Unfortunately we’ve spent the last week enjoying the delights of the Amstelveen hospital instead of the sunny shores of Spain.  Good news is that all is well and we’re on the mend…but it would not have been our first choice for a vacation!  Spanish villa…hospital room? Hmm…which to choose??? Long story short is that Viggo’s cold that he’s had for a few months blossomed into what’s called the RS Virus (basically the common cold in adults and quite serious if you’re an infant) and he had to be admitted into the hospital.  He was not drinking sufficiently and that is a warning sign that the common cold had gotten a bit more serious.  So the poor little boy was quarantined from Sunday the 10th until today, Friday the 15th, at the hospital. 

He had to get a 10 minute dose of oxygen laced with antibiotics to clear his lungs 4x a day and what he could not eat on his own was given to him via a feeding tube in his nose.  It was all a bit of a shock to mom and dad’s system when he was admitted and suddenly getting this monster mask of steam stuck to his face for 10 minutes, 4x a day and then having this nasty tube stuck up his nose and then enduring a chest xray was all a bit much to handle.  It was amazing how our happy little world came a bit unstuck in the matter of just a few hours!  But thankfully our little boy continued to be very happy through it all (save a few crying spells due to nasty tubes and scary masks with steam coming out of them, etc.) and his smile alone helped mom and dad get through it. 

As he was contagious he could not leave his hospital room for the week so mom and dad got a bit of cabin fever…thankfully though we’re not sure he was even phased by it.  He probably loved the intense family time he received!  Only one of us could stay overnight and since I’m still breastfeeding I was the lucky one to sleep on the cot.  The staff was great at the hospital and it couldn’t have gone better.  We’re just so thankful that we did not get on that plane to Spain as he could have gotten much worse in that time or we could have been forced to navigate the Spanish medical system…neither of which are even remotely attractive!  We’re now all home and have until Feb 25th to ensure he gets all better as we’ll see the doctor then again for a follow-up.  It’s been a pretty intense week and we’re so happy to be home again.  It’s amazing how draining it is to have a sick child - what we wouldn’t have given to be in his place! 

Viggo is now just a week short of his 5 month birthday and we’re amazed at how quickly it has gone.  There truly is no way to describe how amazing it is to be a parent - how absolutely in love we are with our child and the incredible burning sense of protectionism we feel for him.    You could have told us all of this before he was born and conceptually of course we would have understood…however not until he was here did we fully comprehend what any of that meant.  He is, quite easily, the best thing that has ever happened in our lives.

So, here’s wishing to a happy healthy recovery for the little tyke and hopefully a bit of rest for his parents!  Here’s hoping all you parents out there have healthy little ones - we fully understand how hard it is when they’re not…and relatively, what Viggo has doesn’t even register on the “serious” scale by any stretch of the imagination! We have so much to be thankful for.

Love

the Juulsgaards