Sick baby... again

Well the middle of March Aiden came down with a cough. Not much of anything else, no fever, no runny nose, no crankiness just a cough. A few weeks went by and the cough got worse and worse until he was having a hard time breathing when a coughing fit would hit. I thought about taking him in to the doctor but kept pushing it off until he got pink eye on top of that. So I called that Friday morning he woke up with his eye glued shut and made an appointment. We went in and the doctor listened to his lungs and looked at his eye. He gave us drops for Aidens pink-eye and decided to try some Albuterol for Aidens lungs. It is a steroid type thing that helps open his lungs more. We did one treatment and it seemed to help the sound of his lungs. The doctor said it was sounding like Bronchiolitis again but said that is usually the case in babies that get sick with in 6 months of having RSV and since Aiden was in the hospital with that in December he hadn't cleared the 6 month mark yet. So we rented a nebulizer machine and went and got his meds from the pharmacy and was told to do a treatment every 4-6 hours. The next day he ate his regular 6 oz bottle in the morning and then slept forever when he was hungry again about an hour after James and Tricia showed up I fed him his rice cereal like normal and not even ten minutes later he threw it all up because of a coughing fit. That was a little weird so a little later I fed him a bottle again since he seemed to be hungry and once again he threw it all up. Eventually we learned that the most he could hold down at any one time was about 2 oz and would only take a total of about 10 oz the entire day. Usually he has 24 oz of formula and 3 meals of rice cereal food, so I was really starting to get worried. On top of not eating he wasn't sleeping very well which meant I wasn't sleeping very well. He would wake up every 2-3 hours but didn't want to eat and would just scream out in random bursts. So, on Thursday I hit my breaking point and took him back to the doctors office. Sadly I didn't have my car since Mike had to take it to work because his tire blew on the freeway the night before. So I bundled up Aiden and tried  to get Ethan Evy and Caleb, who I was watching that day, to wear their coats but they didn't want to so they got to freeze on our nice long walk. We walked to the doctors office and the doctor said that he sounded a little better but is still pretty bad and when the weighed Aiden he had lost a pound in that week. Aiden also had a double ear infection which they would treat with antibiotics. The doctor also wrote a prescription for Budesonide which is a stronger steroid to be given once in the morning and once at night and do Albuterol during the day if needed. So I gathered all 4 kids and walked to the pharmacy which is a good 30 minute walk. We got there and ended up trading in the used nebulizer for a new one that I bought since we have to do the morning and night one for a couple months and we made the 45 minute walk home. The kids were exhausted by the time we got home and so I fed them and sent them upstairs so I could start Aidens meds. With in 4 hours of me giving him the antibiotics and the new inhaled drug he was able to stomach 3 oz at a time. It has been just 2 days since we got the new drugs and Aiden is sleeping a little better. Not perfect but better and is up to 4 oz at a time for a total of about 18 oz a day which is an improvement. He seems to be doing a ton better and his cough isnt as often or as hard and long as usual so I think he is on the mend. This poor kid has had a rough start to life. I just hope it gets better for him soon.

Poor baby getting his medicine. He hates the mask so we have to hold down his arms and the poor baby screams the entire 15 minutes. We have found if we can time it so he is sleeping he doesnt even notice it though, so that is nice.