-A Week for the Books-

This has been the most exhausting week we have had since bringing Liv home from the hospital. Baby girl came down with cold like symptoms last Thursday. Typical stuffy nose and a little cough. She's 5 months old so she's at the age where her structures in her throat are beginning to grow longer to accommodate for more advanced eating purposes. Her larynx is becoming more adult like so occasional coughing and grunting is typical as she gets used to her new abilities. However; as the days went on she developed a wet, raspy cough and a rattle in her chest by Saturday morning. She was still eating well and didn't really act like she didn't feel well. I had already decided to take her to the doctor on Monday because 1) She has never had anything like this 2) It's RSV and flu season. She never ran a fever higher than 99.4 though which was strange. Come Monday morning she was SO sick. Her eyes were swollen and watery, her nose was pouring, her cough sounded terrible, she was choking every time she would eat anything and she had lost her appetite, and she had this weird rash all over her little body. We immediately went to the doctor and I was terrified. The minute we got back to the room I started bawling and I just couldn't handle it. I am not a crier and it takes a lot for me to cry, but that seriously broke my heart. I couldn't handle seeing her like that and so miserable. I give major props to all the Mama's who have sick babies all time with life threatening diseases. I have so much respect for you and your strength. The doctor came in and confirmed that she had an ear infection in her right ear and RSV symptoms. Apparently they don't test for RSV anymore because they can't treat the RSV itself. It's a virus so it has to run its course but they treat the symptoms of it. Her lungs sounded clear and she didn't have labored breathing so they didn't send us to the hospital. She prescribed Amoxicillin and told us to replace milk with Pedialyte because she was so congested and it was thinner than milk. Monday through Wednesday were extremely exhausting. I'm so thankful was Mom was down here to help me. It literally took both of us tag teaming because she was so sick. I didn't sleep but maybe 3-4 hours in 3 days. I was terrified at night that she would stop breathing or get choked and I would be asleep. So I just stayed up and watched her little chest move up and down. That motherly instinct is so no joke. You have thoughts and feelings emerge that you never even knew existed, but I love it. We are now 8 days into this nasty thing and she has finally started to heal and there's a huge difference in her now than on Monday. She still has the nasty cough and occasional choking and runny nose. Hopefully we are on the mend and she will be back to normal soon.