Under the Weather

Just when I started thinking I had this whole motherhood thing down pat, it happened. Our first illness. I should have known this was coming because we just got the bedtime routine and sleeping schedule fairly regular and things were finally settling down a bit. Sunday morning I took Landon to the doctor after he was up all night coughing, sneezing, and just moaning in misery. Luckily, our pediatrician's office is open 7 days a week. I was so afraid they would just tell me he had a cold and send me home with a "good luck!", but it turns out he has bronchitis and an ear infection. He got a breathing treatment in the office and they sent us home with a tiny little oxygen machine shaped like a little penguin who I have affectionately nicknamed Chilly Willy. Landon hates Chilly Willy and the steaming mask that comes with him. I have to give him 4 breathing treatments of albuterol a day. Bailey is there for moral support as I force my little guy to breathe in the medicated steam. It's working already, though. In the last 36 hours, I feel like I have earned another badge of motherhood. I have begged and pleaded with a 5 month old to open his little mouth for medicine or lie still so I can put drops in his nose. I have wrestled, pinned down, and bargained with this miniature version of my husband, and now know Landon is just as stubborn as his daddy. You're not going to get him to do anything he doesn't want to without a fight. I have had penicillin literally blown back in my face, my finger mashed as I tried to pry open those little gums, and had to hold down the little bucking bronco to get the mask on him. As bad as he feels, he still has a considerable amount of fight left in him. It took Mike and I both to pin him down yesterday to use the nasal aspirator (aka booger sucker) on him so he could breathe well enough to eat. I'm sure this is just the first of many, many sleepless sickly nights ahead of us. I should just thank my lucky stars it's not the stomach flu!