The Terrific Brunson Team: Christmas in Colorado (and the hospital)

The morning of the 23rd, it was time to drive to Broomfield! We were pretty worried about the weather since Utah was in the middle of some big snow storms, so we got up really early and were on the road around 7 am. And good thing, because it took us an extra two hours to get through this on the first half of the drive:

It was pretty treacherous but Lance and our trusty 4runner got us safely though! Once the roads cleared up, we thought the hardest part of the trip was behind us. Little did we know... Anyway, just to kick things off on a great note, Daryn threw up about 30 minutes into the drive. I was woefully unprepared for this. Lance had to pull over in the middle of a huge snowstorm and I climbed out into the 3 ft snow banks to try to blot Daryn and her carseat off with some tissues we had. It was less effective... Luckily, I did manage to dig a spare onesie out of the diaper bag, but I didn't want to pull her our of her carseat and change her there in the freezing cold. So we waited until we stopped for food, where of course we picked a place that had no changing tables or anything like that. Anyway, we finally got everyone clean and fed and were back on our way!

We made it to Grandma and Grandpa's house around 5:30. The girls did great in the car, until about 5 minutes away from our destination, and then Daryn just started freaking out and crying. We were hoping she was finally feeling better after a rough couple of days, but she was pretty miserable. She tried so hard to be happy at Grandma and Grandpa's, but you could tell she was struggling. Something was not right.

Still, some snuggles helped. It was so fun to be at my parent's house with everyone! 11 adults and 11 kids this year, all 6 and under. It was semi-controlled chaos.

The next day was Christmas Eve. We had planned to all go swimming at the rec center, but we decided we better keep Daryn out of the pool, so she and Lance played at the indoor playground while Reagan and I went swimming with the aunts and uncles and cousins. We had a blast! Afterwards we went home and got cleaned up and ready for the festivities. Daryn was just so lethargic and tired, and starting a fever on and off. Not grumpy, but she did not want to move or do anything besides sit and watch everyone. So we let her do just that.

All the other kids got to help act out the Nativity. Reagan played an angel, and a camel. Her camel walk was pretty hilarious.

All the children come to see baby Jesus. So sweet!

Then it was time to hang stockings and off to bed!

At this point, Lance and I were pretty worried about Daryn. Something was very not right, but we couldn't pin it down. We'd been giving her Tylenol off and on for the past several days, and we'd been in touch with her urologist (there were some bladder issues happening...) who was hoping it was nothing serious and told us to just keep monitoring her. Just before bed, Lance asked my dad to if he would give Daryn a blessing, and he gave her a beautiful and special blessing with Lance and Eric's help. It was a very tender moment. I went to bed just praying that I would know how to care for my daughter.

Anyway, we all slept and woke up at a decent time on Christmas morning. Lance and I took Daryn upstairs to open her stocking, and she seemed pretty happy about it.

A Frozen skirt and a new wand!

Then we finally went to wake Reagan up since she was still sleeping in my parents' room.

She got some art supplies in her stocking!

Daryn got to open her present from Santa- a very special custom made dolly that looks just like her!

It has all the matching body parts and everything, including a stoma and colostomy bag. Pretty cool!

When it was Reagan's turn, she eagerly tore open her Santa present and found her much-anticipated very own computer! How exciting!

This gift was so sweet- Reagan used her very own tooth fairy money to go to the dollar store and pick out a present for Daryn- bubbles!

Daryn kept adding more and more things to her ensemble as she opened them, and they seemed to make her happy, so we went with it.

In fact, the only time she walked around the entire day was when she was trying out her new dress up shoes.

Things got a little ridiculous when the girls opened up their new superhero capes and masks.

Shortly after we finished opening up presents around lunchtime, Daryn's tylenol wore off and she felt so hot. I took her temperature and it was 104.5! Yikes! I called Primary Children's Hospital and they said it was time to take her to the ER. So we did. We packed her right into the car and drove to Children's Hospital Colorado. We spent a *lovely* Christmas afternoon in the ER with a miserable girl, although she did cheer up when I put these stickers on her face. They couldn't figure out what was going on and were concerned about a few different things, so Daryn was admitted around dinner time.

After that, I left Lance at the hospital and went back to my parents to take care of Reagan for the night. It was hard to leave, but luckily Lance and I have got the hospital thing down pretty well at this point. I vacillated between worrying out of my mind and then feeling like maybe we didn't really need to be there. Lance kept me updated though, and kept getting very high fevers during the night, so I was very glad we went. I had a good evening with Reagan at home with her cousins.

The next day, I drove back to the hospital and spent a couple hours with Lance before we switched and he left. Daryn had a lot of ups and downs. She spent most of her time watching Dora and Diego on the iPad. She hated her IV and actually pulled it our during the night while I was sleeping. I woke up to her crying and covered in blood. The doctors still couldn't figure out was was causing the fevers and were waiting and blood and urine test results to show what bacteria was in her.

She finally let me pick her up for the first time later that morning. You can see the lovely blood all over her onesie.

Luckily she had her new dolly there in the hospital to go through it all with her.

The nurses saw how interested she was in everyone's stethoscopes and brought her one of her own, that actually works! She loved it. She had to listen to every part of her dolly.

Meanwhile at home, Lance took Reagan to church.

And the aunts got pictures of all the cousins (except Daryn).

Reagan was just having a blast playing and I was so grateful for everyone willing to watch her while we were MIA every day.

After church, Lance came back to the hospital with me, and I went home later that evening. At some point on Sunday (I can't really remember when), they got the urine results back and told us they were pretty sure it was a kidney infection- basically a really serious UTI. These are more common with kids with Daryn's condition; because their urinary tract is so much shorter, it's easier for bacteria to get in. She had got infected with some bacteria that was resistant to the daily antibiotic that she's on. This was Daryn's first UTI of any kind, so we had no idea what to look for or what we were dealing with. We were so grateful that we took her in- it would have been life threatening if not treated! They finally got her on the right antibiotic to kill the infection and her fevers immediately went away. They released us from the hospital Monday afternoon after 3 very long days.

We were supposed to leave Monday morning for New Mexico, but decided to stay in Colorado an extra day and a half so Daryn could actually enjoy some time there (and because we were exhausted. Hospitals are the very worst for sleep). She had a great time playing with her cousins and the difference was night and day.