Good News and...

Bad News! First the gOoD. Justin finished his boards!!! Is he really done studying? Somebody pinch me! Inquiring minds would like to know, and for the record, this was the first weekend, in the last three and a half years(honestly), that Justin has not studied, and it feels good. Whew, what a run on sentence, but so describes the reality of being the wife of a student. I am afraid to blink, for fear this won't last.

Now the BaD. What first started out as the 24 hour bug, turned into a two day hospital stay for dehydration. Kate unfortunately did not escape the "throw-ups", as Zach calls it, this year. With all the vomit and the messy diapers she decided that if she didn't eat or drink anything then the vomit and messy diapers would stop, and she was right! But, the flip side of not eating and drinking is dehydration, which she got. I thought it would be a quick run to the ER, where she would get an IV and then start to feel good enough to start eating and drinking, but even after the entire IV, she continued to refuse anything we were trying to give her. She was so weak and lethargic and dropped a lot of weight.

They made arrangements for us to stay that night and finally after the second night in the hospital, she decided to start eating and drinking again. Because we were there so long I was able to grab my camera, when I went home to take a shower, to document her stay at Bryn Mawr Hospital. Did I mention this was all happening during the two days Justin had his dental board exams? It was a good thing Justin had prepared so well for these exams. This was not the celebration I had in mind for our little family upon Justin's completion of one of the biggest tests of his life, and I guess ours too.

This is the IV "House" the nurses created so that she wouldn't ruin the line into her poor little hand.

The Bryn Mawr Hospital has a special pediatric unit that includes a playroom with lots of toys. We weren't allowed to stay in the playroom because of the illness Kate had, but she took just about every toy back to our room to play with. The toys kept her momentarily happy, but her favorite thing was to be carried up and down the hallway.

This cage-like bed meant long sleepless nights for us. We are especially glad this part is over!

They were going to release Kate after the first 24 hours in the hospital, but after she threw up all her dinner and continued to have messy diapers, they hooked her right back up to the IV and kept us another night. I guess better safe than sorry.

Instead of feeding herself like she should be, she thought feeding her baby was much more fun. The little stinker...

And of course, the very last morning we were there she decides to finally take a nap. Such is life.

We are happy to be home, and she seems to be doing better, but is still battling a little ear ache that I think never went away three weeks ago. Yesterday it snowed almost all day. Since we couldn't go outside to play in it, I opted to attempt Kate's first pedicure...not too bad if I do say so myself.