404 days

We made it one year, one month and seven days without sickness. No ear infections, diaper rashes, colds....it was a good run.
Last week Chloe began wheezing...which was not the norm. I kept an eye on her for a day or so to see if it would worsen. And it did. By the next day, she was coughing and it had moved from where ever it began to her chest. Her Ped got her right in. We had to go to the "sick" side of the Ped's office. We had actually gone to the sick side one other time -- which was when she got a little bumpy forehead and I was a little paranoid. Anyhow, we were the only ones on the sick side which I was thankful for, even though if there were other kids there Chloe would have likely been the sickest one there.

MICROPReeMIEism makes for crappy lungs. Crappy is the only word I can think of to describe them. Chloe's biggest issue in the NICU were her lungs. She had a long love/hate relationship with the ventilator....and beginning a respiratory infection now, it takes me back to those days.
The Ped got her right in and they listened to her lungs, looked into her ears, checked her mouth. She sounded crackly and her chest seemed struggling/retracting. All together she seemed happy still, and when the doctor got finished examining her Chloe waved "BYE-BYE." It was very Chloe. I couldn't help but get a little upset - I tried to review where we had been the previous week and how she could have possibly gotten sick. Still unknown. I honestly feel like I have some sort of post-traumatic-stress-disorder from the NICU. Although I loved the care given to Chloe and the wonderful people we met, the experience is far from great. It's daily stress, extreme medical stress. As soon as Chloe got sick I could feel my body reacting to the stress of it. It's amazing how your body reacts to situations that are out of your control. I know it's just a cold, but it feels like so much more.

They prescribed antibiotics and breathing treatments. I had already whipped out her inhaler just in case. We started her on the nebulizer 4 x a day for now. They said to bring her back in if she seemed to be doing worse - and now today, it's a bit worse.

Taking her into urgent care is not optional; she will be exposed to more nasty bugs - potentially worse than what she's got. It was actually a year ago this week when V and I took her to the ER and spent 10+ hours waiting for tests that resulted in a switched formula. 10+ hours of waiting is NOT what I'd like to do with Chloe now. I'll wait until tomorrow and go back into her Ped for additional information...

The weather is beautiful outside. We are inside, doing breathing treatments and watching our baby breathe. It's not as bad as it could be, but it's not as good as it could be, either.