Off O2!

Skye has decided to kick her oxygen habit. The squinty grins are back. We said goodbye to the oxygen bar and chest massage spa today and headed home after 8 long days.

Happy birthday to me! Happy first day of Spring.

Tired of here

(she looks better than this now, but this is the only picture that I have)

I know that Skye must be getting better and we are now both trying hard to entertain ourselves in this small ICU room. This afternoon, she was trying her darndest to suck her elbow. I decided to try to lick mine, too. Here we are, trying to suck our elbows together while one of us can get enough oxygen despite the stale hospital air, and one of us can't quite do it on her own, yet.

This has been a new experience in figuring out how many hats you can wear and which one trumps out if you are talking about the doctor mom conflict. While I was worrying at home about how sick my little girl was getting, I was not good about being objective - the worried mom part was overpowering. When trying to know when she needed to go to the hospital, I don't know what got in the way more - the doctor role or the mom role as they were swirling together. Dan apparently had a little trouble, too. He gave the wrong name to the admissions person when we first got to the ER and told them that the baby is 2 years old instead of two months. I'm getting tearful now thinking about the stress of those couple of days at home when she kept getting sicker and sicker - when she should have turned the corner and started to improve. Tearful because it was horrible, and also because I'm very tired and I can't lick my elbow.

I decided in the end, that this week, although in a hospital, I am just the mom (with a doctor perspective).

The amazing things are that I have complete faith in her full recovery and that we have had so much support that put our minds at ease about so many things. To name a few, two friends to give me the objectivity that I needed when they met us at the hospital/clinic, and the friends that have taken on the older sister this week so that we don't have to worry about her well being. "Blessings in adversity" I think is how the lesson goes.