Poor Baby

Immediately upon returning from Ohio both boys got sick. Jasper was the first to present symptoms of picking up someone's hacking cough and cold. We hunkered down to deal with our sickness-prone child. Much to our surprise, his cold passed in less than 48 hrs and he was back to normal. Unfortunately, this was not without first passing his germs onto his younger brother.


Benjamin got his first ever cold the first weekend in January. By Saturday night he was coughing, and on Sunday morning he had a fever > 101deg. Bummer! This is technically a fever for a wee little one of his age (13 wks), so while Drew and Jasper went to church, I hunted around for a pediatric prompt care that would see little Benjamin. His fever waxed and waned throughout the day, but the doctor who saw him on Sunday said it was just a cold and advised us to be watching for other symptoms of RSV or whooping cough.


By Wednesday his cough had not gotten better and in fact was worse, so I loaded up both boys and headed into the pediatrician for Benjamin's first "sick" visit. Our appt was for 1pm, and this is usually when Jasper goes down for his nap. I would have preferred to leave him at home, but I couldn't find anyone to watch him. So we all three headed in, and I just prayed that it would be a quick visit and Jasper would be able to hold it together.


It wasn't a quick visit. Benjamin was the picture of health. 16lbs, 13oz, smiling and cooing. If you overlooked the fact that his sides were sucking in just under his ribcage with each breath, you would not recognize that he was sick. But this is classic "distressed breathing" so there were multiple attempts to read his oxygen levels and two breathing treatments to be administered. By the end of the first breathing treatment, the wheels were starting to come off for Jasper. It was 2pm, and there was no near end in sight. Thankfully our dear friend Gayleigh came up to the doctor's office and rescued Jasper. He nearly leaped into her arms when the exam room door opened and he saw her there. With Jasper in her capable hands and soon sound asleep in bed, I could focus on Benjamin - his second breathing treatment, his chest x-ray and return trip to the pediatrician. We weren't home until 5pm.


On Wednesday night Benjamin did not seem to worsen, so our return trip to the pediatrician the following morning looked good. However, by Thursday night Benjamin's cough was sounding awful. It was so labored and scary sounding. So on Friday I returned to the pediatrician with him again. Again he was the picture of health minus the distressed breathing. Again his pulse ox was good. Again he fell asleep during his breathing treatment. As a last resort, the pediatrician prescribed breathing treatments for us to administer over the weekend. He even coughed some scary coughs while we were in the pediatrician's office and she was able to reassure me that they weren't actually that scary after all - they were pretty normal and while he did have brochiolitis, she never got to the point of diagnosing him with RSV.

We're guessing the purple dragon face on the mask was supposed to be playful for kids, but Drew just thought it looked creepy.

Benjamin was a trooper through each treatment, and it wasn't until Saturday night that he started to really rebound and actually get restless after the treatments. That's when I knew he was starting to really get better. It seemed that the cold which had been depressing his system and making him weak, overriding the jittery-ness he should have been experiencing with the albuterol breathing treatment was finally wearing off. The albuterol was winning, and we had a fiesty boy on our hands after each treatment. He was no longer sleeping as well nor as much. It might seem crazy, but we looked at this as a good thing. Now only if Jasper would stay healthy. ...