Sick

So our poor little guy has been sick since Tuesday. At first we thought it was just a cold or that it was teething-related since his eye teeth (and a million others) are all poking through. The amount of snot, drool and tears soaking his face these last few days is unbelievable. He has been clinging to me like a little monkey, and will hardly go to anyone else, even Scott. He only sleeps if he's in bed with me and lies practically on top of me...so needless to say, I haven't slept in three nights. We had Camden's 18 month well-child check up scheduled for today, so we decided to wait until today to bring him to our pediatrician since it's about 45 minutes away. He was a blubbering mess as Dr. Turkington tried to check his ears and eyes and throat and everything. We talked a little about normal 18 month check-up stuff - food, words, sleeping, all the new things he's learning, but most of that discussion was put aside to deal with the little mess we had on our hands.

It turns out that Camden has a Respiratory infection called RSV - Respiratory Syncytial Virus. Apparently, tons of kids in the area are sick with this. It can be very dangerous for newborns and kids with asthma, but Camden should handle it fine. The bad news is that he is in a lot of pain (ears, throat, fever, cough, snot...) and that he's going to get worse before he gets better! He's already coughing to the point of choking, so I'm a little nervous about this getting worse. We have an inhaler of Abuterol to give him connected to a little mask...but he definitely doesn't like it. Hopefully he'll get used to it so he can improve.

He is such a pitiful sight to see. Here are a few pictures from today...

 

  

This is the only way he'll sleep, so I'm spending a lot of time in bed...

 

 Right when we finally night-weaned him and got him sleeping through the night (until 4:00am) he gets sick.  Oh well...his health and my sanity are more important than routines, so it's back to nursing on demand and co-sleeping until the worst is over!  I'm lying in bed next to him right now.  Scott has an away basketball game in Connecticut and won't be home until 11:30, so I'm all stocked up with some movies and a glass of water to get me through the night - no Olympic Opening Ceremonies for me tonight!

Hope everyone else is staying healthy!  We feel so blessed that this is only Camden's second (and worse) sickness (yes, this is worse than his bout of Swine Flu) and are looking forward to having our healthy, happy boy back soon!