Ava was born exactly 2 weeks before Thao's 2nd birthday. Labor with her was a breeze. I felt great almost immediately after, couldn't wait to go home, etc. Jeff on the other hand, well, not so much. While I was in labor (for that whole hour and 15 minutes, I'm trying not to brag!) he was coughing and miserable. She was born at 5:06 p.m. and by 9 that night she finally stopped screaming and opened her eyes. At 11, Jeff brought me ice cream, took a nyquil and was out. Ava and I hung out, watching TV, thinking about Thao and ready to go home. My lovely midwife knew Jeff was sick so she gave him a Rx and for Jeff, that alone is a big deal. He never takes meds but knew he needed it.
So, fast forward a few days....We're home and settling in. I feel pretty good, Jeff goes back to work, etc. What seems like suddenly, Jeff's back home, sick. I start having shooting pain up my right side. We are a mess. I'm sure you can picture it, ornery almost 2 year old boy, newborn baby girl, both parents pretty much out of commission. We spent a lot of time on the couch reading books, napping and watching movies those first few days. But, I had a birthday party planned for my Thao and I wasn't going to let that slide! After several dr. appointments (including me pretty much losing it with some random doctor who insisted on giving me symptoms I didn't have and telling me I had gallbladder problems, boy was I ticked.) Anyway, I had pleurisy, which is, I might add, much, much more painful than labor. Seriously, worst pain ever. But, I felt recovered enough to still pull off this birthday party, take care of the kids, clean the house and take care of Jeff (whose fever got as high as 104 with medicine, SCARY). They still said his was only an upper respiratory infection and just kept giving him more antibiotics. So, the day of Thao's party, Ava was almost 2 weeks old, I was feeling better, Jeff was not. It was a Sunday and I decided to take him to the doctor again. He was just not getting better and we both felt like he was worse. Jeff, Thao, Ava and I finally got home with a diagnosis of pneumonia and an hour to get ready for the party. Somehow, we pulled it off (minus the cute little Octopus Cheeseball that I had planned, bummer.
Well, it wears me out just telling the story. But, thankfully, God gave us the strength to get through all that. It really didn't seem so bad at the time, now I'm just thankful it wasn't any worse, because it could have been.
So, fast forward a few days....We're home and settling in. I feel pretty good, Jeff goes back to work, etc. What seems like suddenly, Jeff's back home, sick. I start having shooting pain up my right side. We are a mess. I'm sure you can picture it, ornery almost 2 year old boy, newborn baby girl, both parents pretty much out of commission. We spent a lot of time on the couch reading books, napping and watching movies those first few days. But, I had a birthday party planned for my Thao and I wasn't going to let that slide! After several dr. appointments (including me pretty much losing it with some random doctor who insisted on giving me symptoms I didn't have and telling me I had gallbladder problems, boy was I ticked.) Anyway, I had pleurisy, which is, I might add, much, much more painful than labor. Seriously, worst pain ever. But, I felt recovered enough to still pull off this birthday party, take care of the kids, clean the house and take care of Jeff (whose fever got as high as 104 with medicine, SCARY). They still said his was only an upper respiratory infection and just kept giving him more antibiotics. So, the day of Thao's party, Ava was almost 2 weeks old, I was feeling better, Jeff was not. It was a Sunday and I decided to take him to the doctor again. He was just not getting better and we both felt like he was worse. Jeff, Thao, Ava and I finally got home with a diagnosis of pneumonia and an hour to get ready for the party. Somehow, we pulled it off (minus the cute little Octopus Cheeseball that I had planned, bummer.
Well, it wears me out just telling the story. But, thankfully, God gave us the strength to get through all that. It really didn't seem so bad at the time, now I'm just thankful it wasn't any worse, because it could have been.