Ramblings of the Ryans: Sickness if finally gone!!! Time to catch up!!!

We have had a couple CRAZY months around here! We got back from Oklahoma just in time for New Year's...went back to work that Monday thinking it was time to get back to "normal". Boy was I wrong! I haven't worked a full week since we got off for Christmas vacation. We've had a Well Check up appointment, several sick appointments for Ashlyn - including a stay in the hospital, sick appointments for me, a holiday and several snow days. While I LOVE spending the extra time with my baby girl...I'm ready to get back to some kind of schedule now!

I finally finished the blanket I sewed for Ashlyn! It is very warm and soft and she likes it a lot!

I made this paci clip for her for Valentine's day. :) I am almost finished with her first bib. I am going to take a few sewing classes from someone I knew way back in the day! She sews the cutest things for her girls and I am so excited to get some more formal training than just looking at an item and trying to figure out how it is constructed or googling the how to videos. :) The first class is March 7th!

My sister gave Ashlyn this little bouncy seat and she LOVES it! Half the time she is in it she spends gnawing on the fabric. Poor little thing is teething and she is gumming anything she can get her little mouth on.

We put Ashlyn's handprints down on paper. It definitely takes two to accomplish a task like that. We went straight to bath time after!

More pictures of the messy! At one point, David had her hands wrapped up in paper towels trying to keep paint off of everything else, but unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that. :)

My poor little one got a cough and a fever so I took her to the Doc. At first we thought it was just a little cold so we took her home to rest.

Day two - she is obviously miserable. :( I took her back to the doctor on the third day and he had her retested for RSV. She tested positive this time. He got her started on breathing treatments and told us what indicators to watch for that she was getting worse...that night I called him because she was breathing heavy and he sent us to the ER. He called ahead and we didn't have to wait in the front at all. We got there at around 10:30 pm. It didn't take long for the doctor to look at her and he let us know she would be admitted for observation. We had to wait in the ER room for quite a while, but at around 2:30am we made it to the pediatric floor and got settled in. Ashlyn was so pitiful...but she was such a trooper. Needless to say, no one got much sleep in the hospital, including Ashlyn - she had breathing treatments every four hours and every couple hours they came to check her oxygen saturation and fever. Her fever topped off at around 102 thankfully. She stayed for two nights and we finally got to go home. We continued breathing treatments for another week. Then Mommy's throat started hurting. It literally felt like I had swallowed razor blades! I visited the doctor and they thought it was a cold. Two days later I went back - they did a chest x-ray and diagnosed me with bronchitis and pneumonia. YUCK! To make matters worse, David had to go out of town the day before I went to the doctor the second time, so I was trying to take care of the baby while being sick. I developed a new sense of respect for single moms that day. That was really hard!

GrandMary took this picture for us. She came to the hospital and gave us a little break. This was the first and only time I saw the outside of the room (besides the walk up from the ER). We went to the cafeteria and got some lunch. After lunch, GrandMary watched Ashlyn so David and I could take a nap. That nap was MUCH NEEDED! Thank you GrandMary!!! Everyone was wonderful at the hospital, but I hope we never have to go see them again! My little one was so brave! I am SO GLAD she is better now!