Sick babies!

Poor baby Chase

Well - it's been a long few days. On Wednesday morning I took Emma to the doctor. She had a fever for 7 days - but no other real symptoms that we noticed. I chalked it up to a tooth coming in and a virus or some sort. The only day she acted sick was Sunday when she threw up and was tired and clingy. At the doctors office she had a very slight red throat so they tested her for strep - and it was positive. So we headed home with meds.

Around 4 PM I fed Chase and noticed he was warm, but thought it was because he had been in his carseat a little while after we had gone to pick up Em's meds. So I fed him and he ate well and then put him in his bouncy to sit a while. About 15 minutes later he was still warm -and even warmer than before. I changed his diaper and took his temperature and it was 102.3 - AHHH. So we called the dr frantically and headed right over. Poor Emma was lucky she even got shoes on her feet before she was thrown in the car. I called Zach out of a meeting and told him to head to the doctor's office to meet us. The doctor looked him over and sent us down to Kosairs Childrens ER just as Zach walked in.

When we got there we met with the ER doctor and she started his full blood work-up, IV for antibiodics, and did a spinal tap. They missed on the IV the first try - poor little guy. So had to put it in again on the other hand. But the doctor did a great job with his spinal and got it perfectly on the 1st try and said the fluid looked clear. So we headed up to our room around 10:30 PM and settled in. Chase was really sleepy through all of this and only cried for the spinal and IV. In the middle of the night the doctor came and woke us up to tell us we had Viral Meningitis. They continued to treat his fever with Tylenol and give him lots of antibiotics just in case.

We spent all day Thursday in the hospital, but with the good news that no other viruses or bacteria were presenting themselves so it was looking better. And Chase was awake more - but his fever continued to bounce from 100 degrees all the way to 103 - up and down all day. Thursday night Zach headed home to pick up Emma - who we had been bouncing from friend to friend - so she could sleep at home because she is still also sick! I spent the night with Chase and we had a pretty good night. His fever continued to go down and stay low - 99 to 100 all night.

This morning the doctors agreed that Chase could go home. Normally they would keep him longer, but with the severe threat of Swine Flu here in Louisville they really wanted him out of the hospital and at home where we could keep him from other people. We headed home around noon and his fever continues to be low. He has been awake a ton today and is pretty happy. As long as his fever stays low with the Tylenol and he continues to eat we'll stay home.

So we're home and happy. We'll be in contact with the doctor, but things are looking good for us.



Emma and Collin taking a bath last night - Thanks Renee for everything!

We also wanted to say a BIG THANKS to Renee for keeping Emma last night and running her all over for us and to Naomi, Peter and Jack for keeping Emma Wednesday night all night. And Thanks to Grandma Barb for keeping Emma today until we got home. We think that Emma might have had this 1st last week and passed it to Chase. And then on top of it all she got Strep too. Poor girl. She is still not back to herself, but we're all getting there!

Unfortunately we will not be heading home to Iowa and KC now. We were scheduled to leave today bright and early to drive to Iowa for a baby shower for Aunt Allison (that I was helping host - sorry girls) and Sunday was suposed to be Chase's baptism. We were planning on being home for 9 days and were looking forward to seeing all our family and friends. We miss you all and hope we can come home another week in November instead. But for now we're staying home and focusing on getting better.

Thanks for all the prayers and we'll keep everyone updated!