Real Mom & Breathing Treatments

Breathing treatments are something that many of my friends talk about. I always nod my head politely and think to myself "glad that's not me or my child!" Breathing treatments were not something that was going to be necessary for my children - they were to help other people's kids, not mine. Well, as of Tuesday, I'm officially a real mom. A real mom that has learned the art of giving their screaming almost 5 month old child a breathing treatment.

You see, I didn't even know what wheezing sounded like. But when Lila had a cough that would not go away, I started to listen. I thought I could hear her chest rasp when she was breathing. I told Scott I thought she might be wheezing. He talked me out of it saying it was reverberations or something like that. Her disposition was great, she didn't have a fever, so off she went to school.

When I got to school to pick her up, she broke my heart. Poor child looked so sad with watery eyes and a cough that wouldn't stop. The teacher said, "I think she's wheezing." Well, that's all I needed to hear. We grabbed Nate from his classroom and took off towards the doctor's office. Thankfully our pediatrician got us in within 15 minutes of me calling.

We arrive at the doctor's office and I observe our appearance (typically I make sure we look halfway decent when visiting the doctor's office). It was Pajama Day at school so Nate had on his pajamas. And I guess Lila had spit up on her original outfit because she had on her spare clothes (which means I didn't like the outfit very much so I sent it to school), no pants, and fresh spit-up on her shirt. We looked like the ragamuffin bunch. I had no diaper, no pacifier, no nothing. I mean, we were coming straight home like we always do. Lesson learned.

Do you have a history of asthma? No. Did Nate ever wheeze? No. Do you have wheezing in your family? No. Do you smoke? No. Does your husband smoke? No. Is Nate sick (he's standing right there)? Not really. Is someone sick in her class? Probably. Well, I'm glad you brought her in. She's wheezing and working very hard to breathe. Alrighty then.

They taught me how to administer the breathing treatment right on the spot. It helped. So they sent us home with a spacer and prescription for an inhaler. What fun I thought. It may or may not be RSV. But this kind of stuff usually peaks on day 5-7, she says. We were on day 4. Fabulous news.

I could not get a hold of Scott so I hauled both kids to Target to get the inhaler. We were victims of a few impulse buys while waiting for the prescription. We got home, ate dinner, and settled in for a rough night with a baby that can't breathe. We made it and are getting better with the inhaler.

A new experience for us! Parenting always has something up it's sleeve. Just when you think you have everything figured out. You don't. And never will. Pleasant thought:)