January - Not My Favorite Month

Yesterday and today have been much like those January days back in 2011 when Sylvia had RSV and I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to handle it.  I remember feeling duped - like I fell asleep in class the day they taught about respiratory infections. Like every other mother in the entire world was laughing at me and saying, "You didn't know about RSV?  Ha!  And you call yourself a mother?!"  I felt that way then, and I feel that way now.  Because guess what RSV turns into after it's left untreated?

Bronchiolitis!  Yay!!  That's what Margot has at the moment, and I'm telling you, I've never felt like a less successful parent than I did today.  I'll start at the beginning, so that if I end up here again someday I'll have an electronic paper trail of my stupidity.

It starts with Sylvia a few weeks ago. This should have been a blog post by itself, because this was my first major "DUH YOU'RE AN IDIOT" moment.  She was up all night long screaming and crying and not wanting to sleep in her bed.  I was convinced it was the fallout from Christmas - she was over-spoiled and trying to get away with anything.  I let her out of her bed and into the guest bed, then on the couch, then in our bed, then back to the couch....we were up all night.  I called my Mom in tears the next morning because just when Sylvia fell asleep on top of me at 2:30am, Margot woke up.  Same thing at 4:30am.  Same thing at 6:30am.  Long story short, Mom came over for the morning to take care of Margot so the rest of us could sleep.  We took Sylvia to the doctor because even though she didn't have a fever, I had to find out if there was something wrong with her.  I guess this is actually a parenting triumph because at least I had enough sense to take her to the doctor!  I was so worried they would tell me there was nothing wrong, which meant she was just being difficult on purpose, in which case I wasn't sure what I was going to do.  Instead, the doctor told me she had a ruptured ear drum!  Because her ears were infected for WHO KNOWS how long!  Hooray???  At least I wasn't crazy, but I felt TERRIBLE for that poor kid.  We put her on antibiotics and in a couple days she was all better. 

Meanwhile, Margot's had a runny nose and gunky eyes for - her whole life.  Or at least since before Christmas, I can't remember.  On Friday, both girls woke up with gunky eyes, which was weird because Sylvia doesn't usually have those.  On Saturday, their eyes were gunked SHUT and I thought, hmmm....perhaps we should go to the doctor and rule out pink eye.  So, back to the doctor we went on Saturday morning and BINGO!  Pink eye.  For both of them.  Now they're both on antibiotic eye drops, which is a total party, if you're into pinning tiny people down and shoving sticky medicine in their eyes.  No fun.  In fact, the treatment for pink eye is way worse than the symptoms.  I'd much rather deal with itchy eyes that need to be wiped off with warm water all day, but...you know...it's contagious and they have to be around other kids at some point.  So eye drops it is!

Saturday afternoon we administered eye drops all around and I thought we were in the clear, until Margot spiked a fever.  I chalked it up to teething because that makes SENSE, gave her some Tylenol before bed, and she slept as well as she does any other night. But on Sunday morning I noticed that her head was on FIRE and her temp was like, 103.  So, I flipped out and called the doctor, who said to keep an eye on her for the day and night and to bring her in the next morning if she still had a fever. 

Well, Margot was completely OUT of it all day yesterday!  I've never seen anything like it.  She was in and out of sleep, she only wanted to be held, and even when she wasn't being held she was too puny and worn out to cry, so she just stared into space and whimpered.  It was awful.  We gave her a bath before bed, which helped perk her up a bit, but then she threw up her milk right before we put her to bed for the night.  I let her sleep in her carrier right next to my side of the bed and she actually had a pretty good night.  When she woke up at midnight I fed her, since she had hardly eaten all day, then she slept until 7:00am!  But she still had a fever, so I took her to the doctor (they might as well have a chair in the waiting room labeled "For the Fasciotto's"), and we come to find....she has an EAR INFECTION (thanks, Sylvia) and bronchiolitis, which comes from an infected respiratory system. 

GAHH!!  How did I not SEE this coming?!  She's been coughing for days and we were IN the OFFICE on Saturday, at which point I told the doctor she's been fine.  In my defense, the doctor looked at her ears on Saturday and they were clear, but by today (Monday) they became infected, I guess.  Or maybe she didn't see the infection Saturday because of all the wax.  She had to PULL the wax out of Margot's ears today to see in them.  Which has also happened to Sylvia every single time we go to the doctor.  I blame my husband for giving my kids FREAKISHLY SMALL ears - that get infected. 

Anyway, the ear infection is bacterial, so she can have an antibiotic for that, but the LUNG infection is viral, so we have to let it "run it's course."  This means, that on top of the milk, which she's not keeping down, I have to give her an antibiotic and tylenol, which her stomach hates.  On top of THAT she has a ton of drainage and congestion - so she's been puking all day.  OH!  Don't forget the eye drops.  We still have that party to attend.

So, poor Margot is downstairs snoozing away in her car seat so she doesn't choke on her own snot, I'm up here working on sub plans for the whole week because the doctor said her bronchiolitis is contagious for "days and days," Sylvia has forgotten what I look like because I don't think I've said more than two words to her all day, and Sylvain is tiptoeing around all of us, wondering when I'm going to SNAP!  Which might have been just that very second as I typed the word "snap."  Or maybe that was my ear drum rupturing.  Either way, I feel some relief.

January - I hate you.