We were discharged from the hospital on the Saturday before Easter. I thought for sure that we’d spend yet another holiday in the hospital with Juliette. I was determined to go home and have Easter with our little family that next morning. Plus, Easter is now a difficult day for me emotionally, because last year my grandma passed away on Easter. It may have been a different actual date but Easter will never be the same. Especially since she had always made Easter so special for my sister and I as we were growing up.
As soon as Juliette vomited three times Saturday night, I almost took her back in the emergency room on Easter Sunday morning (2:30am). But the doctor who quickly called me back, after I paged him in the middle of the night, reminded me to calm down and be patient and told me that this is all expected and part of post-concussion syndrome and give it time. As long as her neurological assessment was fine, then there is no need to worry. And literally after she woke up and started vomiting, she saw the Easter baskets on my bedroom floor and wanted down to go play with them. So she was most definitely fine in that regard.
Juliette hasn’t vomited since that night and she is on the mend, in my opinion. She’s obviously not old enough to tell us that her vision is blurry, or if she feels dizzy, of if she’s nauseous, or that there is too much stimulation in the room for her little brain. But she does put her fingers in her ears when it is, in fact, too loud or too much for her and begins to get a little on the fussy side. Sometimes in the car she doesn’t like my music on. She likes the silence. But by the Grace of the good Lord, she is healing and doing very well and to me, seems like she’s back to her self. She’s a toddler on the go. She’s back to running and falling, she trips, she falls and she still bangs her head on tables that are her height when she stands under them. I try not to freak out and worry about her “sensitive head”. Because it’s really not all that sensitive. I’m just trying to heal too from all this trauma lately and I try the best I can to back off and give her space. But I also try my best to follow her around if it’s on solid hard ground, but even that, on top of most mom things I do, gets exhausting. I have to trust that she is stronger then I give her credit for and trust that she will be okay, even if she did fall. God gave us one strong little girl. She is a fighter.
Easter was great this year besides both kids were sick with colds (aren’t we always sick on events and holidays?), we had to send Bobby’s dad home early because he was a disappointment (we both said that we should have known better). We spent most of Bobby’s long swap home in the hospital, worried about something constantly, from the health of us four, to his blood pressure, the hospital bills never ending, our taxes were due, the escrow in this community is outrageous, I missed a lot of work (extra pick up shifts I could have potentially worked), and the allergy season is absolutely horrid this year in Texas, which is making both kids miserable on a day to day basis. What is going on with Texas weather ya’ll? One day it’s 85 degrees and we’re playing in the hose/splash pad and the next day it’s 52 degrees, gloomy and cold. And it’s been this way-on and off weather mess for months and months. I always thought Michigan was bad. But this is 200% worse! I am literally ready for hot, desert, non-stop heat and sun for the next few months like Texas is supposed to be. I’m ready for pool days and ready to meet new people. I’m ready to get out of this house!
Although we were up all night long Saturday cleaning up vomit (twice in her crib and once in our bed), we still managed to play Easter bunny and throw together Easter baskets and hide eggs all around the front and back yard. With the help of Jennifer we added some Matilda Jane and the help of Shelby, we added in some Usborne Books. And Liz came by and hid even more eggs outside our house with presents for the girls which was so sweet. It was bittersweet. Just to have my husband home, despite all the recent trauma lately, we made the best of it, took a ton of photos and then rested (all of us) the rest of the day.
I can’t speak for my husband, but the worry about your child, once you leave the hospital, is exhausting and consuming. He sometimes still laughs at me because I still have a baby monitor in my 4-year-olds room. I carry two baby monitors with me around the house when they’re asleep. I wake at every peep, cough, whine and fall off the bed (yes-that’s happened once so far and just a few days after Juliette got out of the hospital with a head injury). Just the other night I could hear Juliette breathing funny so I went into her room and got down close and it just was her allergies and nose sounded stuffy.
My girls started off with a cold (or so I think it was that), and it’s still lingering. It’s been about two months or longer now. It’s just strictly nasal related. No other symptoms. Runny nose, that’s it. And it can get annoying, especially for Josie who keeps asking for tissues until her nose is raw. I’m praying to God no cough sets in because that would mean we’d have to reschedule/cancel OIT again. Yes, we’re attempting to try OIT again but more on that later in another post.
As I sit with her, I remember those days as a kid being miserable from seasonal allergies. Bobby and I both suffered in Michigan. As neighbors, he would come to my house and beg me for some Claritin. I was that kid that missed picture day and make up picture day a lot because of my allergies. I woke up with eyes crusted shut and swollen. My eyes itched constantly, I sneezed a ton and ultimately, in my adult years developed chronic sinusitis that required sinus surgery in January 2017 (the BEST decision I ever made). I just look at Josie as she suffers and pray to God that she’ll grow out of this or that there is some type of relief for this misery. Or that the weather would just make a decision and stick with it already.
A Pair of Socks 