WHERE WE'VE BEEN

I would have loved to update everyone on how hard it was to go back to work
after having 6 weeks of Bella to myself, however, God had a different plan.
Last Monday night was the beginning of a 5 day nightmare for us. I got home
from work to find that Bella hadn't slept much that day. So I fed her a
bottle and she went right to sleep. A couple hours later, still sleeping, I
decided to check her temp because this just wasn't like her. She had a mild
temp and I just thought I'd keep an eye on it. She slept very well that
night, however, in the morning, she was burning up. She certainly felt
hotter than the 101 temp she was running. And the poor thing was just
moaning and groaning non-stop. My baby was sick.

Aaron took her in to the pediatrician while I went to work, thinking this
was not going to be a big deal. I get a call from Aaron saying the doc
thought she looked fine outwardly, but was sending her to the hospital to
get some more intense testing done to rule out anything major. Fine. Still
not worried. UNTIL I got a hold of Aaron 5 hours later who said that Bella
was being admitted to the hospital because they found bacteria in her
urine. So the temp of my body rose a bit as I left work and headed to the
hospital.

When I get there, I am updated by my dad and Aaron that it took 6 tries for
the hospital to the IV in Bella. They weren't gentle about it and the whole
process was horrifying to watch, say two grown men. I'm told I should be
very glad I missed all of that. However, I did get there just in time for
them to do the spinal tap. The doctor was updating Aaron and I and I
immediately thought this doctor was a quack. (NOT our pediatrician, the
hospital's resident doc) I immediately call his credentials into question
and proceed to very seriously ask the nurse if he is capable of performing
spinal taps. I knew better than to watch this being done so I positioned
myself where I could see my baby, but not see the procedure. Big mistake.
Once Bella looked up from the table into my eyes and bawled as if asking
"Mommy, why are you just standing there while they do this to me?" I lost
it. I didn't mean to, I wanted to be strong, but emotion overcame me and I
was led out by a nurse as I hyperventilated.

We were told in 48 hours that we would know what kind of bacteria she had.
In the meantime, they were treating with a couple antibiotics to knock out
anything and everything since we didn't know what we were dealing with. 48
hours came and when another doctor on staff come in to tell us the news, I
told her it had better be good, jokingly. She said it wasn't. I sat down.

She said the bacteria was growing in chains and the urine sample was mistakenly never sent in. Great. They needed to retake the samples. I wanted to puke.

Aaron tagged along for that round.

But, the good news was that they could rule out meningitis and Bella should
have no lasting effects from all of this. We just hoped the bacteria hadn't
spread enough to affect her brain. But we were looking at a 10-14 day
hospital stay at the soonest. And then we were whisked away to have an
ultrasound of the bladder and kidneys.

Another 48 hours, hospital food, and uncomfortable chairs later, my mom had
stayed the night at the hospital so we could go home and get some sleep.
Then we get a call in the early morning that Bella was crying for the past
3 hours and couldn't be consoled for anything. We were already on our way
up there so we quickened our step. I take Bella from my mom and she
mentions that maybe her IV tape became too tight. I squeeze her arm to
check, like I had seen the nurse do a couple times since we had been there.
Rather, I squeezed what felt like that hardest rock in the world. I scream
for Aaron to go get the nurse. Now. I had had this happen to me before, but
I knew what had happened and called the doctor. Bella's IV had backed out
of her vein and was dripping into her arm. For 3 hours.

The nurse takes out her IV and Aaron is asking why nobody came in to check
why a baby had been screaming for the past 3 hours or to check on her at
all, even though my mom was there. She explained that there was a shift
change, and I explained that I wanted to kick her ass.

She doesn't put another IV in because they received the results back from the lab and Bella can go home today. Amazing, we were looking at a 10-14 day hospital stay minimum that suddenly reduced itself to 5. We look at each other and wonder what's up. When the doctor comes in later she tells us that the very first sample they had taken down in the ER was contaminated. They had taken a bad sample and had possible touched the sample or tainted it in another way. Bella only had a urinary tract
infection that could have been treated at home with oral antibiotics. Half
of what we went through was for nothing. Nothing at all. And although it was explained to me that if it WAS something, it was good to treat it aggressively and fast because she is so young and hadn't even had her two month shots yet. (she was supposed to get them at her 2 month checkup the
day after she was admitted.) But I am always fearful that babies are given
antibiotics way too often and could possibly develop immunities to them.
Here we were at 9 weeks giving her a big dose of them.

But on Saturday I got to bring my baby home, again, on an antibiotic for 10
days.

And yesterday afternoon was her 2 months checkup and shots. I didn't know
she could get those shots being on an antibiotic, but they gave them to her
anyway. And she cried, and cried. I didn't, because I knew this was pie
compared to the hospital.

So now, my baby is home, not sleeping because she is so doped up I suppose,
and the only thing she wants to do is be held. So she is.

Someone had the nerve today to tell me she's going to get too used to being
held, and to lay her down to cry it out.

I don't think they will be talking to me again anytime soon.