From the Kadish Family: Hanging Out at Home

The last two weeks have been a handful, to say the least. We have pretty much been confined to the house because Tristan got RSV, I ended up with a bad sinus infection and Victor got a cold. In other words, over the past two weeks we have not had one day where at least one of us wasn't feeling 100%. I know there are a lot of parents out there that can attest to the "fun" of taking care of a sick child, but when you are sick, oh yeah, and pregnant, it's really a lot of "fun".

I guess it all began with me and my allergies, not that I caused the multiple illnesses going on in our house, but I suppose I could have prevented mine. Anyways, since the beginning of the year I have been suffering from some crazy allergies. I started waking up in the middle of the night having sneezing fits, constantly had to blow my nose, and my throat and ears itched all day long. Since I don't normally suffer from allergies, I figured I was just having a stronger than normal reaction to all the stuff in the air due to our crazy hot-cold weather pattern. When my annoying symptoms lingered on, and the weather had once again changed, I chalked my allergies up to the fact that I was pregnant and my body was just all messed from the raging hormones. This went on for about 2 weeks and all the while I didn't take any kind of allergy medicine because I figured it would be better for me to just suffer through it and not take any risks with medicine (sometimes I tend to overreact about the whole medicine thing and pregnancy).

Needless to say, I only got worse. My nose was so stopped up I couldn't breath through it, which made sleeping near impossible, so I was up half the night on most nights. Anyone notice I was keeping up with my blog pretty regularly? After 7 or 8 days of only sleeping 3 or 4 hours a night I finally broke down and called my OB to ask her what I could take. Okay, so I know there are a lot of people out there that 3 or 4 hours of sleep is all they need, but I am not one of them, especially since I am pregnant and chasing after an extremely active 1 year old all day! I took some Claritin D and a nose spray and finally got a little relief and figured that would be the end to my sleepless nights.

Naturally, around this time Tristan started to show some signs that he was coming down with a little cold, he was coughing and his nose was pretty runny, which started to wake him up at night. No sleep for me! This occurred over the weekend and I figured he was suffering from the same allergy problems I was, but when he woke up last Monday sounding like a walrus, I knew it was more than that. We headed off to the doctor, where they tested him for RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), which came back positive.

Essentially, RSV is basically a cold for most people, but can be extremely dangerous for premature babies. Luckily for us, Tristan wasn't a preemie and he's over a year old, so he was just going to have to deal with a yucky cold. The pediatrician prescribed an antibiotic, a decongestant and breathing treatments to clear him up and said to stay away from other kids for about 2 weeks. Since we have dealt with breathing treatments before, I knew I was going to be in for one heck of a week. Administering a breathing treatment three times a day to a kicking, screaming one year old, who doesn't want that mask with steam blowing out of it is part of that "fun" I mentioned earlier. Tristan would get himself so worked up during the course of the treatment that by the end his whole body was hot and sweaty and face was completely red. He is such a little fighter when it comes to doing something he doesn't want to do...so stubborn!

During this time I was feeling progressively worse. I had my 24 week check up the day after I took Tristan to the doctor, so I told my OB and she put me on a different allergy medicine. Unfortunately, it didn't do much and I was still unable to sleep. I was so exhausted and couldn't breathe and poor Tristan was feeling pretty lousy. Fortunately, Victor's Mom really helped me out by watching Tristan a couple of days during the week so I could rest and try to get some sleep. Thanks Mildred!

One more time, I called my OB and told her I think I had more than allergies. She ended up prescribing me antibiotic for a sinus infection. FINALLY, some real relief, this stuff did the trick! So, by last weekend I was starting to feel better, as was Tristan, but Victor was starting to feel worse. He ended up getting a little cold, but was able to recover with some rest over the weekend.

By Monday of this week, our whole household was feeling 100% better. But, since the pediatrician said to keep Tristan away from other kids for 2 weeks, we are pretty much confined to the house until the weekend/next week! We have definitely been getting good use out of all of Tristan's toys, but I think he is ready to get outside. The poor kid runs for the door when he hears it open and cries when he sees it close.

So anyways, that is the end of this long story...I guess I could have summed it up like this "we were all sick, stuck in the house for two weeks, absolutely no fun", but I am sure you enjoyed the long version better, right? :)

Tristan's first day of being sick - can you tell he's not feeling well?