The Boatright Life: our life.

has been a whirlwind as of late. we've had an extremely sick baby on our hands and all my entire life halted so that i could put all of my energy and heart into being her full time mama again and taking care of her. up until then, i had started working at our church on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings doing child care along with working full time at the boutique, which has taken off like crazy this spring! we've had record sales and just such a positive energy coming from our customers and community. then, the sickness happened. The store had been so busy that Jen and i decided to start taking Audrey to a fantastic in-home daycare that her playmate, Brayden, went to a couple days a week. She loves going to Ms. Tracy's and she has really learned a lot from being around other children! Her vocabulary and motor skills have significantly improved; she can feed herself now, drink from a regular cup, say sentences, remember where she hides objects, and can tell you what she wants when asked (without being prompted or given choices)! All of this development in just a couple months!

Things were going great until Audrey woke up one Saturday morning with green goopy eyes

her pediatrician's office was closed for Easter that weekend so we went to Satilla Regional Hospital's Urgent Care facility. in the time between arriving and getting into a room, Audrey started burning up, breathing hard, and fell asleep on me (which hasn't happened since she was a tiny baby!)

when they checked her temp it was 103.9, at the end of the visit it was up to 104.5

she tested negative for the flu, and all the doctor could tell me was that it was some kind of aggressive virus. the doctor put her on antibiotics and eye drops and sent us on our way. all she wanted to do was be close to us and sleep so that is what we did for our Easter weekend, no egg hunts, no Sunday morning service. we did go out for some fresh air briefly and it seemed to help her a little.

like father, like daughter

our Easter morning, snuggling with mama and
her new bunny (affectionately named 'Bubby' when
she couldn't say bunny correctly with a stuffy nose)

fresh air and a quick family picture!
Audrey always asks for shoes and a bow before we leave the house,
and that day was no exception! :)

Monday morning, something just wasn't right. Audrey could barely lift her head up and her eyes were glazed over. It was like she wasn't even looking at me. She was still refusing food and liquids and I had a horrible feeling in my stomach all day worrying over her. I took her up to her pediatrician's office and it turns out she had two half dollar sized puss pockets in her ears that were putting pressure on her eardrums and causing disorientation. She wasn't dehydrated enough to go and get IV fluids at the ER, but it was to the point she wasn't crying tears (VERY scary!). Her ped ran a blood panel to check that the infection hadn't entered her bloodstream. Her white blood count came back slightly elevated so he put her on a new antibiotic and told us to monitor her closely throughout the night. By that point she had lost 2 lbs. just since Saturday (23 lbs. 4 oz. to 21 lbs. 2 oz.) and just looked so defeated. When the nurse was drawing blood she didn't even cry or act bothered, just started blankly at the wall.

Throughout the week she seemed to be getting better but on Friday morning, she woke up with green goopy eyes AGAIN and just seemed to not be feeling like herself so we headed back to the pediatrician and sure enough, she still had a massive ear infection. he stepped up her antibiotic to a more aggressive Ceftin; however, either CVS botched the only batch in town or it was a manufacturers defect -- either way, we had to wait to get her on a good batch until their shipment arrived Monday morning! we were still able to give her the diluted medicine but it wasn't working as well as it should have. She did seem to get better and we had a great weekend! I took Ann and her group's prom pictures and Audrey tagged along for the fun. Pop took her for a golf cart ride and they had fun swinging in the garden

isn't my sis-in-law so gorgeous??? :)

hanging out on the front porch while mama takes
pictures of all the beautiful prom girls :)

We went to church Sunday morning and she had a great time playing in the nursery

loves to pretend cook! i see us investing in a play kitchen
in the near future!

Monday morning, i picked up the new batch of Ceftin bright and early and breathed a sigh of relief thinking that our life would go back to normal this week and she would be feeling great! (Did i mention i was also battling strep and a nasty sinus infection in the midst of all of this?) We spent a good majority of our days napping in Mama and Dada's big bed :) i never had an interest in co-sleeping, but now i can see what all the fuss is about. sweet, sleepy baby snuggles in your own big bed are so perfect.

Tuesday morning, i text Jen and said that i didn't think Audrey should go to daycare and told her i needed to stay home with her. She felt warm and had a weird cough. I did a round of ear drops thinking her ear infection was bugging her again and she was in pain and we had a quiet morning.

When her cough got worse, I called her favorite nurse at the ped's office (we have favorites now since we've been there so much lately ha!) and held the phone to Audrey so she could hear her croupy breathing and cough. Her ped was out of town during the day but after the nurse calling him, he asked for us to come in so we could do another blood panel and see what was going on. Her official doctor's office temp when we arrived was 102.4. Her white blood count was elevated (but her ear infection was on the mend so this was a secondary infection) and her temp was rising by the minute. She had us keep giving her the antibiotic and alternate motrin and tylenol to keep the fever under control, as well as get a cool mist humidifier to help with the rattly cough. Jen also grabbed a new ear thermometer as our temple scan thermometer died earlier that morning. in the thirty minutes or so after we had left the ped's office, her temp had shot up to 104.5, then 104.8 a few minutes later, her breathing was ragged and she seemed to be struggling to breath. we decided to head to the emergency room and left a message with Leah (fav nurse) and as we were getting ready to leave, our ped's wife called (she is also a pediatrician) and said she was headed to the office from her house (with her kids in tow) and to meet us there so we didn't have to suffer through an ER visit. i am just so thankful for all of the doctors and nurses who gave us such fantastic, personal care!

She gave Audrey a fast acting steroid shot to relax her airways so that she could breathe better and also gave her a children's dose/concentration of motrin (i had been giving her the infants dose/concentration and it wasn't even touching her fever - when we got there her temp was 105.1!). Jen fanned her and she just clung to me. i was sweating from all of the heat she was giving off! we were able to take her home an hour and a half later and monitored her temp and breathing throughout the night. we sat in front of the freezer when her breathing got bad again and that helped tremendously! who knew? her fever finally went down to 102 at about 5 am and we were both able to get some good sleep. Leah called to check in on us twice a day the rest of the week and things finally seem to be getting better!

spending so much time away from work has left me with a huge to-do list when i go in tomorrow but in other news, my house is spotless! :) "the madness" aka Audrey's closet full of 18-24m clothes has been organized! (all of the huggies boxes on the shelves plus the 7-8 not pictured plus the big green tub are full of clothes she has outgrown! i need one of my friends to please have a girl ASAP!)

we moved the guest bed out of her room as it became increasingly difficult to get her to sleep in the pack n play in our room whenever we had company so instead, there is now a couch! she loves to stack books on it and can now climb up by herself and read while i put laundry away, it also doubled as a great bed for me to sleep on earlier this week when i was nervous about being far away from her.

now the bed is here, in our fancy guestroom! we have a partition to use in the doorway for privacy, and the pack n play is for baby/toddler guests (which there will be TWO of next month!!! eeek!) my friend Jenn and her husband and son, Gavi, who is four days younger than Audrey, are driving all the way from Ontario, Canada the first week of May! then, my best friend, Laura, her son, Evan (my godson), and her boyfriend are coming down to stay over Mother's Day weekend!

just add good friends :) (and clean sheets haha!)

my final masterpiece for the week of being stuck inside with a severely sick child is Audrey's new play corner in the family room! as awesome as it was for her to have a separate playroom, it ended up meaning that there were toys everywhere

all.the.time.

SO... we gave her a play corner, and a toddler table to color and have snacks at, and a huge refrigerator box turned into a house that she adores so i don't have the heart to throw it out even though it's taking up half of the family room.

tah-dah!!! LOVE!

well i just wanted to update on what's been going on lately and let everyone know we're okay! Audrey had a lot of people thinking about her and us, and praying hard and we so appreciate that!

to end on a happy note, here are a few of my favorite 16-month-old pictures (she's 18m today!)

the photographer was making her laugh so hard! :)

serious face - i think she looks so much like Will in this one!

and a preview of the baby lamb portrait (yes, that is a real baby lamb! her name is Bella and she was so sweet to Audrey!) we had done before Easter. i still need to go and pick out the final images but haven't been able to get by there yet with everything that has been going on! hopefully i'll have prints to send out soon!