Bye Bye Bottles & Paci - Hello ER?

It's hard to believe that it is only Wednesday...considering the week we have had. Monday morning I woke up and decide to take away the pacifier and bottles. Claire was overly attached to her pacifier and bottle. In order to take a nap - she needed three pacifiers - once for her mouth and one for each hand. As for the bottles, they just needed to go! After washing them everyday (sometimes every other day) for 15 months - there comes a time when the just need to be packed up and put away! So our house is a no paci/bottle zone - and it's glorious!! The first two naps were a little rough on Monday, but by Monday evening - she was able to fall asleep without any problems.
When Claire woke up on Tuesday - Russ and I noticed that she felt a little warm and wasn't quite as perky... A little back ground info - since we made our Christmas/Easter/Birthday trip to Kansas last month - Claire has had a cough/runny nose. She also got one of those 24 stomach bugs - which lasted a whole week for her. So she's been congested for the last month and still hasn't regained her appetite. Back to the story... so she woke up on Tuesday and didn't hardly touch her Dora yogurt - which is really unheard of - and didn't want anything else we offered. Right before her nap, her temperature was at 100.9* - so I gave her some Motrin and put her to sleep. Around lunch time I checked her temp again and it was close to 102. So I switched over to Tylenol. After her nap - all she wanted to do was cuddle and watch TV. She has become a little more cuddly and will sit still for about 5 mins - but all she wanted to do yesterday was cuddle - so we knew something was up. I took her temp again and it was still around 102 - gave her Motrin and Russ called the nurse. The nurse wanted to wait 30-45 mins since we just gave her more medicine - so we were supposed to call back if fever didn't break. Well 30 mins later her temperature was up to 105.4* and Claire could hardly hold her head up. And since we're so lucky - it was already after 5pm, so her doctor was gone for the day. So I frantically give her a bath while Russ packs up all the necessities and we make our first trip to the ER.
So we make a mad dash to the ER - and thankfully we're the only people in there. The nurse gets us in right away - and does all the usually stuff. Her temp was down to 103.9. Which was out of the danger zone - but we were still worried. The nurse also weighed her, and she still weighs 19 Ibs. This was a little surprising because that's what she weighed three months ago at her 1 yr check up. But she also didn't eat for a week when she had the stomach bug and didn't eat well all day Tuesday. Just a real quick note - it's really amazing the kind of things people come into an ER for. While we are in the separate waiting room getting her temp and weight checked - and young lady comes in asking if she can be admitted into the ER for a pregnancy test. Are you serious? Our nurse was very polite and more understanding than me (although I was way past freaking out - and my nerves were shot). She told the woman that you can buy PG tests at any pharmacy, Walmart - even the dollar store. Then the woman asked again if she could be admitted - and the nurse went through it all again. After an awkward silence - she left. We then were led into a room to sit and wait to be checked out by a doctor. This was my first time to be in an actual Emergency Room - and I was expecting it to be crazy busy like Grey's - but it was pretty boring.
So the nurse takes us to our room and the doctor comes in to have a look. He finds that Claire has an ear infection in one ear and wants to do a chest x-ray - thinking there might be fluid in her lungs. After another round of Tylenol we made our way to radiology. Walking over there I had the worst images in my head of them strapping her down to take the x-rays... it's actually much more worse than that. The nurse sets her down on this seat, and then puts this plastic cylinder thing around her - with her hands above her head. It was horrible. The nurse had me leave the room while they finished up. So we head back to our room and wait for the doctor to review the images.
Sometime later the doctor comes in and lets us know that Claire has pneumonia along with an ear infection. He also wants to draw blood to make sure they haven’t missed anything. On top of that – he mentions that Claire will get a shot of an antibiotic. So a nurse comes in, and by this time Claire is hysterical. So it takes four of us to hold her down for the nurse to draw two vials of blood. Then she comes back and gives her the shot. Now every time Claire sees/hears this nurse, she cries uncontrollably. After another thirty minutes of waiting – they let us go home.
It has been two days since this happened – and I’m happy to report that her fever has stayed below 101 and she seems to be feeling much better. I can’t complain that she seems to want to snuggle a little more too! J Please keep our little girl in your prayers for a speedy recovery.