A Trip to the ER
Two weeks ago we headed out to Indiana for the EMC General Conference. Miriam had been a little congested before we left, but seemed to be getting better. Her runny nose had stopped by that point, but she had a horrible cough. All this seemed to be in the natural progression of things when she gets a cold. On Monday of the conference though, she stopped eating. She refused to nurse and was extremely fussy. Monday evening she ate a little but lost all of what she ate. Tuesday while traveling back, she still refused to nurse, and I was starting to get concerned. She did drink a little bit of ice water from a spoon. I just assumed maybe she had a sore throat and this felt really good to her. She pretty much slept the whole 12+ hours home. Wednesday rolled around and she was still refusing to eat, and slept most of the day. With all this, we decided for me to keep the kids home from church that night, but I called Aaron before church with concerns of Miriam getting dehydrated. We called the doctor's office after Aaron got home from church that evening, and sure enough, they wanted us to take her to the ER.

A Long Night
As we got in there it was obvious that Miriam was dehydrated. She had not had a wet diaper since noon and she had no more tears left. The nurses and doctors that took care of Miriam were excellent, we felt very comfortable with them and their care for our daughter. They took many tests to rule out the "Big stuff". A chest X-Ray was first to rule out pneumonia then on to the task of getting an IV in to begin getting her hydrated. This process was long and very hard on me, she is such a chunky monk and with her being dehydrated, it was really hard for them to find a spot to put the IV in! The nurses on duty looked at each hand and foot and did not feel comfortable trying it, so they sent the IV team in. We repeated the whole process again and they at last were able to get an IV in her left foot. Miriam was so sick and exhausted at this point, that she literally went right back to sleep as soon as they were done. They were not able to draw blood when they put the IV in because they were afraid of loosing the IV. Later we went through the whole process again as one of the doctors came in and tried to draw blood. After some unsuccessful attempts, she sent for "Tyrone" who was able to draw blood. (Later we found out that they were still not able to get enough, and they had to stick her AGAIN later that morning after being admitted, poor little thing!) I was holding up "fairly" well at this point. (I won't lie, there had been a few tears shed) My undoing came after 2am when the doctor came in and said that after much thought, and because of her symptoms, he wanted to do a spinal tap to check for meningitis. well....as you know, that's serious stuff! Praise the Lord, that the doctor was able to report right after he had done it, that the spinal fluid looked clear, and so this gave us some level of comfort as we waited the "official" results.
Admitted to the Hospital
Miriam did test negative for Pneumonia, Meningitis, and other bacterial infections and positive for RSV. As we look back, Aaron had been feeling horrible during conference, and we think he and Isaac also had it. By this point in the game, she was over the worst of the RSV, but it was complicated by her being so dehydrated. She was finally admitted at 6am on Thurs. She literally slept that whole day, waking long enough to loudly protest any poking or prodding from nurses and doctors. It seemed like a very slow recovery to us, but gradually she began having longer periods of awake time. Her first smiles were a wonderful sight to behold after our usually cheery and content little girl hadn't been quite so cheery. The two main reasons for her prolonged hospital stay was 1) she still refused to nurse or drink and 2) her blood sugar was really low. Finally through the night Sat. night into Sunday morning, her blood sugar stabilized and they gave us the OK to take her home.

Road to Recovery
On Monday(a week ago now, it has taken me a few times to get this all typed out!) she had a follow up appointment with her pediatrician. She still was not drinking much even though her appetite was almost back to normal. Upon examining her, the doctor found that she now had an ear infection as a spin off of the RSV, which would explain her not wanting to suck. On top of all of that, she has 6 teeth that have been working their way through!

How She's Doing Now
Praise the Lord for His strength and healing! After the 3rd full day of antibiotics, Miriam started drinking out of the bottle. (We just finished day 7 of the antibiotics) She has continued to improve each day, being less fussy, smiling and laughing more as she is feeling better. Her appetite is back to normal now and all signs of RSV are gone. Thank you all so much for your prayers, visits, care for Isaac, and food. We appreciate it so much~

I keep telling myself that I will not search or click on anymore fun creative homeschool/preschool mom blogs, mainly because my brain sometimes seems on overload with all the neat ideas that I find from other mom's blogs. But once again, I found my finger clicking on the mouse and I am not sorry at all that I discovered this homeschool mom and her blog!!! She has tons of great ideas and printables and I can't wait to implement them with Isaac! She is also having a fun giveaway drawing of magnetic pom-poms, which I am super excited about, b/c I have been wanting to make some for Isaac and I to use. When you get a chance check out Home Grown Hearts!
http://lovemylifex4.blogspot.com/

We have been contemplating since before Miriam was born making the switch to cloth diapers. There were some families we know of that use them and love them. At first I was really hesitant, but then I started looking into them and realized that some of them work really similar to disposable (as far as ease of use). So finally last week, we took the plunge. There is a company called Jillian's Drawers that has a 21-day $10 trial for families new to cloth diapers. *(You pay up front for the full package and if you don't like any of them, you send them all back and it has only cost you $10) They will send you some of the more popular brands and styles, all new. You use them for at least 3 full days. Any of the diapers you do not like, you return to the company within the 21 days for a full refund. I am so glad we did this trial. The ones I thought I would really like were in this trial pack, and I did like them, but I found another brand that we liked better. Our pick from the ones we tried were the FuzziBunz perfect fit pocket diaper. The medium size works great with both of our kids, even though they have 2 totally different shaped bodies, and I like the adjustable snaps (vs.the velcro) for both the the thigh and the waist. Isaac especially seems to love the new diapers. I tried the FuzziBunz on him first. Later when I went to put him down for a nap, I went to change his diaper and put a disposable on him, he started crying and fussing and reached for the cloth diaper!! I couldn't hardly believe it! Of course, at the same time, they are unbelievably soft!!

http://www.fuzzibunz.com/

Aaron and I had talked a while back and decided it was time we became more intentional and consistent in teaching Isaac. I began looking online for resources that were creative and easy on the budget. One site led to another and I found Carissa at 1+1+1=1 and what she calls Tot School. The basic concept behind it is spending quality time with you child exposing them to learning through creative and fun play. She has LOTS of fun activities on her blog and "lapbook" resources that you can print our for free and make. So Isaac and I take an hour most mornings after breakfast and have "Tot School". This particular morning, I had printed off these adorable ant print offs, laminated them and cut them in half. (I got these from http://confessionsofahomeschooler.blogspot.com/. She has got ALOT of great learning activities she has created that you can print off for free!) Then Isaac matched up the colors. As he gets older he can also match up the lower case with the upper case "A". I was pleasantly surprised that he matched up ALL the colors!!! I am beginning to learn not to underestimate him! One of the funniest things watching with him, was I would lay my two pieces of the ant side by side to make a complete ant, while Isaac would put the smaller piece underneath the larger piece when he would make a match! He is so meticulous!! More posts to come regarding our Tot School activities. The button for Tot School and Confessions of a Homeschooler are both in the right hand column, check them out, they've got some great stuff! As you will notice in this pic, Isaac took a break from matching colors and was UNDERNEATH the coffee table!