First school pictures, teacher conferences and ER's.

We had a crazy day around here. It started off so great, but ended with a kiddo in the ICU...and that is never good.
We'll start off with the good news. Our 1st parent teacher conference was today. The trio are doing great in class, I'm so pleased...but not too surprised, I mean they are pretty great kids if I do say so myself LOL. Jason and I both really like their teacher, and already see so much growth in just one plus month...it is amazing. Lily read me a book tonight, pretty much all on her own. She came in to Kindy at a level B for reading according to her teacher...which was news to me, we read to them a lot, but had never asked them to try reading to us...anyway I guess Lily is now at a level C. The girl can read, like read, she can make it through a whole 30 page beginner book with very little help! Xan and Haddie are not too far behind her at level B, they too can read us beginner books..with just a bit more help. They adore school and learning...I hope we can keep that going. Top it off with this cuteness...their first school pictures, which turned out pretty great too.

 Xander, your teacher says you are a very sweet and kind boy. She told us you are very smart and work well for her. She also says you need a lot of instruction and attention...and that you tend to get into a little bit of rowdiness with your friend Emanuel.

Haddie, the teacher told us you are her model student. You are very attentive and do everything you are supposed to with gusto. You tend to be a leader and getting things done right and perfectly is very important to you.

Miss Lily, your teacher had a lot of glowing things to say about you to...but you know what sticks out the most to your Dad and I? She said you are not lazy at all in school....WHAT?!?! According to Mrs. Pitocki you are a hard worker and a bit sensitive.

The trio did a special 30 days in school project, Mrs. Pitocki found it funny how you can see just how different each of the triplets are simply by looking at their kid lead art work...Hahaha I have always thought that myself.

 Xan has an abstract flair and is a bit all over the place.

Hayden of course is very precise and makes sure to be complete in her work.

Lily loves to add lots of details. Nice jobs kiddos...and well done on school so far!

Jericho had a fun day at school today too!

He gets so much 1:1 learning time, I can't wait to see how he is doing by the end of the year...and then he will get 1 more year at this preschool before starting Kindy. He is going to have such a great foundation!

Jason and I got the finishing touches done to Xander's costume. Now everyone's is done and ready to party! The stove pipe hat.

A look at how we did it...this insert for a hard hat worked better than a baseball cap, keeps it more steady on Xan's head when he spins the shade.

Gluing the hat on.

All done..and it turned out pretty great I think! I can't wait to see everyone dressed up!

Unfortunately the good news ends here.... 

The kiddos have been fighting off a minor (or so we thought) cold for the last 3 or 4 days. Today Lily woke up with a pretty icky cough and just seemed a little more down than the others. When she was reading to me tonight I noticed that she was a little out of breath, then later when she was playing with Hayden before bed she started to act fatigued. I was right in the middle of putting them to bed when I stopped and really looked at Lily. She seemed pale, her lips were not pink and her fingernails seemed dull too. I asked her how she was feeling, but she is a tough kid and said fine. I noticed her whole body moved when she breathed, her stomach, her ribs and the base of her throat...just looked like she was working hard to breathe. I had an uneasy feeling, she is the one who needed an inhaler twice before in her life so when she is breathing funny I get nervous...not to mention that her teacher had told us that her son was recently diagnosed with walking pneumonia. I was second guessing myself and told her that she could go to bed, but to come get me if she had a hard time breathing or felt like she couldn't get enough air...she looked at me and said it was kind of already like that. I decided to take a video of her breathing and text it to Jason...who was of course working. I told him she was freaking me out and I felt like she needed to go to the local urgent care. He agreed with me, so I loaded up the not yet asleep kids, at got to the urgent care at 9 pm. Jason left work early and beat us there. I took Lily in and he took the rest of our crew home and tried to put them to bed. They were resistant, especially Hayden...she refused to go to sleep without her sister, she was crying and really worried. Haddie ended up having to sleep with Dad, poor girl.

Lily was not having a better time. She got taken back pretty quickly, the urgent care Nurse took us to a small room and put a monitor on Lily's finger. About a minute later she said "Oh no." She had just asked me what inhaler Lily had used for the camp fire smoke a month ago, I told her what it was called and then asked if that was bad when she said "oh no", she told me that is not what she was talking about, so I look over at the monitor and asked if the 83% oxygen level on the screen was bad and she said yes, and immediately moved us to a different room. Poor Bug did not want to go to the hospital, she tried telling me she was fine and kept asking to go home. I told her we had to get her better if she wanted to be able to go to the costume party on Saturday...this got her cooperation.

The Doctor came in right away and got Lily started on a nebulizer treatment. This was all new to both of us, she has never reacted this bad to anything before. The Doctor said it was most likely an asthma attack...even though she doesn't have an actual asthma diagnosis. The treatment took a few minutes, then we waited about 20 for it to work...it didn't. They gave her a steroid shot and a second nebulizer treatment...she got stickers, that made her happier.

After the steroid shot and the second treatment her stats only came up to 88% (86% if she was talking,) and she needed to maintain a 93% or better to go home, so they said we had better head over to the hospital ER. They didn't make us take an ambulance, but they called a head and told the ER we were coming. Lily was screened and taken back pretty quickly, she was back to 85% by the time we got there...we got asked the lovely travel/Ebola questions...I really hate being in a hospital, especially when a nasty bug is trying to get its foot in the door. Bug got the full deal, heart rate monitor, oxygen level monitor, respiration rate monitor, BP cuff, they also got her going on some oxygen...boy she hated that thing in her nose.

They gave her another breathing treatment (this one was almost an hour long), then took some blood and placed an IV...both were firsts for her (that she can remember anyway,) Lily didn't cry, which freaked me out, add in my chatter box my natural performer was not talking to anyone....we knew she was starting to get both tired and lethargic from working so hard to breathe. They took her to X ray for chest films, that looked fine. When the 3rd treatment and being on oxygen didn't get her oxygen stats higher than 86% Bug got admitted for the night into the PICU...kids version of the intensive care unit. The ER Nurse got her a fun castle toy, that perked her up for a little bit.

Once in the PICU they were blasting her with oxygen and a 4 hour long breathing treatment. They gave her a bag of fluids and also put her on mag...which was funny for me, that stuff messed me up...but did it's job, when I was in preterm labor with the triplets. I was super scared. No one knew what was causing this or why the treatments were not helping her out. We got settled into the PICU around 3:30 in the morning. Lily was really out, I didn't think I could sleep, but the Nurses were insistent that I needed to rest. I finally passed out at 5 am...then got back up at 8, but fear does that to me. She got a new teddy bear for being hooked up to all this crap. I am so thankful for highly trained and outfitted medical professionals, I am thankful that Oregon has great hospitals and staff, I am so thankful to all the people that got Lily through the night. I'm sure with a new day will come some answers. There is nothing more horrible than feeling so helpless when your child is in a life or death situation. I am just so very glad I didn't ignore my gut and send her to bed, who knows what could have happened.

Rest baby girl...your body has a lot of healing to do.