Optimism Challenged

This week has definitely been a lot to handle, mentally, physically and emotionally. I was looking forward to a week with just my girl, Bryan is out of town, but basically before we even got our week started Reese came down with an awful cold and everything went out the window. I noticed a bad cough on Sunday but the cough only came a handful of times throughout the entire day and there was no other indication that anything else wasn’t right with her. We enjoyed the day spent at church, taking a good nap, and then going for a run and to U Village to play on their playground structure and grab a quick dinner. Reese didn’t want a bite and when I put her down for bed was when I heard the cough pick up and I got a little worried.

3:45 AM and Reese has woken me up in bouts of coughing fits. She manages to go in and out of sleep but with her bad cough and what sounds like difficulty getting a full breath I’m laying there wide awake, until about 6 am when we go downstairs. At this point Reese is awake and crying “Mommmmm”. I’m debating what to do. I call the nurse’s line and leave a message and then get Reese in the car to go to Seattle Children’s Hospital. I’m nearly there when the nurse’s line calls back, asks a bunch of questions, tells me it sounds like croup and to make an appointment at our normal clinic when they open at 8 AM. We head home, Reese (and myself) both fall asleep and take a nap, wake up and call the clinic and they have no appointments available and tell me to get assessed at Seattle Children’s. Reese is hungry and eats a ton at breakfast and then we get back in the car to go to the children’s ER. We are there about 90 minutes and Reese gets checked out by a few doctors and they say she has croup and give her an oral steroid to reduce inflammation but you can’t even tell anything is amiss as she is jumping up and down on the hospital bed and begging to blow bubbles.

That’s how most of Monday and Tuesday went; at times she seemed tired and clingy, she’d cough occasionally (mostly at nap or bed time), didn’t sleep well but had lots of energy (cue terrible duo for her mom) and still really wanted to be outside. I thought Reese was ready to get back into her daily routine on Tuesday but we waited one more day just to be safe. We went to the library story time at the Beacon Hill branch on Tuesday and also to the park. We made it a good day.

Then Wednesday came and she was so much worse and my patience and energy were dwindling. I called the doctor because her situation was getting worse and they told me they did want me to come back in, which we did at 4 PM. By this third day, she was now coughing more, sneezing a bunch, and with every sneeze there was just an insane amount of boogies. She was miserable at home so we had to get out of the house but it was pouring down rain so we went to the Garfield Community Center for their tot gym. I know I took a sick kid to a public place but every single kid there was coughing. Reese had a blast, despite being sick, and came back to nap before her doctors appointment. The doctor confirmed that it is just a very bad cold and usually days 3-5 are the worst. Great! We are on day 3 so does that mean we still had two more bad days? Yes, pretty much.

But Wednesday was by far the worst. Thursday she was a bit better and knowing that she doesn’t have a fever and it is just a cold I decided to try her at Sarah’s for a little bit just so I could get some relief and get a few things done. She didn’t want me to leave at first but then settled in and took a 3 hour nap over there. But once up she wasn’t easily comforted (she was still protesting all food for the second day in a row) and I went to go pick her back up around 2:30 PM. The short break did wonders for me though and we came back home and had fun around the house.

And I’m finally back at work today on my normal schedule. Her boogies are now thick and causing her to stuff up but she has started eating some things again and seems in a more chipper mood. She still isn’t sleeping great so I’m back to feeling like Zombie Mom but it’s nice to have at least one normalish day this week. I wish they had all been like this and this week would have been a breeze, and more social, and more fun, but at least we are on the mend and hopefully she will get back to her good sleeping routine soon after she is fully recovered. And this whole experience definitely makes me feel grateful that she has had so few times of being sick in her life this far.

Feeling optimistic about the weekend (although this rain has got to stop) and definitely looking forward for Bryan returning home. I’m sure she is going to be feeling better right when he does get home, go figure!

Chelsea