Birthiversamas 2008

We celebrate our anniversary, Christmas and Paul’s birthday all within a span of 10 days. We planned on going out for our fourth anniversary and leaving the boys with some friends, but I got a violent case of the stomach flu just the day before, so we decided not to spread the holiday cheer on. Instead, Paul surprised me with St. Louis Bread Co. take-out, which hit the spot. I love their broccoli cheddar soup!
That was ok. We were still looking forward to our trip to Utah, where we’d be able to have a break for a few weeks and spend time with family. The weekend before we were going to leave, Benjamin and Peter were both coughing, and Peter had a pathetic little silent cry. I thought nothing of it. I would just ask the pediatrician at Peter’s 2 month checkup on Monday if she had any tips for traveling with a baby with a cold. But Peter’s well-child checkup was quickly switched to a sick child checkup when the doctor listened to his breathing and told me he had RSV. She said there was no way he could fly to such a high altitude the next day since he was borderline-emergency room bad, and put him on a nebulizer with some albuterol to clear up his tiny airways and help him breathe. Peter immediately relaxed and fell asleep in my arms, sucking the steroids and oxygen in. I felt awful! Here I hadn’t even noticed his heaving chest because I had been keeping him so layered in our chilly house. I hadn’t even picked up on the wheezing because I was so preoccupied with getting everything done before we left home for three weeks. All of our presents had been ordered through Amazon and had been shipped directly to Utah. We had even timed the food perfectly so we wouldn’t have anything gross sitting in our house while we were gone. I was sick about not being able to go, which made me feel like a terrible mom for not worrying more about my sick baby. I needed this break!

After a long afternoon of crying to Paul, fixing our insurance plan to add Peter, running to two different pharmacies, fixing a flat tire (which was frozen on), picking up Peter's prescription and waiting for his nebulizer to be delivered, we packed- just in case. I admittedly didn't have much hope that we would leave the next day as scheduled, even though Paul gave Peter a blessing and many prayers were said in his behalf. But we were blessed with a Christmas miracle when the next day, a different pediatrician looked at him and said Peter was well enough to travel. His breathing was substantially improved, his coloring looked great, he was eating regularly, and his oxygen levels were fine! So we hurried and finished last minute details, and left for Utah. It's been wonderful, and I'll eventually post pictures. We're having a great time and are feeling rejuvenated. It's so nice to be with family again!