Poor Baby

We have had a rough few days in the King household.

We woke up Wednesday morning like normal. It was a work day for me and Campbell was going to my mom's house for the day. When I got her out of bed she felt warm. I took her temp and it was 101. She was acting normally though and didn't have any other symptoms. I gave her Tylenol and we decided I would go to work and get some things squared away, then call the doctor's office when they opened. By the time the doctor's office opened she had no fever and my mom said she was acting fine, so we decided to just keep an eye on her. She was fine all day, then at 2:00 my mom called and all the sudden her fever had shot up to 102.5. I called the doctor, left work, and met my mom and Campbell there. Our doctor was out for the day, but we saw another of the pediatricians. She thought that with the lack of other symptoms (no congestion, ears looked fine, etc), that it was probably viral. Russ had a bad cold the previous week, so it wasn't so far fetched.

Her fever went up and down Wednesday night and all day Thursday. We gave her Benadryl at night and Tylenol/Motrin around the clock, but even with that combination, she had a constant fever the whole time. When the medication would wear off it would get high - like 103.

On Thursday night we decided to set the alarm to get up every three hours and check her temp and re-medicate her if necessary. We didn't want to take any chances with her fever getting too high. At 1:00 we got up and went in her room. I felt her and she was BURNING. We have a temporal thermometer. It's not the most accurate, but it is a good way to gauge whether she has a temp at all and I need to check it rectally. I just set it on the back of her head and checked. It read 106! We pulled her out of bed and stripped her down and checked it rectally. It was 105.9. We called the doctor, put some cold washcloths on her while we waited and tried to get her to drink some water. She was really lethargic. The doctor called back almost immediately and said we needed to get it down to at least 103 in the next hour or we would need to take her to the ER. We put her in the bath. This woke her up a little and she was not pleased! We were able to get the fever down to the high 102's and keep it there for the rest of the night.

The doctor had us bring her in on Friday morning first thing and she ran some tests. Poor baby had lost more than half a pound in a day and a half. One of the things she mentioned on the phone the night before was a possible UTI. She needed to get a urine sample to test for that. All of Campbell's blood work came back fine, physically the doctor couldn't find anything, and they put a bag on her to collect a urine sample.

Our appointment was at 9:15. We finished with everything but the urine sample. The doctor had us wait for a while, offering her some beverages, to see if she would go. She didn't. We finally left there and came home, with the intention of collecting the sample and taking it back up to the office to be analyzed.

By 2:30 I was borderline a mess. It seems that between the bag taped to Campbell's vag, our constant checking to see if she had "gone" yet, and likely the pain that occurred when she did go, Campbell had made up her mind that not only was she not peeing, but she was not going to eat or drink anything either. We pulled out all the tricks. All her favorite foods, water, and milk were quickly rejected. I offered her juice, which I don't let her have, because I figured she would love the sweetness of it. No thanks. Same with popsicles. And baby food, which I figured would help since it has so much water in it. She has been weaned off the bottle and formula for about a week and a half. Even though it might have caused me physical pain...I did try to give her a bottle of formula. (I promise I wasn't even secretly relieved that she didn't drink it!). Basically this girl was not eating or drinking NOTHING!

At 2:45 I stuck my hand inside her diaper to see if the bag was full at all. To my horror and dismay I felt...wetness. Apparently, after so many hours the adhesive on the top part of the bag had come loose and the pee did what it normally does, soaked the diaper. Praise God there was the slightest bit of pee in the bottom of the bag and when I called the office the nurse said it was enough to get a culture. My fascination with my child's urine on this day is an aspect of motherhood I was not expecting.

We went back to the office, they ran the culture, and sure enough the preliminary results indicate a UTI. I am beyond relieved to know what is going on. The doctor started her on antibiotics last night and her fever has dropped significantly already. She still isn't eating, but she is taking in liquids, so we are feeling better about the risk of dehydration. She is also acting much more like herself.

Next week when we see the doctor to follow up we will talk about some tests that are standard after a child has a UTI. The doctor has recommended we do these to ensure that there are no kidney or bladder abnormalities. More than anything we are so grateful to the Lord for keeping our little girl safe, for waking us up right when we needed to, and for bringing healing to her little body.

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend

Has it really been 5 years?

The Proposal!!

May 22, 2004

Moving from Nacogdoches to Houston (May 2007)

Third Wedding Anniversary (May 22, 2007)

KK's Masters Graduation

We're Pregnant!

Happy 5th Anniversary to the man of my dreams. Being your wife is always an adventure, Russ King.

What a journey we have taken to get here! I keep thinking about what someone said at our small group a few weeks ago, "if you can make it five years, you can make it sixty". While that might not be true for everyone, it certainly is for us!

I don't know if I can express to you how proud I am of you, of the man you have become. I knew I married a good guy, but I am in awe of the man you have become and the characteristics I have seen emerge in you. Your dedication to providing for Campbell and I, your discipline to be a wonderful, encouraging teacher, your desire and work to lead our home spiritually, the way you fulfill your commitments to the church, and of course your furocious intent to make sure our grass stays as green and beautiful as possible, to name just a few!

I am also so proud of us. We got married as kids. Young, clueless, selfish, so unsure how marriage should look. I feel like we are thirty years and three thousand miles from those two. It blesses me that we laugh more than we fight now, that after years of working against each other to achieve our own purposes, we have finally figured out what it means to be united. Thank you Lord for such grace and mercy and for those that have helped us figure this out along the way.

I love you Russell King. Thanks for making me one blessed wife!

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes

How do you measure a year?

May 14, 2008

May 14, 2009

Campbell Rose King,

It is unbelievable that a year has passed since we saw your sweet face for the first time. What a beautiful day. After so many months of waiting to see what you looked like, waiting to meet you, you were honestly the most beautiful thing your daddy and I had ever seen.

You were born looking just like your daddy. A year later, you have changed so much and yet you still look...just like your daddy! So many mothers are sad that their babies don't look like them, but it makes me happy to look at you and see so much of the man I love.

There is so much I could write about the joy you have brought to our lives. From your sleepy newborn cuddles to the ticklish laugh of our big one year-old girl, every day of the past year has brought a new joy. Watching you grow and change, watching you discover so many things about the world, and literally watching your little personality become evident, we are often in awe that this is the same sleepy girl we brought home from the hospital. While we adored every second with your sleepy, newborn self, we have had so much fun with our smiling, talking, crawling girl. You have become quite the busy girl! Since you spoke your first word a few months ago, you are constantly telling everyone you see "hi!". I love when we're in a store and you tell everyone we see "hi!", when I leave the room and come back in and you tell me "hi!", and how EVERY time you see one of the cats, you tell them "hi!". You have the sweetest disposition, Rosey.

But I couldn't tell of your changes, baby girl, without also telling of the changes your presence in this world has brought to daddy and I. Because of you, we have learned to communicate better. We have learned to appreciate and value our time alone together more. Because of you, we have become so much more intentional about our relationship, as we know you are going to learn about marriage from watching us. Our marriage is stronger because we are your parents. Because of you, we have learned to trust God in ways we have never had to before. There have been few instances of faith in my life more difficult for me than to trust that God loves my Campbell even more than I do. While at times this has been beyond difficult for me, I am coming to understand more and more how God feels about us humans - all from being your mommy. We are better because God gave us you.

Happy 1st birthday darling girl!

We love you,
Mommy & Da-Da