn't better by Wednesday to bring her in. So there we were at the doctors office, Thomas running his show, me explaining how long the kiddos were sick and Elin smiling away. Aside from being a little more clingy and hearing this horrendous cough, it was hard to think she was sick, that was soon to change.  The doctor said she hear a bit of gunk in her lungs so she sent us home with a nebulizer to help open her airways and get the gunk out.  It was like we went to the doctor on the peak of her “I am going to be miserable and need to be held constantly because this really sucks” phase.  Thomas was a fantastic helper as he showed and helped Elin with the nebulizer.  It seems that she will do anything he does so we were doing a lot of turns with the tub with the machine on for her and off for him.  He was so excited that he could help her get better.

It was a rough couple of days trying to keep both kids comfortable enough to breath and sleep was almost a luxury. It seemed like every time she was comfortable enough to sleep she would need to cough and then the process would start over again. I'm not going to kid here when my kids are struggling to breath comfortably I'm one nervous Mama. So after a particularly rough morning on Thursday and a little girl who is not fussy being pretty inconsolable we headed back into the doctor.

This visit was much better as the doctor felt that her lungs were already sounding less gunky. Yay. She sent us home with more orders for fluids and the nebulizer treatments as needed. Both kiddos still have these nasty coughs, along with what feels like half of the kids in Seattle, but they are on the mend.