RSV

RSV is a nasty little bug. it stands for Respiratory Syncytial Virus and here's what Kids Health and my friend Dr. Marty have to say about it.

Natalie had RSV January of 2008, one week after entering preschool. Her runny nose turned into a cough and that turned into pneumonia. A classic RSV Right Lower Lobe Pneumonia. After a round of antibiotics cured the pneumonia, the cough left over from the initial viral infection lasted for more than a month. She had a sinus infection shortly thereafter, no doubt, still a complication from the RSV bug.

Well, now it's Lindsey's turn. Natalie brought home the cough her preschool class was passing around and had a fever one day, and it's so hard to keep the big sister from loving on the Baby Winsey. On Friday, yep, the day after Christmas, Lindsey was clearly getting worse instead of better and that night she began wheezing, in her right lung particularly. Oy Vey. Off to the local ER with her at 9pm. They did a wonderful job of triaging us quickly, letting us sit in our own room to wait rather than the busy germ filled waiting room, and then Dr Dougie (young and cute!) was wonderful about getting the RSV test and Chest Xray (to rule out pneumonia) and getting those results back to us and reassessing little Lindsey ASAP. As we were in an adult ER, he even consulted the Peds Doc on call for a second opinion. We were sent home on Orapred, a corticosteriod for her wheezing, and told to come back if anything concerned us. At 1am the Pharmacist at Walgreens was nice and quick even doubled the amount of the Rx in case we had spillage or spitting out issues. A+ for everyone we encountered that night!

Yesterday my poor mom, who had cuddled Lindsey non stop last week, particularly on the Friday she felt so bad, called and sounded like crap (love you, Mom!) and asked if adults can get RSV. Sure enough, they can, and it sounds like she's got a whopping case.

Also on Friday Lindsey's boyfriend Griffin started wheezing and was put on albuterol and at work I admitted an "RSVer," as we call them, to the PICU.

Oh, Lindsey is much better now! She never stopped eating and kept having playful periods throughout the week, but there is barely a cough left and last night I thought I heard a wheeze last night but couldn't find it again. Yay for strong immune systems!

Please, right now, go Wash Your Hands! =)

Christmas In Review

How do I sum up a week long Christmas celebration so that you, the reader, will want to continue until the end? Here goes...

Dec 21: Christmas in Canton, see this post with slide show

Dec 22: Packing

Dec 23: Driving

Dec 24: Christmas with Cauthens & Sargents
(cousin Ava in the green)



Setting out Milk & a Cookie for Santa and Carrots for his Reindeer!
Makes sense to me. one Santa, lots of reindeer. Also, note the sippy cup Natalie chose to leave Santa.

Dec 25: Santa!
and Christmas with Prokasys (Prokasies?)Uncle Kevin gets some cuddles


Dec 26: Back to work for me

Dec 27: Christmas with Wiers
that Uncle Kevin! he's such fun!

& Shopping for clearance Christmas lights for next year

Dec 28: Some shopping with Christmas money then driving home
(this really is a pic of the Athens store!)



Dec 29: Unpacking & laundry & enjoying new toys & uploading of pictures & writing this post


I hope all y'all had as Merry a Holiday as we did!

'Twas...

My shirts were all hung in the garment bag with care,
in hopes that to Athens they'd soon all be there.

When once in my old room I suddenly found
no shirts where anywhere, there were none around.

My mom to the rescue, we're the same size,
until tomorrow, to the GAP and Ann Taylor we will rise.



So, you know how on every trip you forget something but usually it's like toothpaste?
Yeah, well, this time it's my shirts. All of them. Even then two I ironed.

Merry Christmas anyways, right!?

=)

Canton Christmas

We had our small family Christmas last night. Presents followed by hamburgers off the grill; you can't get more Christmasy than that! This is the evening we do just a few small gifts for the girls, because Santa will come see them and bring bigger and fancier toys in a few days, not to mention what the Grandparents have in store for them!

Here's a slide show of our fun evening and a few days before!

Visit With Santa!

This morning we went to the mall to visit Santa. Lindsey went right to the big softie and was content the whole time. Natalie was a little shy at first, but then he promised her candy and she warmed right up. Maybe he's the real Santa, cause he's sure got her figured out! Natalie wouldn't say more than hi and bye to him but he asked what she wanted and talked to her and reminded her to leave out a cookie and an apple or carrot for him and his reindeer next week. We sure will, Santa!

I'm in the running...

... for Super Mom!

Today I:
bought and wrapped Natalie's teachers' gifts


bought and washed and inserted Lindsey's new "Bundle Me" to keep her toasty warm since now she's kicking the blankets off her bucket:

bought and assembled a new double stroller

Josh and I (mostly I) have been debating the need for a double stroller. When there are two adults it seems to be working well to have each girl in a stroller and each adult pushing one. But, the super light weight stroller we travel with isn't good with a wiggly almost 3 year old in it; it becomes very hard to steer. And, when shopping there's no room to put the purchases using this method. I've considered renting a stroller at the mall, but OMG the germs! So, today I hit goodwill (nothing there) and a consignment store that had a 20 year old Peg Perego double stroller for $80. This thing was O-L-D old! It looked like something I would have seen in my own baby pictures. It didn't steer very well, it squeaked, it was stained beyond repair, and it had NO cup holders! Can you imagine!? So, since the girls and I were already out for the evening and I'm venturing to the mall tomorrow with them and no other adult, we headed to Target (the second time that day for me!) and Natalie picked out this one from our two choices. It has the option of putting the infant carrier in the front instead of a seat, but that puts Natalie in the back seat with no leg room and the view of only her little sister. Or, I could take the back seat off and have the sit/stand option for Natalie, but I just don't see that going well. So, with BeBe as sleeping Lindsey's stand in, you can see how we're going to stroll. (please note, Josh is at work tonight, so I really did put that thing together myself!)

made cup cakes for Josh's open house tomorrow

For the first time in maybe ever, Josh's server room will be open for public (well, Shepherd employee) viewing. He gets to finally let them see what keeps their Internet and jobs running and hopefully gain some appreciation. There are 46 cup cakes and I hope he and his to-be admirers appreciate all the work Natalie and I put into them.

sampled the cupcakes

I also showered, took Natalie to and from school on time, took us all to lunch, got naps in, cleaned the kitchen (mostly), fed the dog, remembered everyone's medicines, and got both girls fed and to bed on time! Whew!

Christmas Jammies!

My mom scanned one of the pictures we had made last week. The girls in their matching snowman jammies. I love the footies! I love Nat's hand on Lindsey's head. I love that they're almost holding hands. I love the how tiny I thought Natalie still was until Lindsey came along. I love this picture!

Oh, and the reason it looks like Lindsey is trying to eat something, it's because she is. I was using the sweet tip of the mylicon dropper to keep her from crying. This was towards the end of the session and she was done. =)

My Little Tomboy

...has some girly-girl in her too!

First Bottle!

She Did It! She drank from a bottle! A whole 2 ounces of breast milk! You may be thinking this is no big deal, but it is! It means Josh and I are going to get to have our hot date night on Saturday! Yay for everyone!

Family Fun!

Each year, the first Saturday in December, the Wiers get together for fun, fun, fun! This year there were 30 of us, ranging in age from 2 months to 90 years! Only my brother was missing; he was traveling with DGW . Here are just a very few pictures from our evening of splendid chaos.

Natalie in Santa's Pimp Hat

Morgan in Santa's other hat

Diane, Catherine, and Babs looking tired towards the end of the night

Lindsey, Mali, Courtney, and Eva
(no, they're not twins, they're 2 of the triplets!)

Mason, Sam, Chase, Seth, Catherine, Will, Ethan, Mali, Eva, Morgan, Lindsey, Courtney, Natalie

I think she learned this one from Will

This evening always brings the first presents of the year

my dad enjoying some Baby time