That's one expensive Teddy Bear

Last week and weekend was supposed to be nothing but fun. Erin and Ambrose from Chicago were here visiting. The kids really like them and there were all kinds of touristy plans for the 3 days they were here. But the kids had been sick all week, and were waking up multiple times at night. That meant staying home from some of the activities with the kids and NO SLEEP for Stephen and I and our poor guests. Even though Odessa was too contagious to leave with a sitter and we had to take her with us, we did eat at a wonderful Vietnamese restaurant on Friday night, the Tamarind Tree.
Then Saturday morning Odessa had some stomach pains that made her writhe with pain and totally freak out. I have never seen her so serious about a pain (I can usually tell when she is over dramatizing). I figured I would have to scratch plans to go with our company on a Ferry ride to stay home with her. Then all of sudden, she was fine. So we all went. The sun came out and the ride was gorgeous. We took the ferry to Bainbridge and then drove over the bridge to Pulsbo on the peninsula. Pulsbo is such a cute little town, I really enjoyed our walk along the water and looking at the quaint old store fronts. I stole these photos from Erin.

On the ferry ride back home, Odessa suddenly had another "attack". She got through it though and then at home, she had another. We had all decided maybe she was having some cramps and gas because she hadn't gone #2 for at least 2 days, which is unusual for her. But her fever all of a sudden was back up to about 102 degrees, so I decided to call ask-a-nurse before giving her any medicine. Any of you not familiar with ask-a-nurse services? They can be very useful, especially nights and weekends. After asking me a lot of questions that I felt pertained to much more serious conditions (like if Odessa was limp and unresponsive) I figured she would say push the liquids and give her the Ibuprofen. No, here is what our conversation sounded like: nurse- "Ok, the recommendation is that you take her into the ER immediately". me- "um, what?" nurse- "will you take her in to the hospital within one hour?" me- "uhhhh, yes, we can do that". nurse- "which hospital will you be taking her to so I can send the chart?" me- "ummmmm, Swedish in Ballard I guess" nurse- "what would you have done if you hadn't called our services tonight?" me- "given her a stool softener and monitored her for more pains I guess".
So Odessa and I trucked off to the ER, a first for this mom. Sure, I have been in one once to check in as a laboring prego, but taking your child is a whole other ball of wax. They worked really quickly on her at first, taking her vitals and getting her in a little pediatric gown. She looked so tiny on that big bed in that little gown. The first thing she would say to anyone was "I'm ok, Dr. I'm not sick". Great, I thought, this is a huge joke. They decided to rule out a UTI, appendicitis and bowel issues such as her guts twisting on themselves. The nurses came to tell me that they were going to put in an IV and a catheter (for a clean catch) and that Odessa was going to HATE them and to be prepared. Well, she flinched when they put in the IV put didn't say a word otherwise, she was interested in watching them take her blood. They told her she was so brave and she said very politely "yes, I am". I couldn't keep from laughing.
The catheter was another story and for a brief moment I felt that horrible mother pain for your child that makes you squirm and your eyes well up and you feel like you are causing the pain yourself, you feel so horrible. She was a champ for her x-rays. To get her through all this, they had given her a teddy bear. She loved it and hasn't let it go for more than a minute since coming home. Yes, we came home that night. Turns out she had a bad case of . . . . constipation. The recommendations? Fluids and a stool softener. Grrrrrrrr. Wasn't that what I was going to do in the first place??? So, 3 hours later and who knows how much money, we are one teddy bear richer and one ask-a-nurse wiser. Sure, I am glad we made sure there was nothing else more seriously wrong with her. But now that Ada is fiercely jealous of Odessa's bear, I think we will try and find an easier way to get her one.
As for our week and weekend, we still had a great time with Erin and Ambrose and I swear our kids never get up much at night! . . . except when they are sick. We have ear plugs for future visitors. One fun memento of this weekend is the fact that when something good happens I say "hullah!" in my head, like Erin is always saying aloud. I am a big one for picking up sayings and little idiosyncrasies. Just ask my roommate for 10 weeks almost NINE years ago, Paula from Saskatchewan. I still say "eh?" at the end of important sentences. Some sayings are so useful, they should never be dropped, eh?