Poor Katie

On Christmas morning when Katie woke up and was completely miserable starting as soon as we went downstairs to the family room which was brimming with brightly colored presents, we figured she had gone into sensory overload.  Bryan and I felt the same way the evening before as I arranged all the gifts into piles.  When her screaming and crying didn't stop after the room had pretty much returned to normal, I wondered if maybe she was feeling unwell.  I thought perhaps it was just a bad reflux day based on the unusual amount of spit up and her arching away from me whenever I would nurse her.  She was spitting up quite a lot on Christmas Eve night, too, so it seemed like a logical connection.

Monday and Tuesday didn't see much of an improvement with Katie's temperament or appetite and it became obvious that she wasn't feeling well.  She was congested and had developed a cough.  Since Ellie had been coughing a bit and seemed to have a bit of a cold I wasn't all the concerned.  I've been around the block enough times to know that when I bring a kid with sniffles or a little cough to the doctor that there's really nothing they can do to help it.  Following that logic I decided it wasn't necessary to take her to the doctor just yet.  I needed something more convincing to make me think a trip to the doctor was needed, something like Katie rubbing her ear.  I don't mess with ear infections so as soon as we noticed that Katie was going after her ears many times today it was time to call for an appointment.

I was hopeful on the ride over to the pediatrician that we were either going to be told that she just had a little cold or that she had an ear infection.  Both are not fun with a baby, but I don't see them as being a big deal.  What I wasn't expecting was to hear that the baby had a problem that if it escalates could land her in the hospital.  Few words fill me with as much dread as the mention of a hospital stay.

Katie has bronchiolitis which apparently is a big deal when you are two months old.  The doctor tells me that in an older kid the virus which causes this will result in a cold that could either be mild or severe.  In Katie's case, she's wheezing, congested, miserable and not eating well.  Her wheezing was significant enough that the doctor put her on a nebulizer while we were there.  It made a big enough difference that he felt confident that she could benefit from nebulizer treatments at home.  So now we're on watch to see that she doesn't get worse.  We're told that if she makes it through the weekend without getting worse then we are pretty much in the clear even though she will still be sick for another week or so.  If not, she may find herself in the hospital.  I'm praying that we can avoid that.  The doctor will be monitoring her condition over the next week or so which means we'll be seeing the doctor's office every few days.  I'm hoping that she will improve between now and Friday morning when she goes back to be checked.  I can tell you that she has clearly degraded a decent amount between Christmas Eve and today.