After waking up wheezing on Friday, and coughing until she puked all over, I decided a trip to the pediatrician was warranted. The visiting pediatrician (who was awesome, by the way) congratulated me (!!) on catching the symptoms early and recognizing the wheezing as a problem. And then prescribed Albuterol.
Albuterol is a bronchodilator that is given in an inhalant form (for itty bitty kids there's a mask attachment). It's wonderful, it cleared the wheezing right up, helps her breathe (if she can ever get her nose to quit running)...but one teensy, tiny, little minuscule drawback.
She can't sleep. It makes her wired. Jittery even.
We're talking about a kid who naps, on average, 3 times a day. In the last two days, she has napped a combined total of 40 minutes. No big deal, she'll sleep at night, right? Wrong. Not only is it a struggle to get her to sleep, she doesn't stay asleep very well. And a couple hours later, she'll wake up wheezing again. So do I put her back to bed, let her get the rest she needs to be well, and listen to her struggling to breathe? Or do I give her more medication, clear up the rattle in her lungs, and stay up with a cranky baby?
I went from having a daughter that looked at me so sweetly and so gratefully when I put her down for naps to having a daughter who snuggles into her cuddle (my name for her polkadot fleece blanket) only to start screaming 2 minutes later because she can't shut her brain off.
Is it too early to give her a sippy cup of Airborne?
On the plus side, even though she is awake ALL day, Alaina is still a sweet baby to be around. Takes a little bit of extra entertaining (otherwise she dissolves into a fit of exhausted crying that still doesn't parlay into a nap), but is otherwise charming as usual. This was a photo I snapped of her on our walk today:
She's so proud of those little teeth. Alaina kept smiling for anyone who paid her the least bit of attention, like she was saying, "Look, I'm getting teeth, just like you!"
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