Vacation Up North, and Other News...

We've had quite a busy week so I have a lot to write about! We left on Friday afternoon and drove to Traverse City. It is generally a 4 hour drive, but we took our time and made it in about about 7. The girls did really well on the drive, with the exception of one mini meltdown when they were getting hungry for bottles. Holland had been sick with a fever the night before, so we weren't sure we were even going to be able to make the trip. By morning her fever had broke and she was in good spirits, so we decided to go for it. We met Jessie, Dave, and Aidan at Grandma Candy and Grandpa Joe's house. Our stay was lovely with very comfy beds, awesome food, and even better company! The girls were so good and happy all through Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday night Eden came down with a fever and was in a really sad, pitiful mood. She ended up crying most of the night and threw up several times. She didn't do too bad on the drive home, but had a couple more terrible nights and a fever that wouldn't break or come down with Tylenol. I called the pediatrician on Tuesday morning and ended up taking her in to find out that she has her first ear infection. She has been on antibiotics for the past couple of days and is just now starting to act like herself again. So, we survived our first fevers, barely. It is such a helpless feeling to have a sick baby. Eden didn't smile for 4 days. All she wanted was to be held, and she moaned and cried continuously. It was so sad. Today was a much better day so we are hoping that by tomorrow she will be back to her old silly self.

Before the big vacation Holland had her appointment with the eye doctor. It looks like the patching is working to keep her eyes equally strong, but isn't correcting the crossing. She has an alternating eye turn, also called strabismus, which is pretty common in preemies. So, it looks like she is going to need surgery to correct it. The surgery is scheduled for July 15th. It will involve putting her under general anesthesia and moving the muscles on the inside of both eyes. From what I hear the surgery will be quick and relatively painless for Holly. She will need drops and will have bloodshot eyes for a few days, but won't have to stay in the hospital and should recover quickly. Cosmetically the results should be immediate, but we will still have some work ahead of us to help teach her to use both of her eyes together. The success rate is about 80%, but there is a 50% chance that she will need further surgery down the road. The risk of NOT doing the surgery is that Holland will begin to favor one eye, and will lose sight in the other, called amblyopia. This is a much harder condition to fix if it should happen. It is always difficult to make decisions regarding surgery, particularly on your baby. If you dwell too much on the risks of any surgery, you would never do it! So, we're going to focus on the positives and hope that Holland will thank us one day for correcting the problem now, when she won't remember it, and hope for the best possible outcome with no complications.

So to sum up, we have had the craziest sickest week ever. It started with me getting sick about 2 weeks ago with a sore throat, fever, stuffy nose, and cough. I am just now getting better. Holland caught the bug and spent 2 sleepless nights all stuffed up, with a raging fever for one night. Around the same time, Eden woke up covered in hives that got better then MUCH worse, then better, and now worse again. At one point she looked like she had some strange disease. I was almost embarrassed to take her out in public! Then John caught the bug and is still coughing and feeling pretty miserable. Eden caught it last, then followed it up pretty quickly with an ear infection. Then, to top it all off, this morning John started having chest pains and couldn't breathe. I had to call 911 and the ambulance came to take him to the hospital! The pain lasted about 30 minutes and was pretty intense, but ended just as he was arriving at the ER. He is fine now. It ended up just being muscle spasms that made it difficult to expand his lungs. Pretty scary at the time, but now we can all laugh about it. Let's just hope the old saying is true, "that which doesn't kill you, makes you stronger." Cheers.