12 hours after being home...

I spent about 3 days in the hospital after having Greyson because of my c section and it was finally time to go home! We were so excited to finally take Greyson home, spend time as a family, relax in the comfort of our own home, and have no interuptions from nurses.

The next picture is Greyson getting ready for bed on his first night home and looking at the picture I can now see that he had started looking sick. His cheeks are bright red. We all went to bed that night and in the middle of the night Greyson woke up, like any normal baby, so we changed him and I fed him. He just kept screaming and crying. John and I were really confused. What was wrong we thought? I tried feeding him again...nothing. John said to me, "Kristin...rest for a little bit while I rock him to sleep." I was exhausted so I laid down and closed me eyes. I had just fallin asleep and John tapped me on the shoulder. I can remember this moment as clear as day. "Kristin. Greyson is burning up." I answered, "Okay. Let's take his tempurature." We put a thermometer under his armpit. It read 101.8. "Wow. That's high. Let's try taking his tempurature in the rectum to be sure." It read 102. "Okay. We have to get him to the ER immediately!"

We go wake up my mom, who was already awake because of all of the crying and say, "he's got a fever. We need to take him to the Emergency Room." My mom got ready quickly and they 4 of us were off. (This is really hard for me....Wow....I HATE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!)

We get to the emergency room and Greyson is admitted right away. The next few hours happened so quickly and yet I look back wishing we would have taken a step back and waited for our options. The ER doctor took a urine and blood sample and then let me know he needed to do a spinal tap and I needed to sign a waiver. I was a very worried young mother so I signed away and it all began. I mean a spinal tap on a 3 day old?!?! Also, he needed a dose of antibotics so they poked and poked and poked him trying to put in an IV. They were not able to get a spinal sample OR an IV in because he was so dehydrated. They called in a child specialist and the pediatrician (which should have been done immediately) and the specialist was able to get Greyson an IV on his first try. He said that Greyson's veins were so tiny that it was like trying to put a needle through a piece of hair. Crazy.

I also have to take a second to talk about my wonderful husband. I was not able to watch 99% of this process because I was terrified. Nothing nothing nothing can prepare a person for something like this. John sat by Greyson's side the entire time. My husband is my hero. He is so brave and strong. I love him so much.

I also have to take a second to talk about my wonderful mom who wiped my tears that night and rubbed my back. She was my rock while this was happening. She was so strong and I was so weak. I was SO thankful she was with us that night.

Once Greyson recieved fluids and the samples were taken we were sent up to the PEDS ward because we were told Greyson was going to need more antibiotics. I was not expecting what we were about to go through...

We spend the next two days at the PEDS Ward at Fort Leonard Wood, but we were told that Greyson's IV would only last 72 hours at the most....We would be lucky if it would last 48 hours. We were also told that Greyson needed 14 days of antibiotics and that we needed to go to the University of Missouri Children's hospital for them. The reason why they sent us to that hospital is because they gave Greyson a PICC line. They have a special PICC line team at the university. The PICC line ran from Greyson's arm and was threaded straight to his heart. It was very fragile, so they wanted us to stay for the antibiotics. Once we got to the Children's Hospital, we felt SO blessed. These people were all use to working with children and knew exactly what Greyson needed.





The next 14 nights were spent in a tiny hospital room, but we did get our own room. My parents and my best friend Julie were fortunate enough to get to stay at The Ronald McDonald House. John and I stayed in the room with Greyson. We shared a chair that pulled out into a bed. We literally slept on our sides so we could both squeeze on it. We did not want to leave him. We tried to stay busy. We watched tv. We took turns exploring Columbia, MO. We took turns going over to the RMH for a bite to eat and a shower. It was so hard! My mom extended her trip to stay with us. She was with us all day long and would walk back to the RMH at night. She was our angel.

I also need to mention the WONDERFUL nurses we had at the hospital. They did anything we asked. They even took Greyson at night for a few hours so John and I could sleep.

These last two pictures were taken when we FINALLY got to go home. We are so thankful for Greyson's health now. He was given the best treatment we could have asked for at the University of Missouri's Children's Hospital. This was the hardest/scariest thing we ever had to go through, but we feel as if Greyson is superman now. He is doing great and for that we are so very thankful.