16 weeks and yet another trip to the ER

Ok, so I'll start with the ER stuff this time, since it's a little more interesting...but brace yourself. It will be long!


As I have mentioned before, my best friend's wedding was this past Friday, May 1st, and I was the matron (there's that word again...:[ ) of honor and Laney and Chloe were the flower girls. The Wednesday evening before, Laney and I went to the mall so I could get my nails done and so we could pick up some hair clips for her and Chloe. She didn't mention to me at all that she was feeling sick, only that she was hungry, so I got her a pretzel and she ate most of it. I finished it of course...yum :) Anyway, while we were at the mall, I knew that my other kids were probably at home starving to death since I hadn't had any time to make dinner earlier. I called Mike and he said that he'd throw something together for them, and by the time we got home, Laney said that she didn't feel good, and she only ate a few bites of her corn. Side note: She had also told me earlier that day that it burned when she peed. So we started watching American Idol and she really started saying that her stomach was hurting and I felt her, and she was clearly running a fever, so I gave her some children's ibuprofen. She went to bed a little after that, and I went in to check on her when I was getting ready for bed around 11. She was on fire! I took her temp that time, and the thermometer shot up to 103 and just stopped. I don't think that thermometer went any higher. She said that her belly was hurting on her right side, so immediately I think it's her appendix. I called ask-a-nurse and of course they told me to take her in, since it was hurting on her right side and since the ibuprofen didn't help her fever at all.

So I load her in the car and she's crying because she's tired and scared that they are gonna poke her, and of course I tell her that they're not gonna do anything like that. (of course I end up being horribly wrong) We got the hospital and they check her out (her temp there was 103.4), have her pee in a cup, and did an xray and an ultrasound. The dr. comes in (we were there 4 hours total...from about 11:30 to 4:30) and says they are gonna have to transfer her to Children's Mercy because they suspect she has a kidney infection, and that she would probably be in there for a couple days. My head started spinning....what? we have a wedding we're supposed to be in on Friday...Mike has been short on work anyway, so whenever he can work, he has to, so what am I gonna do with my other kids?...how serious is this? Of course, I wanted to do whatever we needed to do to get Laney better. Her white blood cell count was really high in her urine and her white and red blood cell counts were both elevated in her blood culture. They told me that Children's Mercy was coming to get her in an ambulance and after pretty much begging them to just let me take her myself, they still said no. I rode in the front of the ambulance and Laney watched Spongebob the whole way...which she thought was cool. We got there around 5 or so, and they checked us in and all that stuff, and she went to sleep. I tried to sleep sitting up in the chair next to her...I probably would have slept better that first night (or early morning) had I known that the back of the chair went all the way down. The dr. came in around 8 that morning and told me that they were going to do a couple rounds of antibiotics and also said that they would release her after her fever stays down for 24 hours. They checked it all day Thursday, and the highest it got was 100.3 or something, and since that isn't considered a fever, we were looking good to go home on Friday morning!








Thursday night, I took Chloe to the rehearsal for the wedding and Mike stayed with Laney at the hospital. They had a Pet Pals program there, so Laney got to go downstairs and pet a few dogs and have her picture taken with her favorite! :) I was kinda sad I missed it, but at least Mike got to be there with her. I got back to the hospital around 9 or so, and Laney was feeling much better, although she kept getting tummy aches every now and then. I had a hard time getting her to eat while we were there, and that was even with the awesome room service style food. She could order whatever she wanted, any time she wanted. She did have an oreo milkshake late Thursday morning, after her breakfast, but other than that, she didn't really wanna eat too much.

Feeling well enough to take a walk


Friday morning, the dr. came in and said everything looked good, so she could go as soon as Laney took her first dose of medicine by mouth and after the nurse got the papers in order. We were out of the hospital by noon on Friday, and Laney was able to be the flower girl that night!! She was so excited! Anyway, that's my first experience with one of my kids being sick enough to be hospitalized, and thankfully it wasn't something too serious! My heart just broke every time I would see a mom or dad wheeling their child around in a wheelchair, or seeing a little kid with no hair, or hearing a code blue called. Although God only knows what is in store for each of them, I am so thankful my kids are all healthy now, and I know I will be hugging them a little tighter every day!

Talking to grandma


Getting ready to leave!!


Ok, on to the pregnancy...

How your baby's growing:
Get ready for a growth spurt. In the next few weeks, your baby will double his weight and add inches to his length. Right now, he's about the size of an avocado: 4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and 3 1/2 ounces. His legs are much more developed, his head is more erect than it has been, and his eyes have moved closer to the front of his head. His ears are close to their final position, too. The patterning of his scalp has begun, though his locks aren't recognizable yet. He's even started growing toenails. And there's a lot happening inside as well. For example, his heart is now pumping about 25 quarts of blood each day, and this amount will continue to increase as your baby continues to develop.





I had my 16 week dr. appt. and everything looks great! My uterus is measuring right where it should be and the baby's heartrate was in the 150's! We've scheduled the ultrasound for June 1st, and while we will be finding out what we're having, we won't be finding out that day. Let me explain. We are going to tell the u/s tech to write down the gender and put it in an envelope, along with a picture of the goods. :) Mike's parents are coming down the 2nd week in June, so we will be getting them and all of my family together for dinner, and we'll all open it together! Hopefully, we'll have the patience to wait it out a week, and not look in the envelope earlier ;) If we do, we won't tell anyone...we'll just act surprised. j/k...we won't look. maybe.