Pneumonia strikes poor Brooke

Pictures:

* Brooke after her first trim - just the bangs

* A picture of poor little Brookie on her first day at the hospital. The only time she spent in the horrible "crib"

* Asleep on my lap - she hated her oxygen mask!

* Her new favorite toy...toast! She needed one piece in each hand

* Trying to "entertain" her on the bed :-)

The week started off great. On Sunday, Kyle, Brooke, Ed and I went to see Elmo's Green Thumb at the Fox Theatre. Cheryl was kind enough to watch Ryan & Jack so we could go. We had such a great time; Brooke was swaying to the music and Kyle followed along with the storyline which was fun. We went to lunch afterwards, then to Snip-Its to get Brooke's bangs trimmed - daddy's idea, NOT mommy's :-( She did great, thanks to Miss Dee! I didn't get very many pictures because I forgot my camera.

Monday didn't go as well. Cheryl called and said Brooke didn't eat her breakfast (as you can see from her adorable rolls, she doesn't ever miss a meal!) and she didn't want to play. I called the doctor and got an appointment for Tuesday morning. After I picked the kids up in the evening, Brooke was a limp little biscuit. I took her temperature and it was 104.1! I called the doctor and they said to go to Urgent Care right away. I left Ed with the boys and headed there with the diaper bag in tow (who knew we'd be gone for three plus days?!). They saw us and ruled out an ear infection/sore throat and sent us packing to the ER.

We arrived at the ER around 8 pm and they immediately gave her medicine to get her temperature down and did a chest x-ray. It turns out she had bi-lateral pneumonia and we were going to be there for a few days. We FINALLY got a room at 2:45 am and it had a crazy crib that Brooke refused to sleep in. She ended up "sleeping" on my chest in a reclining chair. We probably slept for about an hour the first night because she had so much trouble breathing/coughing. On Tuesday morning, we saw the doctor who evaluated her and gave her a strong dose of antibiotics, steroids. breathing treatments and hooked her up to oxygen to get her saturation levels up. Later that evening the doctor stopped back in to tell me that after seeing Brooke that morning, she debated about sending her up to the Intensive Care unit to have her intubated because she looked awful. Thank goodness I didn't know that in the morning.

It was a long week for all of us, including Ed and the boys, holding down the fort at home. Ed would come every morning and relieve me to go home and shower. My parents are out of town so thank goodness Cheryl was able to help us out throughout the week. We couldn't have done it without her! On Tuesday night, Kyle and Ed came up to the hospital to visit while Cheryl kept the baby boys overnight. We decided to walk around the unit for a change of scenery. Ed got Brooke too close to the door and the alarm went off (from her security ankle bracelet). We had to explain what happened to Kyle and we told him that she had it on so no one took any of the babies. He replied, "well, tell them to get their own babies, she's mine!".

Brooke was such a trooper. After she had an IV started in the ER on Monday night, it clotted on Wednesday morning so they had to start again. I sat with her as they tried unsuccessfully FOUR TIMES to put in another IV. They tried her hands, arm and feet to no avail. The two nurses finally got someone from the ER to come over and it worked on the fifth try. It broke my heart but I realized what a strong, tough girl we have!

She was finally able to come home on Thursday night. They left us wondering all day if she would be released. We had to wait to see if she could keep her saturation levels above 93 for several hours without the assistance of oxygen. Finally, at 8:30 pm, we were sent home! She was very excited to see Kyle and Macey (our dog). She couldn't stop pointing to them and "saying" their names ;-) She went into her bedroom this morning to get the boys up and they just stared at her. While we were getting their coats on, she leaned in and pulled Ryan's hat and they both started giggling. She then leaned into his lap and gave him a hug. So cute!

Thanks to all for your prayers, visits and well wishes. We're so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends!