So glad to be home!

Shae got her parole from the hospital on Saturday afternoon. Mostly Jody and I had reached our limit of the hospital stay; Shae's overnight/sleeping blood oxygen levels were still a little low (87-88% mostly) so Dr. Larabee said that we could definitely go home with an oxygen tank, or we could try one more night in the hospital and have the chance to go home without the oxygen tank on Sunday -- but no guarantees. We choose the gift behind door #1. Enough is enough!

We were all pretty excited to be home -- no one moreso than Shae Lily herself. Considering she had done nothing but lay around or be held for five days, she was absolutely giddy when we put her in her jumperoo to bounce and play and laugh:

Sunday morning we decided to give her little cheeks a break and change the stickers (left on to keep the oxygen tube in place -- not gonna lie: the kid hates having an oxygen tube up her nose!):

But eventually it had to go back on when it was nap time:

To celebrate our homecoming, Shae has been practicing her sitting up -- aside from her jumperoo, nothing makes her happier than sitting up like the big girl that she is:

What a difference a day can make!

Thursday finds us still in the hospital tethered to the wall with tubes and hoses, but Shae is definitely back to her chipper little self! Now if those little lungs will just cooperate and shake the crud, we could blow this popstand once and for all.

Shae's new favorite toy: tissue paper. Please note that the photos are intentionally blurry -- I wanted to convey the intense enthusiasm:

Happy girl! This is the Shae we know -- it's nice to have her back!

Shae's trip to the hospital

Shae started developing a cough a couple weeks ago, but the doctor said not to be concerned about it until it was accompanied by a fever. This past weekend, the cough returned and on Monday morning, Shae had a really low-grade fever of 99.9. She just didn't entirely seem like herself, though, so I decided to keep her home from school for the day.

She started out her sunshiney usual self, but as the day progressed she got more fussy... and her fever got worse. By 8 p.m. bath/bottle/bedtime, she spiked at 102.3. We called the doctor and the on-call said not to worry until it hit 103; in the meantime, alternate Tylenol and Motrin every 4-6 hours to combat the fever.

Shae slept through that night and woke up on Tuesday morning with a fever of 101.1. After a bottle and getting dressed, it dropped to 99.8 so we decided to take her to school. 30 minutes later, they called to say she was back up to 101.9, so I left work to go pick her up.

I called the doctor again to ask if I should continue on the Tylenol/Motrin path, but as soon as she heard the temperatures she said to come in NOW. (Not sure about the advice the on-call gave us...) We got to the doctor's office and they measured her blood oxygen level -- it was reading at 76%. (90 should be the very baseline for babies Shae's age.) I was immediately whisked off to the ER. They measured it again and it was 86% -- still low, but not as dangerously low. We took some x-rays, took some blood, got some oxygen hooked up and took a nebulizer treatment.

The story goes on from there, but the gist of the story is that Shae tested positive for RSV (a virus that shows up as just a cold in adults, but it attacks the lungs of little twerps like Shae) and showed some indications on her x-rays that her lungs are heading down the path of pneumonia. So we're in the hospital hooked up to an oxygen tube, getting nebulizer treatments and taking amoxicillin (sp?) until we get the green light to go home.

The upside is that this afternoon (Wednesday), Shae is a happy, chatty, laughing kid again -- a total and complete 180 from the sad, sick kid she was yesterday afternoon! So yay!

Mom and Shae in the ER right after we got there -- first nebulizer treatment. Look at that sad, sad face! (On Shae, not mom...)
Waking up on Wednesday morning -- smiles!

Snoozin' Susan with Piglet by her side:

Waking up from a nap:

Shae is in prison! Not really... but it kinda feels like it sometimes:

Getting a nebulizer treatment -- Shae doesn't much care for the mask, but she's a happy kid once she can breathe again afterwards!

Peas! a.k.a. Promote Whirled Peas

Happy fivesers, Shae Lily!

To celebrate Shae's five-month birthaversary, we're skipping school (not really -- daycare is closed for a teacher in-service day), dancing in our jumperoo and going for a walk in the park a little later today. Celebration!

Thursday Delights

Well, mama's first trip away from the little turkey went surprisingly well! I had to go to Chicago for three days for work, and everyone fared smashingly -- I daresay Jody even enjoyed his one-on-one time with Shae, although he did admit that being a single parent is really hard! We'll see how all of that translates into my six-day trip next month... :-/

With that, a random smattering of photos for your enjoyment.

The dogs have been photographically neglected since Shae came into the picture (if you will!), so let's give them a little camera time:

Supergirl!

Superdrool!

Shae is officially napping full-time in her crib nowadays (vs. her swing -- bad, bad mama!) and when that kid decides to zonk out, she's OUT!

More practice with rice cereal. Shae isn't real keen on it when it first goes in, but once she remembers how to use her tongue and jaw in harmony to get the food (food!) into her belly, she's very excited about the whole process.

More from Florida

Mom posted her Florida photos yesterday, so I swiped a few to share!

Big weekend for baby Shae

First: we are now sleeping at night without a swaddle. This might be more momentous for mom and dad than it is for Shae -- it means no more middle-of-the-night re-burrito'ing when Shae busts an arm out and whacks herself in the head, thus startling herself awake. The abandoning of the swaddle went shockingly well -- no disruptions to the overnight routine (i.e. still one wake-up per night for some chow and a diaper change). Hooray!

Second: first go at rice cereal. She could take it or leave it, actually -- but she very much enjoyed sitting upright in her high chair like a big kid!

Third: jumperoo! We bought Shae a playcenter jumperoo and she LOVES it! So many toys to play with and friends to look at... and she's upright with her feets on the ground. It took a little while for her to figure out that when she pushes off on the ground the whole thing bounces, but once she did she had a blast!