Thankful...

This Thanksgiving weekend, we had a lot to be thankful for! We headed out to Lincoln to be with Halley's family for the weekend, so we were excited to see lots of family, and of course, eat lots of food! Little did we know that we would be in the ER for almost 8 hours with Payton. What a scary experience as a mother!

We arrived at Halley's parents house late afternoon on Wednesday, and Payton was a bit cranky and also was beginning to run a fever. We gave her some medicine and just had a lot of cuddle time, hoping that a good nights rest would cure whatever she had. During the night, she threw up a few times, and was hot to the touch. On Thanksgiving day, she was feeling better (due to the medicine) but still was not interested in eating (she hadn't eaten since Wednesday lunch at this point). Thursday night, she was running a high fever, hadn't eaten, and threw up two more times. So Friday morning, we went to the Urgent Care Clinic in Lincoln to see what was the problem. From there, they ran a few tests, but all was negative - so they decided we needed to go to the ER since her fever was now 104.5.

I have never been so scared and critical of nurses in my life! As a few nurses tried to draw blood from Payton, it took everything in me to be patient since they couldn't get any and stuck her two times. And when they came to give her an IV, I was already in tears, and was SO happy that Halley was there to be the strong one. I could not of done it myself - praise God for husbands!

While we were there, Payton received lots of fluids through her IV, but was still running an extremely high temp and was sweating like crazy. The doctors were great, and finally figured out that Payton just had the stomach flu, but it was just so harsh on her little body that she was so dehydrated despite all the Pedialyte she was drinking at home. We tried to rest as much as possible in the ER, but Payton was just so scared that this wasn't too much of an option.

We were in the ER for what seemed like forever - but were finally released around 6 PM on Friday. I am so thankful that we were with tons of family who jumped at the chance to care for Jordyn so that Halley and I could have our full attention on Payton for the weekend. As I type this now, Payton is running around, being loud, and playing with Halley. What a sweet sound after three days of silence!

Here is the only pic that we took in the ER. It was right when we arrived and they asked me to dress her in the gown. Now when I look at it, she looks quite cute, but I will be more then happy to never see her in this outfit ever again!