Bronchiolitis

So yesterday morning Fred and I watched as our little girl struggled to breath and decided to call the pediatrician for a Saturday appointment. Fortunately, the doctor could see Charlotte forty minutes later, so we quickly loaded up and made our way to see the pediatrician on call.

As we packed Charlotte into the car, I felt like the first time mom that I am, hurrying my baby off to the doctor because of a cold, certain we'd come home with a little extra advise on how to make her comfortable.

The nurse weighed her (14 lbs 11.5 oz - she's still gaining weight, that's good!), measured her length (24 inches - 2" longer in 6 weeks!), and confused me by asking if Charlotte had received her 4,6, and 9 month shots. She started talking about doing shots, and I nearly freaked out thinking the doctor was going to pressure me into vaccinating my sick baby on the spot. Luckily the nurse confessed she thought I'd said Charlotte was 12 months, not 12 weeks. Whoa! Too much partying on Friday night or what!? These people see babies EVERY DAY for crying out loud.

So the Doctor came in for 30 seconds, asked what was wrong, placed his stethoscope on her chest, said "she's more than just congested," and walked out of the room. The nurse came back with a nebulizer and hooked her up for a breathing treatment. Of course the doctor came back and talked to us after that, gave us our own nebulizer, prescription, steroids, directions on what to do, and instructions to come back Tuesday and call him if we had any additional concerns.

She's still wheezing off and on, but hopefully the treatments will kick in better soon. We find out tomorrow if its RSV - which apparently is most common between 3-6 months of age & can be deadly. Fortunately, the same breathing treatments apply for RSV( See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respiratory_syncytial_virus ).

YIPES!