Merry Christmas, Hospital Style

Let's go through the last little while chronologically with pictures.

-Kason was super excited to write his first letter to Santa. I put it in our mailbox thinking the mailman would just leave it there and I would go get it later to keep it, but it seems that he took it. The gist of the letter went like this: Dear Santa, I have been good this year. We will leave some cookies and carrots out. I would like a bumble bee car, tool set and legos. Fly safe. Love Kason. It took forever to write. He was pretty proud though.

-I call Emry our little snowman in this outfit.

-So, Kason and Asher got terrible colds when Emry came home from the hospital. I was worried about her getting it and even threw around the dreaded RSV phrase. Asher had it when he was 8 months old and it wasn't fun. I thought she was ok. But, as time went on her cough got worse and she was really sleepy. We called a nurse a couple times and went back and forth on whether or not we should go in. Sunday night (the 18th) her breathing seemed funny (she was retracting) and so we decided to go to the ER at 11pm. They did an x ray (blah) and an RSV test and I knew we were in for it. Sure enough, the RSV test came back positive. I almost lost it when the nurse told us that like it was nothing. So, they admitted my 12 day old to the hospital at 4 am. Luckily, my sister was here for the next few days to watch the boys, which was a life saver. The next few days were awful. Turns out RSV in a 2 week old is different than for an 8 month old. It was much more drawn out, takes longer to heal and was scarier. She was on oxygen and had so many tubes hooked up to her. She had one episode of apnea. MISERABLE physically, mentally, and emotionally. Having just had a baby two weeks ago and then being in the hospital with her, I'm afraid I wasn't the most positive person, to put it lightly. I felt like if I started to lose it I wouldn't be able to stop and I would really lose it. Isaac did a whole lot of driving back and forth. Really though, looking back, we were really blessed; she never stopped eating, she didn't get pneumonia, and she only needed two breathing treatments. We stayed for 5 very long days. She had to go 24 hours without oxygen support before we could go home and watching those monitors showing her oxygen level was a love/hate relationship. Isaac and a friend gave her a blessing and during that night they took off the oxygen. We got to come home on Friday and I am so so so thankful it was before Christmas. Sickness just makes me tired thinking about it, but it sure makes me thankful for good health and for getting better!



This was our home for almost a week. Because of her wires/cords she could only be moved from her little crib to the bed. It was a very small, confining space to be in for that long of a time! I watched lots of TLC's What Not to Wear.

At least I had a great view.

So we were home, before Christmas, and super tired, but happy. After being with Emry for so long Asher seems HUGE. He is a stocky boy. Christmas Eve the boys left out cookies, carrots, and milk.

Our Christmas present

Christmas morning. The boys were so excited and were peeking out their bedroom door, ready to go. They can both loudly sing Away in a Manger and Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and I do mean loudly.

Emry is recovering great. She just has a leftover nasty cough, which can last for a week or two. We went to the doctor today and her lungs sound great. She is 3 weeks and weighs 9 lbs 2 oz - 60% and is 21 in - 60%. She has the most hair of any of our kids at this age, which makes me glad since she is a girl. I gave her a bath and put a beanie on while her hair was still damp. when I took the beanie off this is what I found, quite the mohawk/mullet:

Now we are getting excited for the Rose bowl, go Ducks!

And, because I am a proud wife, I wanted to post about Isaac's "jump to fame" amidst all this.:) His second paper that he wrote with his two advisors got a bunch of media attention. Within a matter of days their paper was linked all over the country in over 150 news sites. It was linked to the Associated Press and was on all the major news sites. He was especially happy it was on ESPN.COM. Isaac did a live radio interview and another over the phone interview. Grad school has a lot of ups and downs! https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=swensen+football&oq=swensen+football&aq=f&aqi=d1d-o1&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=1365l4980l0l5174l18l17l0l14l0l0l186l370l1.2l3l0