Buy One Get Two Free!: Sick and Tired

We are sick and tired of being sick and tired. It's been a rough 3 weeks here in the Castanheira household. It started with Danny and a stomach bug, which passed to Mommy, then Elsie. The only good news is that all of us got it on separate days, so that helped. Then Daddy had a cough, which moved to Sammy, which moved to Mommy, then finally to Elsie. Sammy held onto it for 3 weeks, but amounted to nothing. Mommy's became pneumonia. Elsie's became bronchialitis, leading to a 5 day hospital stay at Hasbro. We are hoping this is the end of the sickness. For the love of God, please let this be the end of the sickness.

Poor Elsie. She got a cough on a Sunday, that night she spiked a 104 fever, that wouldn't break. Into the doctor's office we go, they diagnose with pneumonia, and start us on antibiotics. By Thursday, she wasn't improving, was barely eating and drinking, and was super lethargic. We brought her into Hasbro ER in the evening and it was standing room only in the waiting room. The nurse told us it was a 6-8 hour wait, and we waited over 45 minutes just to get her vitals checked. Elsie must have decided this was her only chance to make something happen, because a minute later the nurses were running us down the hallway with multiple doctors running at us. Her oxygen was only 79%, and she was in respiratory distress. So she got bumped to the top of the line and we spent a while in the trauma room, then to the ICU area in the ER, then finally to a regular room in the pediatric ward around 2 am. She was exhausted but stable. The next morning during rounds, the doctors said they felt it was not pneumonia but bronchialitis, the inflammation of the little hairs in the lungs, which was hindering her ability to clear fluids. They said the virus ran on a 3-3-3 schedule...3 days to get it and build up, 3 days of miserableness, then 3 days to bounce back to normal. We were on day 4, so it took several more days before she perked up. After a 5 day stay, our girl was finally breathing, eating, and drinking on her own and able to come home. The boys weren't even phased with her return home, and it took a good 24 hours, but she is back up and running. All we need to do now is plump her back up, since she lost more than 2 pounds which is huge! You can see all her ribs and hip bones. Poor girl.

So besides that....we haven't been up to much. We had been walking a lot, going to the park, and enjoying being outside. We look forward to getting back to those things. The kids are saying more and more sounds that sound like words. This week I've heard yes, dance, down, up among some others. They have also started chasing each other around, which is hysterical! They giggle loudly as they run after each other. It's pretty entertaining. And they are loving the sing-a-longs of Itsy Bitsy spider and Wheels on the Bus getting better at acting them out everyday.

We met up with a few of our friends at the park....6 to be exact! Two more sets of triplets! Annika, Sienna, and Chip are 5, and Ajax, Nico, and Frankie are 16 months. It was really great to hang out with our friends, and share stories!

We also hit the grocery store for the first time, trying out the cool car cart. The kids loved it and did well. They loved the horn on the car too!

We also started going to The Buttonwood Zoo for a little toddler club. Here are some pics from that (Elsie missed this week, but will be there next week)