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the highs and lows

Of parenting, that is.

While there are many things in life that give me a high (and no, I don't mean drugs!) - nothing compares to the joy and happiness my kids bring me. My world revolves around them. But on the flip side, being a parent can also bring the lowest of lows - especially when faced with a sick child. While we have been in and out of the ER. . . urgent care. . . and DR visits with Bergen more times then I would like to remember over the past 3 years - nothing compares to how sick he was this week. What started out as a usual run of the mill cold turned out to be bacterial pneumonia coupled with horrible reactive airway (asthma) and it landed Bergen in the hospital for 4 days.

It was an incredibly scary experience for us to see Bergen struggle to get air as his little body was pumped full of steroids. After an intense 24 hours Monday/Tuesday he finally turned the corner and we slowly saw improvement over the next few days while being monitored by the experts at Children's Hospital. Bergen and I spent our days together hanging out in bed while watching TV and drawing (see his artwork in the pic below!) while Lars drove Annika to and from the hospital so I could nurse her (yet another stressor in an already stressful week - when will that Annika start taking a bottle?!)

We are happy to be back home now and for the most part Bergen is back to his normal self. . . with the added energy of the continued steroid meds. We will be doing daily meds until advised we can stop. . . which may not happen for a very long time. We will be following up with the DRs in the weeks ahead to become better informed on how to prevent this from happening again.

As we walked the halls at the hospital we were faced with children who were there for much more serious reasons. Children going to and from surgery. Children going through chemo. And while there were extremely scary moments for us on Monday when Bergen was at his worst, we knew (or at least were assured) that at the end of this horrible experience he would be coming home with us. We are taking more time this week to count our blessings and my heart continues to say silent prayers for those parents who are still walking the halls at Children's wishing they could be home.

We are incredibly thankful for all the love and support this past week - from family and friends who rallied around us helping with Annika or dropping off dinners to the doctors and nurses who patiently answered all of our questions and calmed our fears. And especially to Dr. Matt - the resident DR who worked with us every day while we were there.

Our string bean

Annika turned 6 months on January 18 and we had her 6 month appointment a couple of weeks ago on Valentine's Day . . . better late then never, right? (That is both for her appointment and this post!) Other then having to get 2 more shots everything went great. She weighed in at 14lb14.5oz (more then 3lb less then Bergen at 6 months!) . . . and I would say by now she should have hit the 15lb mark, but after our horrible week filled with the stomach bug last week I can't say for sure. She keeps growing like a weed and measured 28" long. . . which is almost off the charts! She is our string bean!