Even when she's sick she's the cutest girl ever!

Ivy is doing a lot better. She's eating and sleeping again. Her fever is gone, thank goodness, and her oxygen saturations are about the same (she's on 1/2 liter of oxygen per hour and her sats average at 78%, in case you were wondering). She's definitely going to need to stay on the oxygen for a few more days.

Ivy finally gets to enjoy some of her Easter candy.

Anyway, here are a few reasons why she's still the cutest little girl in the world.

1. She likes it when I check her temperature and even picks which ear for me to put the thermometer in.

2. She gets cuddly around strangers again, just like she did for the first year and a half of her life. As soon as a nurse or doctor walks in she instantly buries her face in my belly or chest, and refuses to even look at them. Its sad, but cute.

3. She is suddenly VERY attached to me. Which can be good and bad. She still likes daddy, but prefers me to him right now. I love being loved and needed, because I'm selfish.

4. She discovered that she really enjoys back tickling, hair tickling, and most of all neck and chin tickling. I know it sounds weird, but she will stop crying or squirming the moment I start tickling and if I try to stop she will grab my hand and put it back and say, "tickle". (this isn't the kind of tickling to make you laugh, its the soothing kind, in case you're confused).

5. She yells "my chords!" whenever her oxygen tube gets stuck on various things (like the couch, a chair, someones leg, etc). Then when she frees herself just to instantly get stuck again she yells "Oh! Again!" Its ADORABLE!

6. Whenever I get out the SAT monitor to check her oxygen sats, she puts her finger out without me having to ask, so I can hook it on. She's so smart.

7. And finally, despite being ridiculously sleepy a lot of the time, coughing and coughing until she nearly throws up, and having an annoying tube putting air in her nose 24/7, she is still smily and happy. I'm so proud of her.

And here's a picture of the boys to prove that they do still exist, and we haven't forgotten about them. They've been good helpers! I'm proud of them too! Is Dexter's blue mouth creeping anyone else out?

Sometimes I Need a Reminder

Always optimistic, Ivy gives a smile despite a very crappy day.

I guess sometimes I forget that Ivy has a heart condition. It's not really that I forget, its just not really an issue all the time. She is healthy and has been for a little over a year, she's small but not developmentally far behind her peers, and she's in the middle of a nice big break before she has to have another surgery. We've been blessed and I think we've taken advantage of it. (BE ADVISED: THIS IS A LONG STORY)

This last weekend I got a big fat reminder that she is not as healthy as she seems. Saturday afternoon she awoke from her nap with a raging fever. When I say raging, I mean it! Neither of my boys have ever had a fever of 103.5, and when I saw that number it scared the crap out of me. In addition to the fever she started coughing and throwing up. It seemed really sudden and it was scary. We called our pediatricians after-hours number to speak with a nurse about what to do. She advised us to head to the ER. We were hesitant to do so since we've done that so many other times and it seems like it always ends with them sending us home without doing anything and getting a big fat bill in return (ie, Dexter's tongue incident of 2008, and the plastic kiwi incident of 2011). Anyway, instead of going right away we decided to take her temp one more time (after the motrin had a chance to kick in), and it had gone down to 102, so we thought it would be better to stick it out at home. Bad idea.

Sunday was worse, and it was Easter, and therefore kind of a sad holiday. Her fever kept going up and down and she threw up several more times. She basically stopped eating and sleeping. Throughout all this time I was periodically checking her oxygen saturations and they were consistently 83% (which is normal for her, bad for everyone else, your oxygen sats are probably in the upper 90's). Monday morning her sats dropped to 75% so I immediately called her doctor and set an appointment for that afternoon. It did not go well. We ended up being there for about 5 hours while the doc ran labs on her blood, she had some x-rays, received some IV fluids, got 2 terribly painful shots in her legs, and had giant q-tips stuffed in her nostrils. It was not a fun experience.

The results came back to show that she has RSV (which can be especially scary for heart babies). The doc gave me the option to hospitalize her for 24 hours or to take her home, start her on oxygen and monitor her myself. I chose the latter. She and I spent a quiet evening at home while her brothers were off at their cousins enjoying a sleepover and Scott worked a few hours later (to make up for the time he missed when he suddenly had to pick up the boys from school and find somewhere for them to go).

She slept better last night, and even woke up without much of a fever. Her oxygen sats are still quite low, but when we went back for a follow-up at the docs, he said they should slowly go back to normal, we just have to wait it out. She is doing well today. She ate lunch, walked around some (despite being tethered by her oxygen cords), and even smiled. I'm relieved, and don't think I'll be taking her health for granted again. She'll probably be on oxygen for a few weeks and will remain contagious for 10 to 14 more days. I guess that means I need to get some subs for nursery........that should be fun and super easy (in case you can't tell I'm being sarcastic. Nobody likes to sub for nursery).

So anyway, pray for my sweet girl to get better please. We love her and need her around. Thanks.