Rory had been struggling with a cold for the better part of 2 weeks. On Sunday it developed into a cough that I just associated with draining from the cold. Tuesday night the cough started to get worse, resulting in little sleep for me and a very irritated baby. I made an appointment and took Rory in to see our pediatrician on Wednesday. They hooked her up to a monitor to measure the levels of oxygen in her blood. Rory was very upset during this whole ordeal as I woke her up from a deep sleep taking her out of the car. Her oxygen levels were just under 90% and the pediatrician informed me that we'd have to take her to Children's Hospital. I was doing OK with this information and told her I'd just need directions there. The pediatrician then informed me that if it stays below 90% we'd be going there by ambulance. I lost it then. I mean, who wants to go anywhere by ambulance, my daughter was that sick?!

I stepped out of the room to call Dusty and also to call Suzanne, my mother-in-law, to come and pick up Max since I was not going to bring him with me. When I returned to the room the pediatrician was able to get Rory to calm down a bit and when she was calmer her levels were just above 90% which meant we could do a couple tests at the clinic and then drive ourselves to Children's. Suzanne showed up about this time and told me that she would drive Rory and I there and then leave with Max so that was another relief. We did a chest x-ray and a virus check and then were on our way with the chest x-ray on a disk and the promise that the virus results would be sent strait there.

When we got to the hospital Rory's oxygen levels were right up by 100% and she still did not have a fever so now we were really confused as to why we were sent there. On top of that, the disk with the chest x-ray was blank so they had to do another chest x-ray on Rory which meant pinning her down for the second time that day. They also did a nasal flush to check for H1N1 which was horrible to watch. She ended up getting a second one of these on Thursday and I got a picture that time so you can see how much fun that is to watch.

The chest x-ray showed a spread out infection which we were originally told was probably viral pneumonia. We'll later be told it is some sort of viral respiratory infection instead of pneumonia which will lead to even more tests but I'm getting ahead of myself. So we earned ourselves an overnight stay at the hospital. The hospital was full so we had to wait two hours for a room to open up. Yeah, two hours sitting in an uncomfortable ER room. Thankfully I had enough formula and diapers!

We finally made it to our room and met a bunch of nurses and the resident pediatrician who informed us that while it is possible we will only be there for one night they usually require a two night stay for babies under two months old with respiratory issues. Needless to say we were pretty frustrated and confused by the end of Wednesday evening as Rory still had no fever and her oxygen levels were still in the very high 90's if not 100%. The only thing they did the first night was keep her hooked up to a monitor to make sure her oxygen levels stayed high. She was eating great and keeping her diapers filled so there was nothing else that needed to be done; no meds, IV, nothing. Thankfully the nurses did let me put Rory in her car seat to sleep since that is the only way she sleeps right now. I don't know what I would have done if that would not have been an option! Here she is just hanging out in her crib. The cord is connected to her foot where the monitor is.

Dusty and I both developed colds Wednesday while at the hospital and since Rory was being tested for H1N1 there were a lot of extra precautions that were taken. Dusty and I had to wear masks whenever we left the room and all medical personnel had to wear masks, gloves and an additional layer of clothing which was removed and put in a canister to be washed every time they left our room. Everyone followed those rules which was nice since we were (and still are) pretty positive that Rory does not have H1N1; so we can feel safe that she will not get it from another patient if they were as diligent with them as they were with us.

The second day we met with the staff doctor and he ordered a bunch more tests since Rory's symptoms where not pointing to the viral pneumonia as originally diagnosed and he wanted to rule out a bunch of other options. Apparently a lot of the viral illnesses they see do not peak until 3-5 days so they told us we'd have to stay another night to monitor Rory and make sure she wasn't going to get worse. Rory was a champ through it all. Most of the tests that were done we don't even have the results for as they take 3-5 days but she never got any worse. She did have a slightly high white blood cell count so they took another look today to make sure it didn't go higher, and it didn't, it had dropped back down to normal, so we were discharged with instructions to visit with our pediatrician next week and obviously to watch her for any changes that could signal the infection is getting worse.

I'm exhausted since there is no such thing as good sleep when you are sleeping on a couch next to your child in the hospital. Stress, nurses coming in, a baby that still wakes up to eat 3 times a night, and a cold all made sure I never slept more than an hour strait at a time. But once we get Max to bed tonight Dusty promised me some alone time for a nice long bath and he'll help out with Rory's feedings tonight so hopefully I'll get a chance to recover too! Thanks to everyone for their thoughts, prayers and kind words. We have great family and friends and I really enjoy sharing our lives with you!