Category Archives: Motherhood

On the Mend

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I can truly say I’m happy to see Monday.  Last week was a blur of running to and from work to Avery’s daycare, to the doctors, and eventually to the ER.  The days at home with a sick kiddo ran together and starting my day at 2am because of a coughing fit was becoming the norm.  I was worried about Avery, seriously sleep deprived, and super stressed about racking up the hours I needed to makeup at work.  I am sooo glad that week is over!

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Everything took a nice turn when Avery was diagnosed with Pnemonia.  I know, that sounds horrible, but we were so happy to know what was wrong with him and we had medicine and a plan to make him better.  By Friday, he was back in daycare and his usual can’t stay still for 30 seconds self.

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We spent the weekend mornings swapping naps (Me & Vinay) and in the afternoons we did some low key activities like grocery shopping and visiting the mall play place.  Other than a couple coughing fits a day, Avery is back to normal.  He’s also embraced the nebulizer … well, moreso he knows he gets a treat to watch ELMO while using it, but it’s a much easier task than our horror of a first day using it.  It really seems to help him too, so now that he doesn’t flip out, we are happy to use it.

I was even able to go to Zumba Friday night and I spent an hour at the gym Sunday while Avery was napping.  Because of our crazy week, we (Vinay & I) put aside our needs and didn’t hit the gym like usual, and we were so focused on just making it to the next day that we ordered out food 4 meals that week.  I know, that’s so bad.  And I paid for it on my Friday weigh-in (which I didn’t write about cuz it was NOT GOOD), but we just needed to make it thru the week.  It was a ‘crisis mode’ and we made due.  This week will hopefully be back to normal and we’ll be back to the gym, cooking healthy dinners at home, and getting a restful night’s sleep.  Last night was actually the first night in the past week he slept thru the night – he’s been waking up from coughing every couple hours.  I was actually happy when I heard my alarm go off at 4:30am… because it was the first time I had woken up since putting my head to the pillow at 9:30pm. 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep = happy mommy!

Avery’s at home with Daddy today (daycare closed on MLK day) and I’m getting photo updates on their shenanegans…

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So, we’re starting off this week refreshed, healthy, and Avery is back to his normal goofy self….Happy Monday!

Is the cold season over yet?  After our Christmas stomach bug and this, I dread any additional ailments….

Phooey Pnemonia

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It’s 1:30PM on Thursday and where am I writing this from?  My dining room table.  That’s right, home again with sick Avery.  BUT it’s a good sick day because we know what he has and have meds to make him allllll better!

I got ‘the call’ again at work yesterday at 2PM.  Avery was napping when they noticed he had a high fever (103!).  They said he was normal all morning.  So we rushed to get him, the doc’s office couldn’t take him until 6PM, and the poor little guy was so lathargic, red in the face, and burning up.  We didn’t want to sit around while he was in misery, so to the ER we went!  After less than 10 minutes of waiting, we were in.  The staff was awesome.  They asked all sorts of questions and went to work… first they plunged his nose and put in saline drops.  Then he used a nebulizer.  They took pictures of his chest, and the xray showed pnemonia.  The doc confirmed the location of it after Avery was breating a little better, and he didn’t have any other infections or RSV.  Mystery solved!

By the time they sent us home with a prescription, Avery was bouncing around… climbing on the bed, under the bed, touching this button and that switch.  The kid was back to normal.  We dosed him with meds before bedtime, and after he fell asleep, we used the nebulizer on him – BIG thanks to my cousin Amy for suggesting that!  He still wasn’t breathing well, so we put saline drops in his nose (which he DID NOT like) but helped.  He finally fell asleep and was up every 2 hours all night, but just needed a pacifier and quick pat and he fell back asleep.

So, because he had a fever at daycare (again) he can’t go back for 24 hours.  So, Momma and Avery had a day at home together.  The little bugger was all over the place this morning.  We played with Thomas the Train, threw balls back and forth, watched cars out the window, and he got spoiled and watched Elmo while I gave him the nebulizer twice today.  He didn’t fuss at all, and his fever is gone.  He’s napping now, and has been asleep for over an hour and no peep from him!

I’m waiting for Vinay to get here and I’m gonna head off to work and try to make up some of these zillion ‘debt’ hours I’ve racked up this week.  It’ll be Daddy & Avery tonight.  I’ll work as late as I can, and hopefully more this weekend.  That way I don’t have to use a vacation day and we can save those for actual vacations when everyone isn’t sick!

Happy Thursday!

Have you taken your kids to the ER?  This was our first time and it was actually a pleasant experience and they did a great job – much better than Avery’s Doc’s office acutally…

Our First Sick Day of 2013

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I’m exhausted.  Well, not right this second, but in general, and it all hit me yesterday.  I was home with a sick Avery yesterday.  I knew Avery wasn’t doing well… coughing, runny nose, etc. for days now.  So I had setup a doc’s appt for after I picked him up from daycare – but we didn’t make it that long because I got ‘the call’ from daycare on Monday at 1130am that he had a fever and had to be taken home and couldn’t go back until he was fever free for 24 hours.  I dashed from work (worried about Avery but stressed about having to make up the time I was gonna miss), grabbed up Vinay on the way, picked up a sleepy Avery, and moved up the doc appt to 1pm.  The nurse who saw him couldn’t find any infections and assumed it’s a virus, so she had us try a nebulizer.  Do you know what those things are?  I had no idea and she didn’t explain it much to me so I had to have Vinay (the biotech guy) give me the 411.  But essentially he wears this mask thing and breaths in the medicine pumped by a noisy machine.

Well, the nurse obviously didn’t grasp the fact that my son doesn’t stop moving. Ever.  You’d think she got the hint while he was climbing under the exam table, or on the waiting chairs, or OPENING (yes, he can open them now) the exam room door.  The kid doesn’t stop moving, even when he is ‘sick’.  So he instructions were to hold him, and put the mask to his face.  Yeah, like that was as easy as it sounded.  Avery screamed and cried, shook his head back and forth, and flailed.  He hates being confined and held down.  We tried this for a minute and I gave the nurse a look like, are you kidding me?!  She proceeded to tell us to hold him down and we had to do it for 5 minutes, and we would need to do this 3 times a day.  I’m sorry, but with all due respect to medical professionals, this was NOT the treatment to give my child.  I just about broke into tears because I had to be so forceful and he was so unhappy and worked up.  It was just so wrong.

The nurse measured his breathing and it had improved, so she sent us home with the wretched contraption.  We used it at home Monday night and Tuesday morning in front of the TV hoping it would distract Avery, but it was still so painful to see and be a part of.  Then after a long day of chasing a ‘sick’ Avery around the house (the kid was climbing this chair, and pushing over those boxes, and throwing his dog down the stairs…. a typical day with Avery), I had to sit him down and give him the nebulizer alone.  Well, I should have thought before that one…seeing as it took Me, Vinay, and the nurse to hold him down in the doc’s office.  It was a mess, Avery wiggled out of my arms, swatted the face mask thingy away, and the liquid medicine in the contraption went everywhere.  I just started balling.  I was upset that this stupid contraption was the only ‘medicine’ the doc suggested and that it made him so worked up, and so mad I couldn’t make him feel better, and so mad I couldn’t do it alone, and then in the back of my head all day I was stressed because I knew I had to makeup 1 1/2 days of work… somewhere between working my usual house and taking care of Avery and he had only napped 20 minutes today (when he usually naps 2 hours)… so although I brough my laptop home I didn’t have a second to work, and forget working after he goes to bed at 7pm, because by the time I pickup the house and prep for the next day, and make dinner, it’s past 8pm and I’m ready to crash.  Ugh.

So what was a Mom to do?  After letting out my tears of frusteration, I went to work.  I setup my laptop on the dining room table, found Elmo on YouTube, put Avery in the chair (I NEVER do this…. he rarely watches any TV), and put on the show.  Avery was thrilled.  After a bit I turned on the nebulizer (which makes a scary loud noise so ofcoarse it would freak out a 15 month olf), and got his attention on Elmo again, and put it over his face.  And you know what? It worked.  For 3-4 minutes he didn’t move… just pointed at the screen and bounced his head to the music.  A brief shake of his head and I thought all was lost, but he went back to the screen and we finished at just under 6 minutes!  Whew.  And to add to our accomplishment, I gave Avery 5 m&m’s.  Man, what he thrilled!

But we’re not out of the woods yet because Avery was up every 2 hours last night coughing… poo lil guy.  So if this continues, this stupid nebulizer thing is NOT the solution and I’ll be making another trip to the doc’s.  I haven’t got a call from Avery’s daycare yet today though, so that means he’s doing well….

How do you cope as a parent when your kid is sick?  Some days I just wish I was a doctor so I knew how to make him better…