Respiratory Something Virus

That's what husband and I called it for a few days before we finally looked-up the pronuciation guide online.  Resiratory SIN-SI-SHUL (Syncytial) Virus put my sweet boy threw the ringer. After a week and a half in daycare, Liam got sick. I was prepared for runny noses, but I was NOT prepared for this.

 It started with a small cough on Tuesday morning.  When he got home from daycare, the cough had turned wet (that's the only way I can think to describe it).  When I was burping him that night, and I heard/felt a vibration in his chest.  Knowing better than to mess with the lungs (especially when those longs are 13 weeks old), we decided to take L to the pediatrician the next morning (by we, I mean Husband was on daddy duty that day).  That night he coughed and snotted, coughed and snotted.

Following directions, Husband turned-off his phone while he was with the pediatrician (most of us would have turned our phone to vibrate, I'm just saying). After an hour and a half at the Peds, and after getting a million panicked phone calls and texts from me, Husband finally calls me with the news.  RSV.  To which I said, "Whaaa?" 

The Peds sent us home with a nebulizer and instructions of what to watch-out for.  The next couple days of my life consisted of watching Liam breathe, listening to him breathe, and trying to watch him breathe through our video monitor (which is really hard, by the way).  More often than not, he was wheezing when he breathed.  If we weren't using the nebulizer (which was every four hours when he was awake), we were sucking snot out of his nose.  Liam was remarkably cooperative with the nebulizer.  Each treatment took about 11 minutes.  By minute 9, his attention span would wane and one of us would dangle a toy in front of him or dance around like an idiot to keep him from melting down.  A couple of times, he had a meltdown anyway.  It broke my heart to see him so upset, but I figured he was taking-in extra medicine with all the wailing. Worse than the nebulizer was the snot by day three.  He was SO snotty.  Half the time he couldn't breathe out of his nose unless we used the bulb (my super technical term for it).  After a few days, his nose was so raw that he'd scream when we used it.  It was awful.  If we didn't use it, he couldn't breathe.  If we did use it, he screamed. 



Grammy trying to distract him.

After two nebulizer treatments on Saturday, he was still wheezing (the treatments usually made the wheezing go away).  It also looked like he was working breathe. We called the on-call nurse, who had the on-call doctor call us.  After five minutes of conversation, the doctor said, "I hate to do this to you, but I think you should go to the emergency room."  My heart has never hurt so badly in my life.  We got ourselves pulled-together, and headed to St. Mary's.  I guess they don't mess-around with babies because we didn't have to wait (as in, we never even had a chance to sit down).  After three hours in Peds (they really did call it Peds. I felt like I was inside Grey's Anatomy.  Minus all the sex and drama), lots of smiling and talking to the nurses and doctors, lots of crying because he was super tired by couldn't call asleep, and lots of refusing to eat because he was too tired, Liam was discharged.  We were now doing the nebulizer every two to four hours AROUND THE CLOCK. 


FINALLY fell alseep

I don't know if you've ever heard a nebulizer, but it's loud.  The Peds doc said we could do the night treatments while he was sleeping (just hold it over him face).  Right.  We'd turn-on the machine and Liam would immediately startle awake.  Who needs sleep anyway.
RSV is very contagious, so we obviously had to keep him out of daycare.  I worked from home some, Husband stayed home some, and Liam's Grammy (my mom) watched him some.  Between the three of us, we were able to keep him out of daycare through to Christmas.  And Husband was off the entire week after Christmas. 

By the Thursday before Christmas we were finally noticing some positive changes.  By Sunday we were cutting back the nebulizer treatments.  By the next Thursday his appetite returned (and we actually think he was in a growth spurt - 7 to 8 ounce bottles every time he ate), we didn't need to use the bulb, we weren't using the nebulizer, and we got our amiable kid back.

Throughout this whole ordeal, Liam remained remarkably happy.  It was amazing. Through all the snot, he'd still smile.  After a coughing fit he would immediately start talking.  He'd COUGH, COUGH, COUUUUGH, and go "UUUURGH!!!" in the cutest little 14-week old voice.  I'm so proud of how he handled it.  And I'm proud of how Husband and I handled it.  We leaned on each other, and we survived. 

Let me leave you with this:  Being a parent is NO JOKE.  You start worrying the second you find-out you're pregnant, and it only gets worse after they're born.  But there is nothing like it. 

So glad to have this kid back to normal!