Friday, January 30, 2009

Week 14 - Propped Up and Sucked Out


I can't believe Micah is 14 weeks old already. This past week was a blur with the sickness in our household. I'd MUCH rather have a pukey flu for 24 - 48 hours than the miserable-mess-with-your-breathing-and-possibly-cause-an-infection-in-the-lungs-or-ears cold that we've had for a little over a week now. Both of my kids have been propped up and sucked out so many times this week I'll be so peeved if we end up with ear infections in the end of all of this.

HOWEVER, I can't complain ... I just started following a family's blog who found out their ten month old daughter has stage four cancer. While rocking my relatively healthy little boy I've cried tears of joy and gratitude for what God has blessed me with and tears of compassion for that little girl and her family who are now undergoing chemo therapy treatments. I take SO much of my life and the gifts that God has given me for granted.

We ended up going to the doctor last Thursday with Micah and confirmed that he had bronchiolitis caused by RSV. He was sucking in his ribs when he as breathing and was having TERRIBLE coughing fits (to the point where he'd gag and empty his stomach). The doctor gave us a prescription for albuterol (which I was familiar with when Jackson had RSV at 18 months), but instead of a nebulizer machine the doctor sent us home with a prescription for an inhaler pump and a chamber and mask contraption. I like that WAY better than the nebulizer: 1. the nebulizer takes too long and the pump is two sprays and your done. 2. the nebulizer is so LOUD and the pump obviously is not ... I even gave Micah a treatment in his sleep once. 3. I'd have to rent and return a nebulizer machine, but I own the chamber and mask. Both of them still have a mask which the kids are not fond of, but hey it works. Micah slept MUCH better after he had the albuterol and it didn't seem to get him wound up like it did for Jackson. Unfortunately the doctor said the pump is not less likely to cause an ear infection ... that's just the nature of the RSV beast. GRRR. So far we've been able to ward off any signs of an ear infection, but I just started to put Micah to sleep in his propped up bed instead of the swing or car seat.

The cough and runny noses are still lingering here, but not NEARLY as bad as they were last week. Micah has FINALLY been able to master the skill of putting himself back to sleep if he wakes up early from a nap. We've had to cry it out a couple of times at night this past week as well. I think with all of the sickness Micah has had to break some habits of getting up in the middle of the night. Last night was a pretty good night ... he only woke up once a 2am but pretty much went right back to sleep and then at 5am to eat. I'm hopeful that we will be done with this cold soon and things will settle down a little.

P.S. I've included some fun pictures that we took yesterday. My kids are obviously handling this whole sickness thing better than I am! :)


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