The tough stuff

This blog originally started as a way to keep our long distance family and friends updated on the happenings in our life as our family grew from 2 to 3, and then to 4 with the addition of Norah. Over time my motivation for updating the blog has changed. While I'm still happy to know that the people we love check in here on a regular basis, I've got to be honest... this isn't really about them anymore. It's a gift for our kids. I haven't filled out baby books for the girls (gasp!) and I'm not a scrapbooker. In fact, I'm embarrassed to say that almost 5 years worth of family photos haven't made it into albums yet (they are in a box... somewhere). This blog has become my way of documenting our life so that someday our children can look back and see our favorite photos, read about our holiday traditions, remember the major milestones along with the candid everyday moments, and most importantly so that they can have a glimpse into my heart as their momma and know all that they mean to me (it goes without saying that Erich's heart is echoed in all of this as well, I just happen to be the one doing the writing).

I would love to keep every memory recorded here light hearted, fun, and happy so that when Avery and Norah (and any other future Piland children) look back on these journal entries, they can remember the beautiful! wonderful! perfect! upbringing they had. That would be great, except for the fact that life isn't always beautiful, wonderful, and perfect. Sometimes hard things happen. And I need to write about those too. While we want our kids to see God in the fun, joy, and laughter that we experience on a regular basis, we hope they can see Him most of all in the rare tough moments that we encounter as a family. We know that our hope is in Christ, on good days and bad. And we are so thankful for that truth.

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Now, to share about one of those tough moments...

Ever since Christmas it seems like someone in our house has been sick. I got the stomach flu followed by a nasty cold. At the same time, Erich got bronchitis. Norah caught my cold and came down with a double ear infection. Just as Norah was getting better from that, Avery got the sniffles. Within a few days of Avery's cold Norah seemed to get one again. That poor baby was sick in one form or another for most of January. This last cold seemed different though. I took her to the pediatrician's office 3 times in a two week period. Each time the diagnosis was the same... "It's just a common cold. You are going to have to wait it out." She gradually got worse and worse and the stuffy nose turned into a raspy cough. The raspy cough turned into wheezing. And one scary Friday night around 8:30pm the wheezing suddenly turned into respiratory distress. Looking back, it's only by the grace of God that Erich and I stayed as calm as we did. Our 3 month old baby was struggling to breathe and gasping for air. It was the most frightening moment of my entire life. In hindsight, we both agree now that we probably should have called 911, but I think we knew it was an emergency and we just wanted to spring into action and do the quickest thing to get her to the hospital. In our minds that meant driving her there. We agreed that Erich would stay home with Avery (who was already in bed) and I would take Norah to the hospital. We thought that made the most sense because I'm nursing (turned out to be a moot point. The poor girl couldn't eat anything for more than 24 hours because she was so sick).

I have never prayed harder or driven faster than I did that night. Erich told me later that he was on his knees at home the entire time we were in the car. Thank you, Jesus, He kept Norah breathing the whole time and protected us from harm as I drove like a crazy person to get to the hospital quickly. Once we arrived and I ran up to the intake desk in the ER, they could see that Norah was struggling and they moved us ahead of everyone else in line and immediately got her hooked up to oxygen. They deep suctioned her (stuck a tube down her nose and into her lungs to suck out all the junk) and although she hated that (who wouldn't?), it gave her almost instant relief. Seeing her breathe easily again helped ME breathe easily again. After a chest x-ray and a sputum culture, her diagnosis was bronchiolitis and RSV. We were admitted to Toledo Children's Hospital and told we'd most likely be there for a few days. Norah was stable, but she was a sick little girl. That first night was rough... she had to have an IV put in (traumatic!), she had breathing treatments every 4 hours and had to be deep suctioned frequently (every hour or two). Thankfully by Saturday morning she seemed to be doing much better. Erich was able to come join us (thanks for coming up to stay with Avery, Mom!) and Norah was able to sleep off and on all day. By Sunday she was doing so much better that they let us go home! It was much sooner than anyone predicted we'd be leaving and while we were a little nervous, we were mostly grateful to get home. Norah had to continue breathing treatments at home and still had to be suctioned often, but she was breathing easily and smiling again... I missed that smile.

We were welcomed home by Avery who woke up Sunday morning a snotty mess and with almost no voice. Yep, Avery caught RSV from Norah (thankfully it's not nearly as serious in toddlers as it is in babies). We made a trip to the doctor and came home with a prescription for breathing treatments for Avery too. At least we already had the nebulizer! For the next week our house looked like a little mini medical clinic and we basically shut ourselves off from the outside world to keep the girls from spreading their germs or catching anyone else's. It was a crazy, stressful, bumpy ride. Thankfully, as they say, "this too shall pass"... and it has. I think we can finally declare everyone in our house 100% healthy. The nebulizer and humidifier have been packed up and the antibiotics have been finished.

While I never want to experience anything like that again, I can also acknowledge that it could have been much much worse. Friday night was frightening, but once we got to the hospital things turned around quickly and we knew Norah was going to be just fine. We are beyond grateful to have two healthy, happy girls again and we praise God that we felt His tight grasp on our family the entire time. Our marriage has been made stronger than ever and our hearts have been refocused onto what's the most important. And THAT is why I want our kids to hear about the tough moments. In some ways, they are some of the best moments.

Sick baby Norah with a tired but relieved Momma

Cuddles with Daddy

Avery wasn't the hugest fan of the breathing treatments (yes, she's wearing a bathing suit in January. It's our last resort when all of the dress up tutus are in the wash)

She loved the all you can eat popsicles and orange sherbet, though!