Update on Aniela

I really hate doing posts out of order (for some strange reason) but I thought it important to let everyone know what is going on with Aniela.

From what I understand (no one speaks English here but Damian and he has never been very helpful when it comes to filling me in on what's going on) Aniela has acute bronchitis and to keep it from turning into pneumonia we had to put her into the hospital. Why you may ask? We tried to treat her at home but even after everything we tried we could not get her to take the antibiotics, and believe me we tried everything!

On Thursday the doctor came for a house call and gave us a prescription which we filled and tried to force feed her. (She gets sick really easy and has been forced feed lots of drugs in her short life) We were also given a few other medications so instead of force feeding them and making her so upset we simply hide them in her sippy cup of juice. When it was time for the next does we thought we would try the sippy cup trick again, to bad the antibiotics taste overpowers the taste of the juice, so we had to try and force feed her again. This time she spit it back out in our faces! We tried again making sure to get the medication in the back of her throat and again she just spit it out. We tried the sippy cup trick again this time with a different juice and she would not even take the cup from us. So on Friday morning the doctor came back and suggested that we take her to the hospital because with out the medication there was a great chance that it would progress into pneumonia. So we packed up and headed off to the hospital.

At the hospital a doctor took her information and listen to her lungs and thought it best to admit her. We were taken upstairs to the children's wing. (this is where I now call home) Next they had us take her to get a chest x-ray which was the WORST experience of both our lives. The nurse took her from me and then put the iron apron on Damian. (because he spoke polish, I guess) They tried to have her stand against the board and strap her legs to it while Damian held her hand above her head, but she was not having that. She got out of that in a less then a second. Next they strapped her into a horrible torture device. It is a tube that they use to restrain children, it is cut long way down the middle and has a strap at the top and bottom, it has a hole cut out for the face. They put her in with her arms above her head and tighten the strap and then did her legs. ( At this point she is screaming at the top of her lungs and I am bawling my eyes out) After she is in they hung her from a hook and took the x-ray. ( I left the room for this part, I could not take any more) Next they had to take blood and put in the IV start. Good thing they would not let me in the room for that part. I could hear her screaming all the way down the hall with both doors shut. (Damian's mom and I were both still bawling our eyes out)

She is given a very strong dose of antibiotics 3 times a day by IV and a breathing treatment 3 or 4 times a day. Aniela and I are staying at the hospital day and night. I have been getting a few hour break each day by Damian's dad to go home, take a shower and check my e-mail. Then it is back to the hospital to be with my baby and a bunch of Polish nurses that don't speak English.

The doctor said that Aniela is doing better but is still not well enough to leave. They told us it might be at least 3 more days if not longer.

Poland 1

Ok, I am going to try and do a post on this computer so I hope it works out alright.

Here we are at the Paris airport waiting for our connecting flight to Berlin. We were all so tired and there was no where to sit so Aniela is still in the front facing baby pack and Areya is sitting on her booster seat next to me on the floor.


Here the girls are enjoying the gifts that they got from their aunt and uncle. They loved the gifts and will have some more fun things to do on the air plane ride home. Thank you Adrian and Agnieszka for the gifts.

Here is Aniela (with help) holding her baby cousin Julia. Aniela really loved the baby and every time I took Julia off her lap she would get upset and pat her lap asking to hold the baby again.


We did not do a whole lot for the first few day, mostly stayed home and took walks to the pond near their house.


We also went to a huge mall complex that was recently built in Szczecin. We got ice cream, it's a soft serve ice cream and it's called "American Ice Cream". It does not taste the same as in the U.S. and was pretty good.

Here is a picture of the museum we went to. (We were not allowed to take pictures inside) They had this really cool old car that is called Smyk, it was designed by students in Szczecin. Instead of doors the front part of the car opened the motorcycle engine was in the back.






More to come soon!