Sickness, Shopping, & Birthday

Rossleigh is pretty darn close to being back to 100%, but Megan is still in the hospital.  My hope is that both of these sweet girls are back to feeling like their spunky selves by Christmas.  :)

I was horrible this year about doing ANYTHING in advance for Christmas.  I should have done things before I had Rossleigh and underestimated how busy/tired I would be right after she came home.  WHEW!  I will be doing some running around for gifts both today and on Christmas Eve.  Horrible!  I will be much nicer to myself next year.  :)

Pamps was Lance's grandfather, Ross, and was one of Rossleigh's namesakes.  When he was living, his family celebrated his birthday with a shrimp cookout.  Ross taught Lance the secrets of shrimp boiling and Lance has been the chef since his Pamps passed away 10 years ago.  Every year, on December 23rd, the family comes over to our house for the shrimp cookout, but for various reasons, they/we decided not to do a shrimp cookout this year.  In remembrance of Pamps, happy birthday!!  :)

Sicky girl

Sunday and yesterday, Rossleigh has been VERY fussy, not too interested in sleeping, a really high-pitched cry, and has had some diarrhea.  I didn't think too much of the diarrhea on Sunday because on Saturday, Lance had her out and about and was giving her the ready-made version of her formula, which tends to upset her digestive system differently (sometimes giving her diarrhea).  Also, when she's been out a lot and her nap schedule is thrown off, it usually causes her to be overtired and fussy even the following day.  When she started feeling warm yesterday, was sounding a little congested,  AND she was still having the diarrhea, I knew something was going on.

I took a rectal temperature and she was 99.8 degrees.  I know that this normally is not considered worrisome in an infant, but she normally runs a little on the lower side (usually around 98.2 or 98.3).  I gave her a dose of Infant Tylenol and then called the doctor's office.  I really figured I was just being a new mama, but after speaking with the on-call nurse, it seemed that combined with her heart problem and age/size, there was some cause for concern.  She felt like it was possible she had an infection and told me to take her to Cook's ER.

I told Lance what was said, called both grandmothers, and made a plan to leave.  Lance decided to stay home since he worked today and I didn't, so my mom went with me so that I wouldn't be there alone (THANK YOU, MAMA).  They listened to her, did a chest x-ray, and because I jumped the gun with the Tylenol, she no longer had a fever.  They diagnosed her with an upper respiratory infection.  :(  They told me to let her sleep upright (like in a car seat or swing), have a cool-mist humidifier blowing on her, give her saline drops in her nose, and use the bulb syringe (what Lance calls the brain sucker).

Here's a pic of my little sweetie in her hospital gown.  You probably can't tell from this picture, but her poor little eyes were rimmed in red and her little cheeks were flushed.  After some good sleep last night, she has been feeling MUCH better this morning, but is still a little cranky and congested.  I'm keeping a close eye on her temps in case I need to call her doctor again.

Thanks for the prayers (for those of you who knew about it from Facebook).