Jones Story Book: Not the normal "1st Christmas"

I have neglected to post anything for quite some time now, and I apologize for that. I have really been meaning to get to it, but it just never seems to get done!
As most of you know, Jarrik's first Christmas was definitely a memorable one for us. As he was progressively getting sicker and I was pushing the nebulizer and Motrin in order to keep the low grade fever down, the nurse at Sanford advised us that we should get him to the emergency room as soon as we could. So, our Christmas night was spent in the emergency room, and later in Pediatrics at Avera. After much poking, prodding, swabbing, X-raying, and waiting, we found out that Jarrik had RSV and strep throat. The ER doctor told us that they would need to keep him over night for "observation." So, I went up to the Pediatric unit thinking it wasn't going to be so bad. How wrong I was. They had to give him an IV (which they tried 3 times at and was not pretty!) and he had to be on oxygen and IV antibiotics. When the doctor came in on his rounds the next morning, he said "Our goal is to have you home by New Years." Mind you, that would have been 5 days away at that point. I laughed and thought he was just joking. Wrong again. Thank goodness my friend who works as a respiratory nurse at Avera. If she wouldn't have been there, I don't think I would have understood what was going on to the extent. Since Jarrik had to be on oxygen, he would have to be in the hospital for 24 hours AFTER they took him off of the oxygen. I was defeated when I heard that. By that time, I was there by myself at night time since Craig was home with the other 2 kids and it was pointless to waste gas on coming down for an hour or 2 and then going back again. In the end, we ended up staying 3 nights and 2 days. It was long enough in my book.