After ending our Christmas Eve with two kids throwing up, I was pretty nervous about how we would spend Christmas Day. Our plan was to go to church at our home church, eat lunch with my sister, her family, and my parents at my sister's house. and have a relaxing afternoon and evening. However, I knew if anyone acted at all like they didn't feel good, all of those plans would be for naught.
THANKFULLY, when we got up on Christmas morning, everyone seemed just fine. Aside from the memory of a van and bed full of puke seared in my head, it was like nothing had ever happened. So, we decided to go forward with our plan for the day and hope that puke would not follow us!
Before church, I took a few photos of the children in front of the Christmas tree. I can't get over how big my babies are getting *tear*.
Brianna
Brecklyn
Brooke
Brenson
During worship service that morning, both Brooke and Brecklyn acted extremely tired, and Brooke even fell asleep. I just assumed they were exhausted from the weekend, but after we got to my sister's house, Brecklyn started acting like she just felt terrible. She barely ate, and then immediately went to sleep on Chris's lap. I thought she felt really warm, so I took her temp and discovered she was running a fever. We ended up staying the afternoon at my sister's house and just laid everyone down for naps there so we didn't have to wake Brecklyn to take her home. After everyone woke up from their naps, I asked my sister to take a family photo for us. You can see that poor Brecklyn was definitely not feeling well!
Annnnnnd, I would say that this photo pretty much sums up how everyone was feeling at that point. I think we were over it!
However, we still had more traveling to do and more family to see! On Monday (December 26th), my brother and his family were going to be in Missouri at my parents' house, so we wanted to be there at the same time they were. I knew that if Brecklyn woke up with a fever on Monday morning it would affect our plans, but once again she woke up feeling fine. Her temperature was normal, she was happy and playing, so I figured that maybe she had just needed a good night's rest. It's so hard to tell with little kids (especially when they can't tell you exactly how they're feeling), and sometimes it seems like they throw up or spike fevers randomly.
We drove up to Missouri that afternoon. It was so fun when we saw my niece Kaylee because she was dressed like my girls. They all looked precious in their red flannel shirts!
Of course, Grampy had to get in on the red flannel shirt action, too!
The BEST thing about this picture is that my niece looks SO annoyed at her Dad photo-bombing! Bahaha!
My sister and her family had gone to her in-laws to celebrate Christmas, so they weren't able to be with us. The rest of us had a good time being with each other and exchanging gifts that night, though.
Brooke with her new luggage
JT
Isn't he quite the model?!? Lol.
Brianna and Kaylee
G-Jo and Batman
Brooke helping G-Jo
Brecklyn helping JT
Brecklyn was NOT happy to be taking an "in the wrapping paper" photo with her cousins. I think she started crying about this time, and didn't stop until we left the next day!
G-Jo and Grampy
My brother's family - Jeremy, Shawna, Kaylee, JT
Gotta love my enthusiastic little crew, haha. I'm thinking that taking a family picture wasn't really what they wanted to be doing at that moment.
So, when I said above that Brecklyn pretty much cried the entire time we were at my parents' house, I wasn't kidding. She had another rough night (which meant not much sleep for us), and woke up acting like she just felt terrible. She wasn't running a fever, but we realized that Brooke was. In fact, her fever was about 102 degrees. Brecklyn was coughing with a runny nose, and was SO CRANKY. Can I emphasize that anymore?!? It was ridiculous. Mom had to work that day, so the rest of us just hung out at the house before going out for lunch. Jeremy offered to stay in with Brooke - which was nice for me - but I should have kept Brecklyn in, as well. I just didn't realize how sick she was until later.
After we got back from lunch, Kaylee asked if I would give her a makeover. I was happy to oblige!
Love this girl!
We tried to lay Brecklyn down for a nap, but she only slept for a short time. Then, she cried. She cried if she was being held, she cried if we put her down, she cried if anyone looked at her, and then she cried some more. It was miserable! She cried the entire time we packed up our stuff and while Chris loaded the van. She cried while we said our goodbyes and even for the first 10 or so minutes we were on the road. FINALLY, she fell asleep and stayed that way until we got home.
I noticed that Brecklyn's cough was getting worse, and Brooke's fever was not letting up. We kept them in all day on Wednesday - hoping they would feel better - but they just seemed to be getting worse. No one was sleeping (still), and we were all beyond exhausted. By Thursday, both girls still had fevers and their coughs sounded horrible, so I took them to see Dr. F. He did flu swabs, but thankfully those were negative. He was concerned that they might have pneumonia, so he ordered a chest x-ray for each of them. (The contraption they put them in for the chest x-ray is just awful. Both girls cried and screamed the whole time. Brooke kept saying, "Stuck! I stuck! Momma! Stuck!" and it just broke my heart.) The chest x-ray revealed that Brecklyn had pneumonia in her left lung, and Brooke had pneumonia in her right lung :-(.
I felt just horrible for them! I was super upset that they were so sick while we were dragging them from place to place for five days. The mommy-guilt was heavy! Chris had to work during this time, but I spent the next two days just holding my sick baby girls. I was sorry they were sick, but that wasn't going to stop me from enjoying the snuggles.
Brecklyn and Momma
Brooke and Momma
I generally spend the week between Christmas and New Years taking down all my Christmas decorations. By the time Christmas is over, I'm ready to see the tree gone and my house back to normal. This year, I was too busy caring for my sick babies to worry about my tree or other decorations, but it worked out kind of nice. Brooke and Brecklyn weren't spending much time playing, but they would sit and look at the tree. It was adorable! I even let them break the rules and touch some of the ornaments. As long as they weren't crying, I was okay with it!
Brooke
Brecklyn
This Christmas season definitely ended on a rough note for us, but that's just how it goes sometimes. We were still able to spend a lot of time as a family and with family making sweet and precious memories, and for that we are certainly grateful!
No comments:
Post a Comment