First Illness

Bella caught her first nasty bug....sickness bug I am talking about! When in Tennessee for Chris' work conference January 3-8th, Bella started getting really hoarse, raspy and stuffed up. She started coughing pretty bad, had a fever, sneezed alot, and just sounded all together congested. She also was a bit more fussy then usual...or I guess I should say she was fussy at all...normally she never is, so we knew this was out of HER ordinary!

My sister was watching her up in the hotel room for us while at the conference and she told me that she stood in the bathroom with the shower running hot water to force a little steam/heat through Bella's airways to help clear it up/out. Unfortunately, her little body was already exposed!

Thankfully, she was still pretty happy and did not cause too much of a fuss, but her little hoarse cry and voice was quite heartbreaking to listen to...so very very sad for this mommy!

With some medical advice from qualified individuals, we decided to forego a doctor's appointment try and let her ride it out as we figured it was just a virus and the docs would have just told us to do the same things we were already doing. Her fever did break, however, along with the horrible coughing spells, sneezing, runny nose/drainage she had going on, she started wheezing a bit on that following Saturday. I called a triage nurse to tell of the situation and all that had been going on and that the wheezing was something new and causing me to be a bit concerned. I didn't want to be the new, first time mom that took her child in at the slightest sniffle, but the wheezing mixed with the horrible, horrible coughing spells was definitely justification for a phone call! So, at 6:00pm that Saturday (10th), we took Bella to an urgent care facility designed specifically for pediatrics.

We were the only ones there, so we walked right in to get started. Bella's saturation levels were only at 93%, which is not that great and basically means...baby can't breath real well! They started her on a breathing treatment of albuterol to clear the airway and see how she would react and if the levels would come up. PRaise the Lord, they did! They came up to 98% after just a few minutes on the machine and stayed consistent. That saved us to an overnight trip to the hospital! WAHOO! The doc called Bella the "Happy Wheezer" because even through it all and the first treatment, she just sat there on Daddy's lap smiling underneath her mask at anyone that came into the room! It was pretty dang cute!

She was diagnosed with bronculitis which is pretty much what bronchitis is for adults, but affects a smaller breathing tree in the lungs for babies. Working hand in hand with that was a left ear infection she got as well. We were given Amoxicilian for the ear infection, and our insurance bought us a new breathing machine that we got to take home and use on Bella for the next week every 4 hours!!! Can you tell how excited we were?!?! :)

Anywho, that was our life for the past week and a half. We tried to start prolonging the breathing treatments as recommended since her wheezing had gone away...or so we thought, but when we went in last Tuesday to our docs, she confirmed that sure, the external wheezing went away, but she was still wheezing internally. BOO! So anywho, we had to move the treatments back to every 4 hours. Chris was a REAL trooper pulling most of the middle of the night treatments at 1am and 5am since I came down with it all too. When I started feeling better, we began swapping back and forth on those treatments until Monday when we ran out of the prescription. DARN! :) Seriously, though, Bella is doing very very well. She hasn't even coughed since last Wednesday and sounds back to her normal self. Bella would normally sleep right through the nighttime treatments even though we had to pick her up and hold her pretty upright. She lost not a wink of sleep that time, but Daddy and I sure did!

I take her into the docs yesterday for a follow-up to the follow-up. I was anticipating a full recovery and that's what I got! Looking forward to longer nights of sleep in the near future for parents!! :)

Here is a sad little picture of her with her mask and treatment going! For the most part she would just sit there on your lap calmly until it finished, but there were a few times when she would cry alot and not want the mask on and would pull at it...but who could blame her?!?

Bella would hold the mask in place herself sometimes! Daddy wanted me to make sure I got it on camera!

Couldn't leave you with a sad little picture of her breathing treatment! A smiley little baby is always better!