This Year Christmas Rhymed with Sickness

Our Christmas season started out well. Everyone was happy to sit on Santa's lap at the Ward Christmas Party and divulge their desires (Adam's list included a machine gun...as close to actual size as possible).

Liam was totally adorable in the Santa suit I had recently found at DI.

Kate kept eyeing me and trying to stealthily make references to her new found Christmas-present-delivery knowledge.

Everything was coming together nicely and then we ran into a few bumps. I decided to have some vascular surgery done on December 14th to repair the "severe" varicose veins in my right leg. Shem was an angel and let me rest extensively over the weekend. I expected to be back on my feet after that. It was another full two weeks before I could walk without a limp.

During my recovery Liam started waking up in the night with a fever, crying inconsolably. He started refusing his binki and then he wouldn't take his bottle. I took him to InstaCare on the evening of Friday, December 20th expecting an ear infection diagnosis. Nope. And since his fever had only been going on for five days they suggested I come back the next day (I had to make it PAST the 5 day threshold) and they would do some additional tests. Liam was also getting dehydrated, so if I couldn't get some liquids in him they told me to bring him back later that night for an IV.  Not. Awesome.

On Saturday Liam was showing some improvement. His fever was down a bit and he had wet diapers again since we were force feeding him Pedialyte with a syringe. I decided not to take him in. By evening his fever was back and raging, but InstaCare closes early on Saturday. Sunday wasn't any better and Liam had added a nasty cough to the list of symptoms so that afternoon I took him back in.

This time he had an ear infection and his breathing was labored. The doctor decided to do a chest x-ray. I undressed Liam to his diaper and then the tech brought us into the x-ray lab. They have this cool device that holds children still to get chest shots. It is like a table with a bicycle seat and a tall plastic tube with a face cut-out.

She strapped Liam in with assurances to me that while he might look and act miserable, it was not going to harm him. "The crying actually helps us to get a better picture of the lungs," she said.

Liam was such a trooper. He hardly cried. And, he looked so darn cute I asked to excuse myself so I could run back to our room and get my camera.

The x-ray was negative for pneumonia, but the doctor did recommend deep nasal suction. This involves repeatedly putting a small tube up his nose and toward the back of the throat to pull out the thick mucus that was making it hard to breathe.

We left breathing a little easier (literally) and with diagnoses of bronchiolitis (inflammation of the hairs, or bronchioli, that line the bronchial tubes) and an ear infection. I had a prescription for an antibiotic in hand.

The next day we did our best to celebrate Christmas Eve. Shem helped the kids start on gingerbread houses while I took Liam to the Intermountain Medical Center for another round of suction.

The respiratory therapist there was immensely helpful and explained that babies only know how to breathe through their noses, so when they are congested they have to draw breath in with more force and this causes the dipping in the chest cavity (a sign of labored breathing). He welcomed me to bring Liam back for more suction any time - day or night.

The poor kiddo was so sick. When he was awake he just laid there and if I held him he would slump against me and rest his head on my chest. To add to the trouble, Colin started coughing too. I kept the two boys home while Shem and the older ones went to our scheduled Christmas Eve festivities at Uncle Enoch and Aunt Amy's house.

That night Colin and Mason both threw up.  We had been up late anyway so we didn't sleep much that night...especially Shem who cleaned up the resulting disaster when Mason threw up ON the toilet. Mason had made it to the bathroom, but not quickly enough the lift up the lid. I almost threw up looking at it. Shem explained it this way, "The throw up had gone on the lid, under the lid, on the seat, under the seat, on the rim and into the bowl, and all along the outside of the bowl." He chivalrously excused me and joined me back in bed around 4:30 a.m.

A gaggle of excited children woke us at exactly 7:00 a.m. (Mason had clearly recovered by then). At our house the stockings are free game after 6:30 a.m. (they are in the family room by the chimney), but the presents in the living room are off limits until 7. We managed to get the initial entrance into the living room on camera. The older children then danced about excitedly while they opened their gifts (a life-size machine gun! a new bike! a giant stuffed gorilla! a rocking horse!). Liam lay nearly comatose on the carpet.

Later that day we went in shifts to see our parents and deliver gifts (one adult stayed home with the sick kids) and by the end of the evening Christmas was over and I had failed to take a single picture.  

We had missed the lights at Temple Square. We had failed to act out the nativity (I had plans and fabric to dress Liam up as the cutest angel/cherub ever!)  Liam didn't get to wear his Santa suit on Christmas. It was our first Christmas in our new home and there were so many plans that never materialized.

I did take some solace as I looked at the tree. Each year we choose a special ornament to add to our tree. The ornament we had chosen for 2012 read  "FAITH" (the I is in the shape of a house to symbolize our new house - yes I know it could also be interpreted as a church, but I looked SO hard for a house related ornament that I liked and Shem found this cute one so you will just have to indulge me). That word, FAITH, brought me great comfort. Despite these recent trials and difficulties, we have great faith in our Father in Heaven. We know that He is mindful of us and that with His power, everything will be okay.

And it is.