Another Pin on the Map: Sick Kids

We´ve unfortunately had some sort of contagious sickness going around the baby home. It was especially bad last week. I think 8 of our 15 babies were sick at some point. Most of the toddlers managed to avoid whatever it was, but the one year olds and our littlest babies were hit especially hard.

After talking to the doctor, it was decided that rather than bring all of the kids in for an appointment, we needed to keep doing what we were doing at home. The tias stayed on top of giving out medicine and making sure the kids stayed hydrated. I don´t know how many outfit changes a day most of them went through, but we did laundry all day long. It was a long week to say the least... and we did it all with 2 substitute tias!

When the tiniest babies started getting sick at the end of the week, it became serious pretty fast. Baby V. (4 months) was taken to the hospital on Thursday and was discharged on Saturday. Baby A. (3 months) was admitted Saturday morning and discharged this past Tuesday morning.

I spent Saturday at the hospital with our two sick girls. Someone doesn´t have to stay with them, but we obviously didn´t want them there alone. They both proved to be model patients. Baby V. was happiest when she was being held and all the nurses seemed to love her! Baby A. spent most of her hospital stay asleep, so the nurses loved her, too!

I went back on Sunday to visit Baby A. for a few hours, and the doctor told me several times how much better she was doing! She was finally allowed to drink a little milk on Sunday, and it was the first time she was able to keep anything down. Her color had returned to normal, and she just looked so much better!

On Monday, I had planned to go back to visit her before she was going to be discharged. However, our plans changed a bit... Apparently it is hospital policy that if a patient needs blood, someone related to/associated with the patient must donate blood before the patient can be discharged. Well, Baby A. needed a blood transfusion when she arrived at the hospital, so someone needed to donate before she could be discharged. I don´t know exactly how I was the chosen one, but I was told that before visiting Baby A., I would be going with one of the other tias to the blood bank to donate blood for her. To make a long story short, after making it through the finger prick, I wasn´t allowed to donate. Luckily, Danyelle came to the rescue and donated blood! This policy seems a little odd to me, but it´s one way to make sure that there´s always some blood available!

I´ll be the first to admit that I was a little nervous to see the hospital where the girls were staying... but I was pleasantly surprised! It seems like a really nice hospital. It was very clean and all of the doctors and nurses were very kind and professional. Both of the girls received great care!

Before being given entrance to the girls´floor, I had to give them an i.d. in exchange for my visitor pass. Each patient can have one visitor at a time.