Trip with Sick Kiddos

I had my first experience with a really sick baby last week. Not seriously sick, like rush to the emergency room sick. But fever for 5 days (up and down), and sleeping all day (while nursing constantly). This was while we were on a trip to Branson, Missouri.

BUT, it didn't ruin the trip. Probably mostly because we stayed in a sweet 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom condo WITH both sets of grandparents. Which means plenty of people to watch baby #2 while I napped with and nursed Matthew. Actually it was just how I envisioned life with one newborn baby ;) Matthew was so lethargic from the fever he slept almost all day for 2-3 days. He would wake up long enough to re latch and go back to sleep. But I was still able to get out for 2-4 hours a day and leave him with the grandparents, because his fever would go up and down. (Ranging from 99.1 - 102.8). Here is the first morning he woke up with a fever of 102.8:

Poor, sweet baby. I'm so sad, you had a fever and felt so yucky, but THANK YOU for all the baby cuddles. As a twin mom, one on one baby cuddles are hard to come by, and so, so precious. After Matthew's fever broke the morning we drove home, he developed a rash the next day that lasted two days. I think he had Roseola. (common and not serious). Here is a little bit of the rash:

And here is Matthew feeling a little better (this is actually between the fever and the rash):

Adam was also sick while we were gone. His was more congestion. We had a scare one night when I checked on him because he cried. When I went in his room, his breathing was really labored (think Darth Vader...it was that bad :-/). I took him to our bedroom and turned on the light. That's when I noticed pretty serious substernal retractions :( I started to panic and imagining him going into respiratory failure... thinking there wasn't even a pulse ox or blow by O2 I could easily give him.... I contemplated calling 911 to have access to some oxygen (NICU nurse thinking..) but I knew if we went to the ER he would most likely get poked and prodded. So (after counting his respirations, and making sure it was withing the normal respiratory rate for a 14 month old), we turned on the shower and made him a sauna. I also let him smell Vicks Salve to open up his sinuses. Alan and I also prayed together for him. After close to an hour, his breathing returned to normal, and I relaxed and stopped constantly contemplating calling 911. We tried letting him sleep in our bed with us, but he is not at all used to this, and he thought it was a game. So, I put him back in his crib in his room, and he slept the rest of the night with no problems. Altogether we were up from 2-4am with him. Here is is feeling better:

When we returned from the trip, both kids were very clingy, and demanding to nurse all the time (which they really don't do... because we usually have set times for nursing). It's probably because they weren't 100% yet, but I also think they prefer one on one nursing. So does mommy, but it is not possible most of the time! But today as I was nursing them before bed, I took turns resting my head on each of their heads, and we cuddled that way. I really did not realize how many cuddles I was missing out on! I am planning on making that a priority from now on.

Both kiddos are back to their normal, healthy selves now, yay!