Unsettled

Don't worry, the title doesn't refer to me! It refers to the "things" that I expected to settle down ten days ago when I last posted. I was expecting to be helping Arwen settle into life with two kids, having a great time hanging out with her and Rosie (and Bryan and Anthony) and the grandkids. But. . .

As some of you know from reading Arwen's blog and Twitter, it hasn't been quite that way. The week before Blaise was born, Camilla spent some time in the emergency room with croup. Since her oxygen levels were fine, they gave her steroids and sent her home. She was still feverish and sniffly for the rest of the week, but better by the weekend. Unfortunately, she had been playing with her cousins right before getting sick, and by the time Blaise was born, both Matthew and Daniel were working on "sick and miserable."

Arwen and Blaise were released from the hospital last Wednesday, and Katie and Tommy -- who had a bad cold of his own -- came down to pick me up, since Bryan had two weeks of paternity leave and the plan was (and still is) for me to spend the third week there. By the time they arrived, both of Rosie's boys were so miserable, and Rosie was so exhausted, that Katie immediately volunteered to stay and help. Which was good because...

On Thursday Matthew was admitted to the hospital with a rollicking case of RSV, which kept him there through Monday. Roger and I (and a sick Tommy, who spent most of the weekend exiled to the basement computer room) went down to help. We returned home late Saturday because Katie and I had a commitment to sing at mass. Meanwhile, Daniel was diagnosed with an ear infection secondary to the RSV and put on antibiotics. And Camilla, who was feeling bad again, also got antibiotics for a mild pneumonia.

Roger and I had a separate commitment out of the area for Sunday through Wednesday, and although Katie went down again Sunday evening through Monday, and Tommy missed school on Monday, we all heaved a sigh of relief that things were on the upswing. Until Thursday morning early, when Blaise was hospitalized (in a different hospital) with RSV. Roger went down again Thursday through Friday to help Rosie with the three recovering kids, and right now Bryan's mom is there for the weekend.

The good news is that Blaise does NOT have anything bacterial, and they have already been able to reduce his supplemental oxygen, which means that he's working on being able to come home. Since I am a realist rather than an optimist (when I can keep myself from being a pessimist), I predict that he'll be out of the hospital by Tuesday -- the feast of Saint Blaise. And I'll be down there to help this new family settle in.

And God willing, all our lives will be boring and routine for a long time to come!!