Flying Solo

"I did it!" That's the first thing I thought when I woke up this morning. You see, my parents and aunt and uncle have been gone all week on vacation and Mike has been gone since Wednesday so I've been flying solo. It's not like I don't think I can take care of my kids by myself, I am with them every single day and manage to get them to and from school and their sports & activities just fine. But Mike does a lot to help with the kids in the morning and at night, and is always on top of giving Brooklyn her medicine. We are a great team and I am so thankful for all he does, and my parents are always so helpful whenever we need them. I knew we would be fine on our own, but the little fear that we might need to go to the hospital made me nervous. I would have to find someone to watch the other kids, get them where they needed to be, go to the ER on my own, all of that. And Braden had minimum days all week, so he still went to school at normal time but then he got out an hour after Kayla, so there was a lot of running back & forth. One day I thought it would be fun for the 4 of us girls to walk to school to get Braden. The kids are always saying they want to walk, and we didn't have any plans that we needed to hurry home for, so I figured it would be a good day to try it. Why did I think that? Brooklyn wanted to ride her scooter but was going to slow & kept stopping to rest so I made her get in the stroller with Kelsey which made her cry almost the entire rest of the walk. Then Kayla got tired of walking, so she jumped on the stroller too. So, for the biggest hill on the way to school I was pushing all three girls and the scooter and sweating like I was running a marathon. My arms were practically straight over my head because the hill was so steep. I'm sure we were quite the scene. The walk home was much easier since it was all downhill. I let Brooklyn ride her scooter again and she kept saying 'this is the best day eder!' I reminded her that she had just been crying her head off five minutes earlier but she didn't seem to care anymore. We actually had a great few days together. Braden got to play at a couple friends' houses, Kayla had girl scouts, Kelsey had gym class and Brooklyn went to school and I even got to get some closets organized that desperately needed it! My parents got home this morning at about 1:30am and Mike landed tonight at 6:30pm so when I woke up this morning, it was so reassuring to know that things would all be back to normal tonight. Brooklyn has slept with me the last two nights because she has been on steroids again this week and they always seem to mess with her sleep. Wednesday night I think I was up with her 5 times taking her back to bed, so it was easier to just let her sleep with me. When she got up this morning she said she didn't "teel" good, so I took her temperature when we got downstairs and it was 102. I called the doctor and called my parents and we got into the ER about 10:00. She was complaining that her stomach hurt and she's had a little cold all week so they did their normal blood culture draw and then she had a chest X-ray. We watched Sleeping Beauty in our room in the ER but she wasn't feeling good so she slept on & off. Then they wanted to do an ultrasound on her stomach since in was bothering her. Her fever kept coming back and was still high, even after getting Tylenol, so they decided we would be admitted. Before we came upstairs, she also had a cat scan so they could check all her organs. The poor thing has been through more today than any 3 year old should have to experience. We finally got into our room tonight at about 7:30. It was a long day in the ER. Mike landed and came straight to the hospital, so he got here about 8:00. The doctors came in a little later and said that Brooklyn has pneumonia. Her breathing has been really rapid and shallow today, so I think that is what they were so concerned about. She is doing fine now, Mike brought her some powdered sugar donuts and when she ate one at 9:00, it was the first thing she ate all day. We will probably be here for a couple days but I am so thankful that everyone is back home safe & sound. It will be good to be all under one roof again.