Our first trip to the Emergency Room

It has been a very long week. Ella generously passed along her virus to her brother and sister...and parents. On Monday, Alex was coughing so bad that he went in to see the doctor. She said it just had to run its course. By then, Helen was getting sick too but was not too bad. By Tuesday, she was starting to wheeze - which the doctor had warned me about and meant that she might be having trouble breathing. So on my way home from work on Tuesday, I called the doctor and she told me to take Helen to the emergency room. So I went home, packed her up and our nanny had to stay late until Cecil got home. This was my first trip to the ER and it was quite an experience. I have a friend who is an ER doctor at the children's hospital so I called her on the way to see what I should expect. She told me to be ready for a 4-5 hour wait. Yeah.

When I got there, I was not sure where to go and where to check in. Another mom who clearly knew the drill told me where to sign in and wait. Then I looked around and saw a lot of parents and kids who looked like coming the ER was a regular occurence. Some of the kids were special needs and looked like they often had medical problems. Some of the parents looked like they did not have health insurance and that this is what they have to do when someone gets sick. Thankfully we did not have to wait too long. We were seen by a doctor within an hour and he said Helen did have some wheezing but it was not too bad. They did a chest xray to be safe and that came back clear. I have to think that the only reason we got out of there in a few hours was because my friend called ahead for us and asked them to take care of us. We are very very lucky to have such a good experience and that nothing more serious was wrong. Here's Helen in the ER in her baby hospital gown. She had a great time - smiling and laughing with everyone.

Helen playing peek a boo on the climbing castle we bought them for their birthday (it's an early birthday present but we figured they don't know how to read a calendar yet and we want to get our money's worth out of it!)

Mommy playing the See and Say for everyone - they love the animal sounds

The view from walking up the stairs

Alex and Daddy hanging out on the couch for the Gator's game

By the end of the week, everyone was feeling better and we thought we had survived another triple illness. On Sunday afternoon, we were heading to our church's fall festival. The kids were eating their bottles on the way there when Alex suddenly uh, revisted his lunch...all over himself and his car seat. There was not much we could do except turn around and hose him and his car seat off when we got home. We also discovered when we got home that Helen had had a blow out in her diaper. So everyone got a bath. We had a sneaky suspsicion that something might be going on. Add to that Cecil and I who were not feeling so good either. Then on Monday the kids had their first dentist appointment (I know it sounds ridiculous to take kids so young to the dentist but they said they should go as soon as they get their first teeth. Who am I to argue??). All of their teeth are doing fine but on the way home, Alex had another "incident" in his car seat again. Did I mention that this time I was hurrying to get to work in time for class? Hurry home and another round of baths and hosing off the car seat. The poor little guy is still not feeling well but hopefully he is getting better. Cecil is doing worse and is quarantined from the kids. Thankfully the mom gene has kicked in and I seem to be getting better. Let's just hope we don't keep passing this back and forth and never get rid of it!!