The Rollins Ruckus: 11 months.

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11 months! I can't believe in just one more month we will have had you for an entire year! You have added so much joy to our family, and I cannot imagine life without you. This was a bit of a crazy month for us! You got really sick with the flu and had to be hospitalized for several days! More on that a little bit later…first, let's talk 11 month stats.

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-19 pounds, 28 inches tall

-says bite, bye bye, mama, dada, bubba, and hot

-loves to play chase with Reid

-eating mostly table foods now: favorites are green beans, oranges, spaghetti, and blueberries\

-loves to be outside

-still sleeping with mommy (has yet to sleep through the night!)

-wearing 12-18 month clothes and size 3 diapers

-loves water and likes carrying around a sippy cup at all times

-favorite toys are balls and cars

-about two naps a day and have become less scheduled

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You absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to take baths - probably because I take at least three baths a day, so you've been taking lots of baths since you started growing in my belly! You've learned to splash water and you think it's super funny!

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We had to unscrew the handles from the water facet knobs because while we're taking a bath you always turn it to all hot or all cold! You're really into cause and effect lately - turning things off and on, throwing balls, and taking lids off and on.

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One of my very favorites pictures! You look like such a big boy!

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The hospital stay…

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You are a really baby, and haven't ever been sick - except for the one time you had to take antibiotics at six months old because Reid, Lil, and I all had strep and you happened to end up with it too - so when the flu hit. I wasn't expecting any of us to get it, much less you since you were breastfeeding. This flu season has been the worst one in several years. They missed the strain this year and the flu shot wasn't covering much of this year's flu (we don't do the flu vaccine). Tons of kids were missing school, and more people were being hospitalized from respiratory complications. I got type-A flu in early November, but thankfully no one else in the house got it. I started giving us all extra vitamin C and D, and made sure that we were diligent with hand washing and using our Thieves essential oil, as well as taking our multivitamin, omegas, and probiotics.

But at the end of February, just about a week and a half after you turned eleven months old, you got very sick. You had been fussy with a low-grade temp on Thursday and Friday morning. I was thinking it was just sinuses and maybe your teeth, but by Friday evening, I could see in your eyes that you were really sick. You starting running a 104 temp and developed a mild cough. Tricia (the nurse practitioner that I used to work for and our family health care provider) was on vacation to Hawaii, so on Saturday morning I took you to the AM/PM clinic to get you swabbed for strep and flu. You started throwing up in the waiting room, so I just knew that you were going to have strep since Reid had it the week before. But unfortunately it wasn't strep. You had a double ear infection and type-B influenza. Ugh. You continued to run high fever for the next couple of days, and a couple of times it even got up to 105. The vomiting continued, as well as a little diarrhea, and you weren't keeping anything down. You would even throw up after you would nurse. Your cough wasn't too bad and your breathing wasn't labored, however, I was starting to worry about dehydration. When you weren't improving and your wet diapers began to decrease, I decided to take you over to the clinic in Seminole and check your labs. You oxygen was 94-96%, and you labs all looked pretty good, but you breath sounds were a little raspy and wheezing which kind of worried me. I had Dr. Kemp examine you, and he thought we would probably be ok without fluids, unless the vomiting continued for another day or two.

The next day we thought you may be getting a little better. You took a couple of bites of food and the vomiting had slowed down, but after waking up from your nap with 105.5 temp and vomiting two more times, I decided that you needed to go to Children's for fluids. You had only had one wet diaper in almost two days and I knew it was getting serious.

Daddy and I drove you up to Children's early Tuesday evening, and thankfully we didn't have to wait long. I figured that we'd be there for a few hours getting fluids and then they'd let us go home, but when the pulse ox. read 80%, I knew we weren't going home for a while. A chest x-ray and labs showed that you were dehydrated and had a possible pneumonia, so they put you on oxygen, IV antibiotics, and sent us up to the floor to a regular room. The radiologist and pediatrician on call decided that you did not have a pneumonia, but more likely atelectasis (the collapse of the tiny air sacs in the lungs) from the flu/inflammation in the lungs. Your diagnoses were influenza type-B, bilateral otitis media (ear infections), hypoxia (low oxygen), and dehydration.

We stayed three nights and four days in the hospital. I slept with you every night in the hospital crib, and daddy slept beside us in the recliner chair. The first morning in the hospital you were doing worse. Your breathing was laboring, you were completely exhausted and lethargic, you weren't eating, and you were still running fever. Daddy and I were worried sick. We've never had a child this sick or hospitalized, so these terrible feelings were all new to us. Even as a health care provider, I felt helpless and scared to death that my baby wasn't going to be ok. Although I know that kids are very resilient and can bounce back quickly, I also know that kids (especially babies) can worsen very quickly, especially when it comes to respiratory illness/distress. I rarely put you down those first two days in the hospital. I held you, cuddled you, kissed you, and prayed for you.

After two rounds of Rocephin and two bags of IV fluids, you started improving. Your energy came back and you started eating a little. I could tell you were getting better because you started getting fussy and kept trying to take off your oxygen. You wore oxygen for the first two nights, and by the third night we were able to take off the oxygen because your oxygen levels were staying up. On the fourth day, you started laughing and playing again and we were able to go home. We drove home just as a big snow storm was moving into Oklahoma. I remember bundling you up and walking out to the car in the snow. You loved looking at the big snowflakes! It was the scariest time of my life so far, and I thank Jesus for making you better.

Through all of this, I learned just how many people love and care for us! We got tons of texts, calls, Facebook messages checking on you and telling us they were praying for you. It was a stressful month (the evening we got home from the hospital, we found out both of the other kids had fever and Reid had strep again!), but we are so thankful for God's healing powers and the blessings of our wonderful family and friends.

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At the urgent care clinic when we found out it was the flu

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104 temp. Poor baby only wanted his mommy

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lots of resting

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very lethargic and dark circles under your eyes

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Daddy and I tried multiple times to get you to drink Pedialyte with no success…however, you loved the plain, unflavored Pedialyte at the hospital!