Kaleigh Grace turns 10!

On June 17th we celebrated Kaleigh's 10th birthday (she's on the far right in first pic, middle in the second). Since this is the first summer she's spent with us (which also means the first birthday we've been able to celebrate), we decided to have a party. Our sweet Kaleigh is so easy to please- the only thing she wanted for her B-day was her ears pierced, and for her party she just wanted to slip-and-slide in our backyard. Now that's my kind of birthday! We just love Kaleigh so much! She's such a pretty little girl who loves everything "girly". She's always got a purse over her shoulder full of lotion, lip gloss, etc. and she prances around like the princess we think she is. Kaleigh loves to help out in the kitchen (why would anyone CHOOSE to do this?!), as well as help take care of little Brylee. She's very tender-hearted and is known for ocassionally crying over a sad movie. Kaleigh is a smart, good girl who is very responsible (most of the time) and even remembers to water my plants (I forget!). She's a great friend and is loved by all. Happy Late Birthday, Kaleigh! We love you so much and are happy to have you in our family!

One more time...

So we brought Brylee home from the hospital 2 weeks ago, only to have her admitted AGAIN last week. Sorry to leave you all hangin like that, seeing as how my last post was a couple of weeks ago and at the time she was still in there. Needless to say, she was SUPER sick last Thursday, after being home just a week! Wednesday night was just awful, so I brought her in to Dr. Later the next morning and he basically said just bring her back if she gets worse- probably just another cold. Before I go on, when she was discharged from the hospital the last time he said the worst thing that could happen is for her to get sick again before she's fully recovered from par influenza. She'd also been on steroids, which decreases the bodies immunities and makes her much more susceptible. With that being said, you can imagine my frame of mind when on Thursday afternoon her eyes were red and bulging out of her head from working so hard to breathe. Her heart rate was super high, her nose was dripping, she was fevering and absolutely miserable! We went back to the doctor, he listed to her, and said "you're not going home today". Story of my life! Anyway, he was scared for her, knowing her pattern, and admitted he hadn't seen her that sick in a long time- even with the several most recent hospital stays. He immediately started more steroids, ordered all the tests, started an IV, breathing treatments, etc. In the meantime Jonathan came over and gave her a blessing. In a nutshell, by the time she went to bed, her heart rate was down, her saturation level was up, she slept through the night and the tests all came back negative. We later found out that all the had was rhino-virus- literally a whimpy, common cold. Just a little plug for the priesthood here because she went from being deathly ill to almost fine (with the exception of lots of mucus!) within 2 hours! We came home Sunday, she's till wheezy but doing great! Thanks again to my awesome fam who made sure my kids were taken care of (April even cleaned my house!).

Smart girl!

I have to tell you all this because it was hilarious! Today, Brylee (who is still in the hospital) was playing in her crib and got her hands on a stethescope. She picked it up, pulled up jer pajama top, and put the round sensor part on her chest. Just seconds later, she found the BBG (which stands for baby booger grabber- no joke!) and stuck it up her nose. Within minutes she had stuck her hand through the bars of the crib and grabbed her nebulizer tubing (for breathing treatments) off the nightstand and held it up under her nose. She then found a tendergrip (the stickers that keep her oxygen in place) on the floor and stuck it on her cheek. Within a 5 minute period Brylee had gone through the whole routine of her many required procedures and treatments! As funny as it was, a part of me was sad that this tiny little girl has been exposed to and knows so much. It's so unfair and I find it hard not to be bitter about her seemingly endless suffering. When I feel this way, I remind myself how lucky I am that ...

1) I have such a great husband who adores our baby as much as I do and is willing to take his turn sleeping at the hospital so I can go home and REALLY sleep!

2) I have an amazing family who is always willing to step up and watch my kids, haul them around, even sit at the hospital (my mom) with Brylee so I can check on my sick kid at home (Jace).

3) My dad works at the hospital and always visits me and brings me food!

4) Modern medicine!

5) A nice, clean, and friendly hospital nearby where the nurses all know and adore my baby and give her the best of care.

6) A pediatrician who is diligent in Brylee's care, honest with me, and takes no chances when it comes to her health.

7) Last, but not least, PRAYER- it's the only way the Robertson's survive!

Hospital, again...

Once again this is Brylee, standing up in her crib just beggin to get out. She had a runny nose on Friday, woke up from her nap with a fever on Saturday, continued fevering until Monday and finally hospitalized on Tuesday morning. She has par influenza 3, which is the same virus she had last year at this time and almost didn't survive. SO SCARY! She's got an IV in her wrist pumping her full of fluids and steroids for her lungs, and is hooked up to monitors and oxygen. This is so hard! They come in every 3+ hours to deep suction her, which means they put a small catheter up her nose and thread it down almost to her stomach and "suck" out all the mucus. Sorry to be so descriptive, but this is what it's like for her. She absolutely hates in and screams the entire time. She is so restless and hasn't at all lost her fiestiness, in spite of feeling so crappy. She wants to walk around and play, but has so many things hooked up to her she can't go too far. Anyway, in spite of all of this, she is a year older than last time and has built up more immunities to this particular virus so we don't expect to end up at Primary's this time. Our wonderful doctor is so on top of this and is pleased with her progress, which to us isn't even noticeable. We hope to be home sometime this weekend. In the meantime, I'm not above soliciting for prayers. This child needs to come home!