Whoop, Whoop!

Whoop, Whoop...and not the good kind!!! On Wednesday night Leah was coughing quite a bit while she was sleeping. On Thursday morning though, she seemed fine. Thursday afternoon was a different story and by Friday morning my girl was SICK! I called the pediatrician and they said to bring her in right away...that there had been reported cases of Whooping Cough in the Public Schools. We loaded up and went to the pediatricians. When we arrived they put a mask on her and took her back VERY quickly. She was a little disturbed having to wear the mask and didn't understand why she had to wear a mask...to make matters worse the doctors and nurses were wearing mask too. They were all exposed already and were finishing up 2 weeks treatments and didn't want to be exposed again...who can blame them. They were very concerned because her cough sounded like whooping cough. They asked me TONS of questions, and gave her a thorough work-up. With her history of breathing problems and the fact that she used to be good friends with a nebulizer, they decided to give her a breathing treatment to see if she improved at all. They didn't notice much change so they swabbed her for Pertussis. She did not care for that at all...a large Q-tip up the nose is probably not anyone's idea of fun.

We got home and the cough got progressively worse, she couldn't breathe and was coughing so hard that she was throwing up. I was getting really nervous, so Mitch left work early ran by the pharmacy and came home to help me out. We quickly used the inhaler on her and the coughing got much better and she could breath. What a relief! But later in the evening the fever hit. For about 36 hours she had a temp ranging from 102.5-104.2, fun stuff! Poor Leah, and poor Kiersten too. She couldn't understand why her playmate couldn't play. While Leah laid on the couch and struggled Kiersten would bring her a blanket. "Here Sissy, have a blanket. Here Sissy, have a pillow. Here Sissy, you snuggle my lamby." It was quite precious and she kept telling Leah to feel better. Mitch made the mistake of telling Leah that she had a "Bug" So several times Leah has cried that she doesn't want to have "bugs" or "spiders" in her tummy and that she wants the bugs to "get out." Now we are working on explaining it as a germ. This morning she cried "I just want the germs to get out." My poor girl, it's so hard when your baby is sick. Mitch and I are both feeling optimistic that her Whooping cough test will come back negative...she seems to be on the mend. Thank God!

Addendum: On Tuesday the Bug got the "bug". Thankfully she has been faring much better than her big sister. The cough isn't as bad, and the fever isn't as high...but it's sure hard to get her to sit still...silly toddler!

On another note, I am now 26 weeks and 3 days pregnant. I'm starting to get uncomfortable even though I really am not that big yet. I had a check-up this past week and the doctor said that I am measuring small but I know that means nothing. Baby's heart rate was good and I have another ultrasound scheduled for March 28th. The third trimester is just around the corner. The girls, and I are all getting a little anxious to find out if this little on is a girl or boy!