Rough Few Weeks

Never before have I been more thankful that overall we have 3 very healthy and happy boys!!  These last 2 weeks however are really starting to take it's toll on this momma!  It started on a Thursday... Jacob came down with a really bad cough with a little bit of congestion.  By Monday we were heading to the doctor, knowing that these types of things always end up in his chest.  Sure enough... the beginning sounds of pneumonia and a lot of junk in his sinuses.  So, we begin antibiotic #1 that lasted for 5 days.  Fingers crossed this works and he doesn't go into full blown pneumonia.  Tuesday Luke starts with the cough but he seems to be handling it pretty well.  No fever, little congestion... so on Thursday we're back at the doctor's office but this time for Luke's 6 month well visit.  Since it was "only" a cough they decided shots would be fine.  Within a few hours he was in a bad way!!  Miserable, screamed if you touched or moved him, didn't want to be put down, tired, cranky, and then by that evening his fever was 103.  Stinking shots!!!  That same night, Thursday, night Chase wakes up in the middle of the night with a really high fever... and by really high I mean up over 104!  What in the world is going on... now we have not just one child sick and on antibiotics, but the other two are running super high fevers.  By Friday afternoon, Chase's fever was gone and he was back to normal.  Jacob didn't really seem to be any better, except for the fact that his sinuses had improved some.  Luke was still running a high fever but at that point I was just thinking it was still a result of his shots.  All weekend Luke goes downhill... lots of calls to our pediatrician's triage nurse line were made.  I've never had a 6 month old with such a terrible cough so this is all new to me!  Sunday morning Charles takes the big boys to church... again, at that point we thought Jacob was coming out of his crud.  About an hour after they leave I start to notice that Luke is wheezing ... I am not a doctor but I know that is not the kind of sound you want coming from a 6 month old's lungs!  So, off to the weekend clinic downtown.  I pray a shield of protection about him as we walk into the office, knowing that it's mainly the sickest of the sick who get seen on the weekends.  The doctor diagnoses him with bronchiolitis that probably started out as RSV.  They do a breathing treatment in the office to see if he would be one of the 50% of babies who respond well to the steroids.  The treatment helped a little but not as much as they would have liked.  Sunday afternoon I'm getting ready to talk out the door and Jacob wakes up from his nap with a very high fever... again, up over 104.  Thinking that he probably has the fever virus that Chase had I thought I'd give him a good 24-36 hours before I start to worry about it.  Well, by Tuesday morning he still is running a high fever so off to our 4th doctor's visit in a week... a horribly infected ear and very nasty sounding lungs, full blown pneumonia.  Now on antibiotic #2, a very strong one that is used mainly to treat the lungs and hoping the ear gets treated at the same time!  Ugh!  And then this morning off to the doctor again for Luke... wheezing is back, cough is just as bad as ever.... his bronchiolitis has gotten worse but his pulse ox levels were still good.  Keeping a close eye on him as his body continues to fight this, praying he starts moving in the right direction and that it won't affect him down the road. I think the one thing that could only make all of this worse is the fact that I have not gotten a full night of uninterrupted sleep in well over 2 months... and lately it has been sleep for an hour or so, crying baby, sleep for an hour, crying baby... so on and so forth all night long.  Last night from 1-3:30 he was only content if he was sleeping on my chest.  Like I said at the beginning, never before have I been more thankful that this life, life with sick children, is only temporary and that we have been blessed with such healthy kids! 

... need I say more?