One long Month of Sickies

Between December 21st and January 21st we were at the Pediatrician's office once a week. Visit #1 was December 21st for Derrick's one month appointment. The next week we were there for Visit #2 to follow up on Collin's ER visit on Christmas night (see Christmas post for more details). Turns out the low fever he had been running was because of a double ear infection. So we got an antibiotic for that, on top of his breathing treatments we were doing a few times a day, and a steroid the ER prescribed for a couple of days. As hard as we tried to keep Collin away from Derrick he came down with this nasty virus too. So the first week in January we were there for Visit #3. Thankfully his was just a stuffy nose and a cough but since he was so young they prescribed a breathing treatment for him as well and we had a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia (he had already been sick for a few days since he start coming down with it over New Year's/the weekend).  Thankfully the x-ray came back clear. By this point we were nearing the end of Collins antibiotic round. But he still wasn't acting 100% and if I remember correctly his fever came back too. After a call to the nurse we decided it would be best to take him back in for Visit #4. Poor boy still had a double ear infection. So it was back to the pharmacy for round 2 of antibiotics, this one a little stronger. And instructions to come back in a couple weeks to make sure his ears had cleared up. We were already scheduled to come in later the following week for Visit #5 for Derrick's 2 month appointment. Thankfully they were able to save us another visit and check them while we were there and they were clearing up nicely! We finished up the round of antibiotics and thankfully both boys seemed to stay relatively healthy (minus 2 bouts of a stomach bug for Collin at the end of February almost exactly a month later at the end of March- poor boy seemed to catch it all!) the rest of the winter! By some miracle Michael did not catch the bug. Unfortunately I came down with a stuffy nose. Mom's should be exempt from being sick! Especially nursing moms, because it severely limited what I could take without fear of reducing my supply. I am fairly certain it turned into a sinus infection because it lasted pretty much the whole month of January. Thankfully some simple saline spray seemed to help start clearing things up and I was better by the time we moved at the end of January. It was pretty miserable while it lasted though.

At least our sickies looked cute while doing their treatments. Collin became a bit obsessed about medicine though, so we had lots of talks about only Mommy and Daddy can touch the medicine, etc.

 

I forgot that Collin broke out in a rash as well. Poor Boy! 

 

 Collin's treatment came in an inhaler form with this device we held up to his face. Thankfully we didn't have to keep him still for the nebulizer like Derrick had! He loved to help push the button.

 Thankfully Derrick slept through most of his! Most annoying part was that it lasted about 10 minutes each time and we were doing it a few times a day.

 Collin always loved to "help"!

Despite feeling crummy we got our 1st intentional smile from our cute boy on January 5th! And I caught it on camera ;)

And if I gained one thing from this whole experience it was confidence in managing both kids at the doctor's office solo- even when Derrick had to get shots at visit #5!