A Not So Fun First

Yesterday the babies were prescribed their first antibiotic. I apparently took them into the doctor about a day too early...the next morning Ryan's cough had settled into his chest and turned croupy. I still held off calling back (because our actual pediatrician is on vacation and we were using the on-call pediatrician), but by Wednesday morning not only was his cough worse, but I could hear every breath he took as it rasped in and out. By this time, Allie had also developed a cough. I called the pedi, and he immediately put them on an antibiotic. Both of them (since he figured that if he waited for Allie I would just be calling him in a couple of days to get one for her).

Even though I know better, I was sort of hoping they would wake up this morning miraculously better. They didn't. Ryan woke up the same (at least it wasn't worse!), and Allie woke up worse - with a consistent, deep, rattling cough. This afternoon they will have been on it for 24 hours...and I'm hoping that tomorrow I will maybe see some signs of improvement... In the meantime, Lucas and I are also battling an upper-respitory something. I'm not sure if it is the same thing the babies have (although the symptoms are the same), or if it is the result of little sleep. Time will tell I guess. Thankfully, it isn't so debilitating (like the stomach bug) that I have difficulty taking care of the babies.

I have also started letting the babies have a little floor play time after each nap. I wasn't doing this because they would speed crawl in laps and get all excited, and then cough, and then cry, and then cough some more... But, after a day where they clearly let me know they were tired of their exersaucers and the same 4 Baby Einstein movies all day, I decided to work in some play time. They still (Ryan especially) end up hacking and wheezing after just a few minutes of play, but we are all much happier in general. We also got some more movies from the library (thanks to my wonderful husband), and it has helped having more variety. I think that, once they are better, we are going to have several days where we don't use the exersaucers or videos at all to detox...and I think we will all be happy with that!

The babies are still surprisingly joyful in the midst of feeling crummy, which has been an amazing lesson for me. And I am working on enjoying every minute with them...even the stressful, sleep-less, sick ones.

Note: Because I couldn't find my usb chord for the camera, I'm publishing this a day later than I intended, but that means I can give an update on today! Ryan woke up sounding a little better (I think...), but Allie woke up sounding worse. I think it was because we let her sleep in the guest room with us - the dryest room in the house. Bummer.