Assorted Pictures from Sick Days in Early May

The kids picked up Pink Eye in day care (they go to day care once or twice a week), then were really congested and Kiera got an ear infection. The two of us got sick, too with Maddy eventually losing her voice. We always seem to get cute pictures when they're sick, so we wanted to post a few from this bout of illness.

Maddy and Dylan sick and sleeping on the couch

Kiera stealing Dylan's bottle even though her bottle is right next to her

Obviously Dylan's sick if he'd let anyone take his bottle and he's not crying!

Shots, Growth and Rolling Over

We took the twins in for their 4 month shots on Friday (25th). We were warned they might feel bad afterwards and they did. Poor Dylan again got hit harder than Kiera. His fever got over 101. Fortunately, Kiera’s fever never broke 100. They only wanted to be held. Playing in bouncy seats wasn’t fun anymore. Below are some pathetic pictures of them with some cool, damp wash cloths on their head.

On a fun note, both kids are growing like crazy. Dylan is now 14 lbs and Kiera is 13 lbs. The doctor told us that since they are growing so much they will be taken off the preemie growth chart and onto the full-term infant chart at the next check-up. After they were born we were told that this might not happen until they were two years old.

Dylan rolled over for the first time Monday (28th)! Unfortunately Maddy was not able to get camera or video footage of this.

Thanksgiving Hospital Adventure

Maddy took the twins to the pediatrician for a checkup on Thursday, Nov 15^th. The next night, Dylan sounded a little hoarse and coughed some, but it didn’t sound too bad. Saturday, we were supposed to go to Todd’s cousin’s wedding in South Dallas (sorry Jessica), but Dylan’s coughing got worse, so we didn’t go to the wedding. By Sunday, night it was getting bad and called the pediatrician. She said to not worry about hospital, just come in the next day. Once she saw him, she told us to take Dylan to the emergency room at Children’s Hospital. Dylan tested positive for RSV (a respiratory virus) and got admitted into the hospital. We realized there was no going to Todd’s family for Thanksgiving this year. Kiera ended up having it too, but it wasn’t as bad as Dylan’s and we kept her at the house. Dylan would get to where he almost couldn’t breathe.

The poor boy had to undergo some major torture. In the ER, the Respiratory Therapist ran a tube 20 centimeters up his nose to try to clear out some of the congestion. Unfortunately, the techs at the hospital, hastily took his blood pressure, while also checking his temperature – which he hates, and his blood pressure was always high. It didn’t matter if we told them, the nurses or the doctors that his bp is high because he’s upset. They kept saying they needed to run more tests. The last of which was a horrible torture test. They stripped him naked, strapped him down on a board, strapping his feet to the board and tying his arms to his head and strapping them to the board. They weren’t done yet. They inserted a catheter, and ran fluids into him to see if urine was flowing backwards into his kidneys. They then rotated the board (with him on it) under this big machine. It was horrible to watch. Fortunately, that test and all the others came back normal. Finally, the renal doctor came in, very calmly took his blood pressure twice and said he was perfectly fine and we could go home. We probably should have gone home on Wednesday, not Friday.

In addition to the torture tests, Dylan was simply miserable and couldn’t sleep or eat. Every 24 hours, the two of us swapped spots between helping Dylan at the hospital and helping Kiera at home. During Todd’s shift from Tuesday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon, Dylan wouldn’t lay down in the crib. If Todd laid him down, Dylan screamed – Todd probably did, too. Todd tried twice, but gave up after 10 minutes of intense screaming, with short pauses of sounding like he was going to stop breathing between the screaming and stopped up airway. The rest of the 24 hours, Dylan was held. The one benefit Todd had being there was that he missed Kiera’s gigantic diaper explosion. She had been constipated for a week. Maddy was the poor soul that had to change that one and Kiera let loose everything she had been storing up for a week. [On a related note, Kiera hasn’t pooped since. We’ve been working with the doctor and giving her stuff to help, but she hasn’t. Each of us is afraid she’s going to explode her diaper on our watch. Does anyone want to come babysit? :)] This is the first time that Dylan and Kiera have ever slept apart and it didn’t go well for either of them or us. Everyone’s home now and we’re trying to get them back on an eating and sleeping schedule.

So Dylan and Kiera slept apart for the first time, Dylan spent his first Thanksgiving in a hospital, they spent their first Thanksgiving apart, Maddy and Todd spent Thanksgiving apart for the first time in five years, and Dylan was in the hospital during his first snowfall. Todd tried to watch the Aggies and Longhorns game on the little hospital television with an upset Dylan, but fortunately, he got to take Dylan home during halftime so he could actually see what was happening on the tv.

We’ve said many prayers that Dylan and Kiera are home and healthy. Dylan lost about a pound (11% of his body weight) in four days, but has gained it back now.

Update on Kiera and pooping. After the HUGE diaper that Madelyn had to change while Dylan was in the hospital Kiera waited for 14 days before another one. That one was really disgusting and of course Madelyn was again alone to change that one. Kiera is now going at least 1-2 times a week and Todd has been present for some of them but nothing compares to the first two.