I haven’t posted in a while, since my days have been full of tylenol, hospital visits, thermometers, humidifiers, oils and all the other supplies you hope you never have to use when you have a baby, because it means she’s sick.
Poor little Harlo had been a little fussy last week. I went to change her and she was a little warm, so I took her temp. and it was 100.6. She’d never had a fever before, so I thought maybe these were the beginning stages of teething {we have early teethers in our family} gave her some tylenol and went out to get her some teething rings. She just wasn’t quite right for the rest of the day, so we gave her a nice relaxing bubble bath and put her to bed a little early. She woke up soon after and was up nearly the entire night after that. She was extremely congested, couldn’t get any air through her nose, couldn’t eat.. it was so sad. I called the doctor the first thing the next morning and they got us in with a pediatrician at their clinic. My poor little baby had bronchialitis that tested negative for RSV, thank goodness, but it was still the same treatment. At the doctor they stuck tubes clear down her nose to her throat to suck it all out so she could breathe for a little while, and they gave us a perscription to get that done at the hospital 2-3 times a day for the rest of the week. It was SO miserable!! If you haven’t had to do this with your child {and hopefully you haven’t} they use a machine to suction, and they stick long tubes up both nostrils… Your baby will try to scream but they can’t because all the mucous is blocking their vocal passages for the time being.. Oh, did I mention they have you hold them down? The good news is, that this really works for a long time and makes your child much more comfortable and able to breathe, so you know it’s worth it, as painful as it is to watch. Unfortunately, I went to the doctor by myself because Brady was at work and I had no idea it was going to be so morbid. I had no idea what to expect, but as soon as the nurse said “we’ll use this to hold her arms down”, wrapping the blanket around her arms and under her body, I absolutely lost it. The thought of holding her down was just too much. Luckily they got another nurse to come and aid my daughter in her first “suctioning” experience, and even more luckily my actual pediatrician {who we weren’t even there seeing because he was too full} caught a glimpse of me from the hallway and rushed to my side to be my stand-in husband and a shoulder to cry on. {Did I also mention that we have the best pediatrician ever?} So that was that… the procedure was done, I was still sobbing from the trauma and the 2 hours of sleep I was going on, and little precious Harlo was already fast asleep in her seat. We went home and had a movie-marathon, snuggle-fest the rest of the day. Brady’s dad came over later that night after we went to the hospital to give her a blessing, and my sister Ali came over that day to bring us a doTERRA oil called “breathe” that I could put on her feet and in her humidifier… She slept like a dream that night and the next morning she was about 80% better. They said it would take about a week for her to start feeling better, but in about 2 days she was ship-shape. I’m so glad it was short lived, because that is the hardest thing in the world to have a sick baby.
Oh, and on a very exciting note, all of the work her sinuses have been doing, have completely cleared up her clogged tear ducts! At least that makes it just a little worth our sleepless nights. Those were starting to be a real neusense!
So, now my daughter is better than ever and we made it through our first sickness.
Thanks to all of Harlo’s grandparents for helping out and checking on her, and of course to her 3 wonderful aunties who are always there for great advice, and moral support!