Not your typical Thanksgiving!

Many of you know we had a very rough Thanksgiving, so here is the whole story! The week or so leading up to Thanksgiving Cooper had a runny nose and cough. The runny nose went away, but the cough persisted. On the Thursday before Thanksgiving Cooper woke up from his nap with a fever. The fever went down with some Motrin, but then returned in the middle of the night and early the next morning. So I took him into the doctor here hoping it was just an ear infection especially because I was supposed to leave with the boys on Saturday and drive to Houston to spend the night with friends. I was then going to continue up to Tyler on Sunday morning.

At the doctor they looked at his ears and did a strep test and both were negative. They listened to him and considered pneumonia and even had a second doctor listen to him, but ultimately decided that it wasn't pneumonia. They thought it might just be a virus, but went ahead and prescribed Tamiflu since we would be traveling. Cooper continued to run fever and we were shoveling Tylenol or Motrin in him every 3 hours to control the fever. During the times that he didn't have a fever he played pretty normally and was still very active. I decided not to leave on Saturday because he was still running fever and I wasn't going to be able to stay with friends in Houston because of the possibility that he had the flu. So I decided to leave Sunday morning and make the long 10 hour drive in one day. Every three hours I would pull over and give Cooper Tylenol or Motrin because he was still battling fever. We finally arrived and he seemed to be in a good mood and was playful that night.

On Monday morning Cooper was very tired and I figured since we traveled all day and he was sick he should get as much sleep as he could. I laid him down around 10:30 that morning and he slept off and on until around 2:30. He would cry out occasionally, but was very adamant about not getting out of his bed. He just wanted to lay down. About 4 my Dad came home and we went to check on him because I was getting worried about how Cooper was acting. He wouldn't let me hold him and just repeatedly asked to lay in his bed. If you know Cooper, you know he LOVES to be held. His breathing had changed and he was working a lot harder to take a breath. We decided I would take him in to an Urgent Care Facility and get him checked out. By the time I got there he was really working hard to breathe.

The doctors there did an x-ray and confirmed he had pneumonia. They started an IV and some antibiotics there hoping he would perk up and we could treat him at home. We exhausted all efforts there and the doctors decided it would be best if we took him to the hospital. So we headed over to the hospital and got set up in a room. From Monday night until Thursday morning we really weren't seeing much improvement. I spent the night at the hospital on Wednesday night and was completely exhausted after a long night caring for Cooper. Travis came to relieve me that morning so I could rest before some extended family came over for Thanksgiving lunch. I was sleeping when my mom came and woke me up to inform me that Cooper might be taken to Children's Hospital in Dallas. I immediately thought the worst and being physically and emotionally exhausted I totally lost it. I broke down into tears and called Travis to get the full story. The doctors in Tyler were concerned because part of his lungs were not responding to the antibiotics and fluid was building up in his lungs and he was fighting very high fevers. At one point his fever reached 104.8! They were concerned that he was going to need surgery to drain this fluid and relieve the pressure on his lungs. This really made us nervous- who wants to send their precious 2 year old in for surgery? We immediately began to pray that Cooper would not need surgery and that the antibiotics would begin to work on that fluid in his lungs. In the meantime, the transport crew from Children's came and got him ready for his first helicopter ride!

Travis and Cooper flew on the helicopter and I went home to pack up our stuff and eat a little Thanksgiving lunch. I then drove to Dallas to be with Travis and Cooper. Cooper was in ICU when we first arrived, but the doctors quickly decided he could be moved to a regular room. We got settled in our room there and felt great about the staff at the hospital. At some point the doctors decided that the level of antibiotics he was receiving were too low and therefore increased them to a higher level. Once the antibiotics were increased we saw an improvement in Cooper and the pediatric surgeons agreed that surgery was unlikely! Praise the Lord!!! Each day brought improvement and we were so relieved. On Wednesday, our 10th day in the hospital, Cooper was released to go home. Cooper is still on two antibiotics for two more weeks, but he is doing great at home. He has not had any fever since we left the hospital and he is pretty much back to himself.

During all of this drama with Cooper, Tyler was at my parents house with my sister and her family and my parents. Tyler was a real trooper! I know it was hard because he didn't totally understand what was going on. He had so much fun playing with his cousins and that was a huge distraction. On Saturday my parents drove Tyler up and we spent the afternoon doing fun things with him and giving him some undivided attention. We owe a huge thanks to the Hoovers and my parents for helping us with Tyler. We would have never survived without them!

Cooper went through a lot in the hospital- IV's, finger pricks, breathing treatments, x-rays, constant checking of vital signs, and lots of medicine! He really was a trooper. Many of the nurses had fallen in love with him while we were there. They all talked about how cute he was and they paid special attention to Brownie his bear.

We are all so glad to be back home! We really appreciate all of your prayers that were lifted up on behalf of Cooper. Even though we had a really hard Thanksgiving we still have so much to be thankful for. We are so thankful for modern medicine and God's healing power, for family and friends who are willing to help us in a time of need, and that we got to bring our baby boy home. We heard of so many other tragedies over the holidays that broke my heart. Our 10 days in the hospital was just an inconveinience.

Cooper in the hospital in Tyler. Some sweet lady makes blankets for kiddos in the hospital. This was Cooper's special blanket and he has become quite attached to it!

I'm pretty sure he was enjoying this ice cream at around 9 in the morning. We pretty much let him eat whatever he wanted. I felt so sorry for him for all that he was going through!

Cooper is showing off his dinosaur mask he used for his breathing treatments.

Tyler came to visit Cooper one day while he was in the hospital.

The cookie bouquet Cooper's cousins sent him to cheer him up!

Papa was taking silly pictures of Cooper wearing his glasses.

Seriously, Papa! I don't feel good!

The helicopter that Cooper and Travis took to Dallas.

The transport team taking Cooper out to the helicopter on a stretcher.

Taking off!

Starting to feel a little bit better!

I took this picture to show how little he was in that big hospital bed!

He had so many wires connected to him monitoring his every breath.

His little IV.

This is how I spent a lot of my nights at the hospital- curled up in bed with Cooper! He would often cry out in the night espeically is he was fighting a high fever. He often times wanted me to hold his hand, so it was easier if I just laid in bed with him. Plus, the chair that folds into a "bed" was not very comfortable for this pregnant mama!

The last day in the hospital and feeling much better. He didn't have his IV anymore so he was able to get out of bed. He learned how to move the bed up and down with the buttons and Papa taught him how to turn the TV on with his remote!