Ugh! At least I only turn 31 once...

Night before my birthday my children both started coughing, and the baby couldn't sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time, needing walked in between sleeping. Big Brother wasn't much better off, but at least he didn't need me to walk around with him. Baby never got a fever so I didn't take him into the doctor's office until Friday (to try and avoid flu germs). I took big brother in on Thursday, he had a virus and two bad ear infections. So he started antibiotics Thursday.

Thursday night, even though the baby had gotten used to his cough and was able to sleep, eat, etc. he was very fussy and in pain. So Friday I brought him in. It was a routine appointment at first, another ear infection, then the doctor heard the baby cough and things got tense for a few minutes. He recognized the cough as Bronchiolitis, which is something children under two can get. (It sounded like a deep bark and a cat's sneeze put together to me) The bronchioles, the tubes between the large bronchia and the lungs, are very narrow in babies, and when a virus sets into them, it can be very dangerous. So they checked his blood oxygen (the nurse who checked him in had forgotten to) and it was great, 97 or 98%. So the doctor said, "We don't need to put him in the hospital, yet." Well, that's good news...sort of. He proceeded to tell me what hospital to take him to if he gets worse. It could be RSV, but that requires a blood test to confirm and neither one got quite bad enough to justify that procedure.

Fortunately, the baby hasn't gotten worse. I credit his voracious appetite with that. He has kept himself hydrated, which kept the fever away. I tell you, it would take a lot to get him to stop eating! Now that he's feeling better, he's eating all the time, unfortunately for me this means day and night. Big brother got better first, which is difficult because my husband and I are now both sick and nobody can keep up with him. Baby still has that cough, but it's pretty infrequent and he's feeling happy otherwise.

Just when you think you might get some sleep, they get better and don't want to! It's been one of those nights that makes the parents of the world decidedly different from the non-parents. Baby eating every 30 minutes, and brother waking up before the crack of dawn to watch cartoons. I need sleep! At least I think I've gotten to the point where I won't need antibiotics, thank you Neti pot. Since the baby is on antibiotics and I'm his only source of probiotics, I was really hoping I wouldn't need them too. Antibiotics should only be used when you need a miracle, but in this case, we all needed a miracle. They don't help with bronchiolitis, but I don't think he'd be getting better yet without them because he was getting too miserable to recover.

Did I get what I wanted for my birthday? I don't even remember what I thought I wanted, but my babies are okay, so yes, I got what I wanted.