Cough, Cough

Little man is sick. He's been congested at night and just started a slight cough a couple days ago. However, fast forward to Thursday and that slight cough changed to a major scratchy hack. And then he started grabbing his ear - at that point I was worried he was getting an ear infection.  He slept through the night but I decided to call and schedule an appointment for him, just to be sure.

Very upset last night & not feeling well
{Sorry these are a bit dark but I didn't want to use my flash right up in his face}



Tugging at his ear....worried he had an ear infection

I went to work early and then was able to get him a morning appointment. I headed home & picked up grandma Dianne and little man and we headed to the doctor. As she was checking him over, she mentioned she hoped to hear his cough to know how to diagnose him. Well sure enough, he coughed {a big one} and along with it puked up his bottle from earlier that morning all over himself, me {in work clothes}, the chair and onto the floor. Poor little guy! But I will tell you if there is one positive thing out of these experience it's that I couldn't believe he actually did that right in front of the doctor {you know how it is, when you're sick, you seem so much healthier when you actually drag yourself to the doctor, then you feel like a dope for having went to the doctor in the first place.} This is when we learned Cruz had Bronchiolitis. Basically, it sounds as though all little ones get some form of this viral infection, however, there is a mix between those who get it in the nasal area and those who get it in their chests. Unfortunately, he fell in the latter and has the worst of it. Being that she clocked him in on day 1, she mentioned that day 3-5 would be the worst and then it would be downhill until the 7th-10th day and taper off. Our doctor made sure to reiterate that I need to follow my "mother's instinct" and if there were any reasons I felt I need to bring little man in or didn't know what was wrong over the course of the next 10 days, then I must bring him in ASAP.

She walked through what we would be experiencing with him through the next few days and then called in our prescription for the nebulizer for his breathing treatments. We were to do this every 4-6 hours to help him breath better.


Doctor's office - his first nebulizer treatment

We hurried to pick up the prescription and then got home and got little man settled for the rest of the day. Fortunately grandma Dianne had been staying with me {hubby is still gone at his poker tourney - over a week now!} and was able to keep him home from day care so I could go back to work. I knew he was in good hands {but it's still so hard to leave your sick baby!} and felt so much better when we got a few smiles out of him. Even through the coughing, wheezing and majorly runny nose, he was still his happy little self. 

Smiles for mom before heading back to work

After work, he seemed to be a mix of good spirits one minute and the next upset, crying or fussing. I put him down about 10:30pm and headed to bed myself, but awoke to him crying at 2am {a big difference from the smiley guy I usually wake up to each morning}. I fixed him a bottle and he slowly but surely made his way through that and I sat with him for a bit to let it digest before his next treatment. I get the machine all fanagled and we were no more than a minute or so into it and little man let out a huge cough and puked everywhere - into the nebulizer, all over himself, me and the couch. I sat there for a bit wondering the best way to handle this...I didn't want to get up and drip all over the carpet, but I also didn't know what my options were. I let out a feeble yell for my mom - careful not to startle little man too much - and then realized I was on my own. I wrapped Cruz in my shirt with the hopes it would catch the major drips and bolted to his room. I stripped him down and wrapped him in a blanket and we ran downstairs to wake up my mom to help out. 

Thank the lord she was there...I was a bit of a mess.

I took care of getting Cruz and myself cleaned up and she tackled the mess on the couch and the nebulizer. Once we had ourselves back together, we gave the little guy his treatment. The rest of the night was a blur of him fussing in his crib for a couple hours and me walking with him & rocking him {only to have my mom come back upstairs and relieve me for a while - again so thankful she was there}. I was able to get a few more hours of sleep and then was in a much better place to start our morning.

Breathing treatment....
following a change of clothes after his puking episode

Let's hope he starts feeling better soon...I'm worried that doing this all on my own tonight & the next couple of days will be a bit of a challenge.