Hospital for Harper

The week before Christmas was the hardest week of my life so far..

Harper had caught a cold from Teddy but it didn't seem to bother her at all. A few days later she got a cough that seemed to get worse pretty quickly. On Monday 15th December I took her to my GP..they said it was just a cold and that she would get over it by herself. 

That afternoon I decided to take the kids to see their Nan & Grandad in Surrey. When we got there Harper didn't seem herself at all..she suddenly got a temperature and went floppy so we called for an ambulance.

As soon as we got to the hospital and described what had happened they told us she had bronchiolitis and would need to be put on oxygen as her levels were really low. 

We waited 8 hours for a bed for her..she had a feeding tube put in and a nasal cannula as well as a mask for oxygen.

Everyday was up and down..one minute she seemed to get loads better and they would turn the oxygen right down..then she'd need it turned right back up. She started to refuse to be bottle fed which was worrying, she didn't start again until day 5.

Teddy found it really hard..he wasn't sleeping, I was told he was waking in the night crying for me. In the end he spent most days up the hospital with us which seemed to help but it was heartbreaking watching him leave in tears. I felt like I was choosing one of my babies over the other. I don't know how it's going to work when Harper goes for her heart surgery..we already know other children aren't allowed up there.

I found it a constant battle with the nurses as none of them understood Harpers condition and would do things that GOSH had already told me they shouldn't do. One night I sat awake watching her SATs monitor because the nurse kept switching her oxygen up when she's normally only 95 anyway..I felt I was constantly reminding them to do things and begging them to call GOSH to check things with them first.

We spent 6 days in Epsom hospital..finally getting discharged on the Saturday evening. Neither Harper or Teddy were 100% even on Christmas Day but I was glad we were all home and could spend the day together.

XxX