Finally Home Again...

Abby enjoying her sunbath with Daddy today.

We came home from the hospital Thursday around lunch time and Abby seemed to be doing pretty well. Friday, we had to take her back to the clinic for a weight check and to the hospital for outpatient blood work, since she was looking a little jaundiced. The rest of our time at home was uneventful until Saturday night. Bryan and I were tired from being at the hospital and from having a newborn, so we had decided to go to bed early around 8:30 p.m. I nursed Abby well to get her ready to sleep when she began to vomit forcefully. She did not stop vomiting for the next few hours, so we called her pediatrician and it was recommended that we go to the ER if we could not get her to keep down the breast milk or pedialyte. Abby began to have diarrhea, so I volunteered to get the pedialyte to try to avoid a visit to the ER. We were worried about her dehydrating quickly at her size and age. When I got home, Abby was continually getting sicker and unable to keep down the pedialyte, so we left to go the ER around 1:30 a.m.


In the ER, we had great medical care and a very attentive physician. He ordered a chest x-ray and an abdominal x-ray to rule out pyloric stenosis or any other type of blockage, and poor Abby had to have more blood work done to ensure she was retaining enough nursing to avoid IV fluids. By 7:00 a.m., most of the serious conditions had been ruled out, and we were admitted onto the pediatric floor to try to determine what was going on and to allow the doctors to observe her. When she continued to stay sick and her vomiting became worse, her pediatrician decided to have her stay the night, because there were concerns that she would aspirate or choke on her vomit. Thankfully, after two nights of being very sick, it was diagnosed that she probably had a stomach virus, and it ended up being resolved on its own. We were discharged from the hospital around lunch time, and Abby is feeling much better. Her appetite is starting to increase again, and she has not vomited in over 24 hours.


Thanks to many prayers, Abby never had to have an IV and was able to stay hydrated enough nursing to keep her safe. If it had not been for all of the people praying for us, Bryan and I could not have gone for over 30 hours without sleep and still been able to care for our little girl and make good decisions while we were in the hospital. Our God is good and gracious, and we are so thankful to have Abby back home again safe and sound. It's a lot different being the parent of a sick child than being a pediatric nurse... I can truly say that only in Jesus is true joy and peace abundant and unceasing, even in scary times. Our greatest gift this Christmas season is our beautiful little girl... what an amazing blessing from the LORD she is!