Tuesday night nobody got sleep (maybe two hours max). Bug was coughing , up and down crying because she didn’t feel good. Littlest’s apnea/brady alarm kept going off, about 15 times total during the night and her cough was getting worse. Finally we made an appointment for Littlest at 6:30 pm and because her oxygen saturation was low, the doctor sent us to the ER. They wanted to send us back to Doernbecher, but I said no-no-no! I wasn’t going through that experience again. Instead they sent us to Emanuel. So through the hood I went, to the pediatric ER. It was scary just walking in from the parking lot. Holy cow, I almost drove up to OHSU instead just because of the clientele. They took us right into a room, checked her oxygen sats, then a chest x-ray. Her sats were good, but they thought they saw pneumonia on her chest x-ray. So I cried. I felt like a bad mom because I wasn’t even going to take her to the doctor. Anyhow, they admitted her, gave her a strong antibiotic IV, some IV fluid. The thing about Emanuel was they got us in a room fairly quickly, got her food pronto with the thickener, and the nurse was in the room waiting for us. The nurse seemed to know her stuff, the monitors worked, and she came in frequently. Two different doctors saw us all within the first hour of being in the room. About 3 a.m. everything was taken care of and I felt comfortable to fall asleep, so I got the cot out, thought how uncomfortable it looked, laid down and passed out immediately. I got about two hours sleep, called Daddy on the dying cell phone, and then laid down again for a while.

Two of the residents who saw Littlest today, plus the head resident had seen Littlest up at the Baby Factory, so I didn’t have to repeat the whole birth process and Littlest’s life up until now. The radiologist said that Littlest didn’t have pneumonia, the RSV study was negative, and her white count looked more like a virus. So they said if I felt comfortable, they would send her home. They gave her another power dose of antibiotic, plus a prescription for five more days of antibiotic just in case - which I’m fine with. They were all wonderful, the nurse bent over backward for us and was quick with the discharge. The whole experience was exactly opposite of the Doernbecher experience. Just as we were leaving, Littlest’s home monitor started constantly alarming. The nurse listened to her heart to make sure it was not a false alarm. Sure enough, her heart rate was slow. She got the doctor while I called the monitor company to have the parameters reset for Littlest’s age. The doctor checked Littlest out again, deemed her okay, we got the monitor fixed and out the door we went. The nurse walked us out all the way to the car. I got in the carpool lane on the freeway (it was 5 pm) and we were home in no time flat.

The only frustrating thing was I really wasn’t expecting them to keep her overnight, so I wasn’t prepared. The cell phone wasn’t charged and therefore died at 5:30 am, I didn’t have any phone numbers or anything else I usually carry, and I only had enough food for Littlest for one meal and she had that before she went into the ER. The phone was the worst part. I couldn’t call Daddy because it was long distance and I made one collect call to him and that, according to the operator, probably cost us about $15. I got creative though. I remembered that hometown hospital had a Portland line, so I got that number, called Vancouver Nana at work and then she called Daddy for me. I felt really isolated though not being able to call people. Littlest had excellent care, but it was stressful taking care of everything on my own and still try to take care of the appointments we had and worrying about Bug and Daddy. I was so tired this afternoon I kept falling asleep with Littlest in my arms. The nurse would leave and I would pass out, she would come back in five minutes later and I would jerk awake. This went on for about an hour.

Bug went to see the helmet man and she has improved another 4 mm.  So about two more months of the helmet at night and in the carseat and we will be done!

So we had the big dud of a garage sale today. I’ve had probably 10 garage sales in the last 5 years and today was one waste of time. I know I have some decent stuff, but there were about 10 other garage sales in our area today too. One had some excellent stuff at excellent prices, then the one on the way to ours was trashy and then there was ours. I actually was organized and had it under cover and I was cheap (except for a few things), because I wanted to get rid of things. I might have made $30, if that. Daddy is going to hold it again tomorrow in hopes that more things will sell. If they don’t, then we’ll do it again next weekend after I get more of the garage cleaned out.   After that, a few things will go on Craigslist and the rest to Paws N’ Claws or Goodwill. 

The garage is starting to look good. I would have done a before and after shot, but, well, you see, I didn’t want Oprah to get wind of it and want to have another show on hoarding. I like to call it being a pack rat and not hoarding. My stuff has come from 5 generations of family stuff that I can’t seem to part with, plus the fact that I have always had a hard time getting rid of stuff I’m sentimental about.  I’ve been working on cleaning stuff out for the past 5 years. Slowly at first, but now I’m ready to unload. Some stuff, the vintage stuff, I know I could get a good price on Etsy or Ebay if I took the time. We’ll see.  Daddy is always on my case about getting it cleaned up. 

One funny thing about having a garage sale and having the garage door open to a garage that still looks full of crap - people feel compelled…comfortable….obligated… to make some comment on how we need to clean out the garage or that we have a lot of “stuff.”   Older people are the worst.  They walk right in the garage, stand  around looking at stuff, and comment on what they see.  Usually it’s negative.  Holy crap!  What do you say to them?   You know, respect your elders and all.   I usually tell them that nothing in the garage is for sale, but that doesn’t stop them.    One guy today, as he was walking around commenting, said that he was going to have a garage sale next weekend.  He had clocks, lots of clocks, probably is down to about 300 and at one time had about 500.  Do you think he’s a bit cuckoo!?!  HA!

Grandma K is here for the weekend. Bug was so excited and wound up last night that she would crawl as fast as she could from one end of her bedroom to the other. Kinda like when your dog gets the zoomies. It was hilarious. Problem is that she didn’t want to go to sleep either. She woke up early this morning and has been going like crazy all day, although she did get a good nap in. During dinner she was back to her manic phase. She was talking incessantly, too cute for words, but after a while kinda crazy making. After a quick sponge bath and a bottle, she was out by 7:30, which she never does anymore.

I’m ready to go to bed too and it’s only 8:20…long day preceded by a short night.