He Has Bronchitis. Wait, no he doesn't......

Max has his first illness. He has been coughing for a while but since he didn't have a fever and he was his usual happy self, when I've called the doctors office they have dismissed me, clearly thinking that I am simply being a worrysome mother of a brand-spanking new infant. Call it mother's intuition, call it basic common knowledge, call it whatever you want, but I knew something was up.

On Sunday, November 2nd Max woke me at 3am howling and coughing. I ran into his room and he was in his crib kicking and punching the air and he was clearly unhappy. In the midst of having his diaper changed, he had a violent coughing fit. Noticing that he was turning a horrible shade of red which was quickly turning to a blueish scarlet, I scooped him up and ran downstairs to where we had the aspirator.

(This is a handy little tool for getting the snot out of an infants nose, and for clearing excess drool or mucous from their mouth. I don't know what I would do without it.)

Max was trying desperately to clear his throat and the coughing was heart wrenching. I sucked some of the mucous out for him, which seemed to help for a second, and then he started coughing violently again. Talk about scary!!! I woke Ted up and we both decided that this was getting to be too much to ignore. So, at 8 in the morning I called the doctors office to see what I should do. Luckily, the doctor who was on call from the practice had Sunday office hours, so they said they could see him a little later in the day.

Immediately upon walking into the room where Max and I were waiting, the doctor said, "Oh, yeah. He's got bronchitis. I can hear him wheezing from here!" So, he called in a prescription for ammoxicillin and a liquid form of albuterol and off we went.

About a week passed, and Max was still coughing up a storm and wheezing. A lot. So, I called the doctors office again and we were seen that same day. This time the doctor said that Max probably had either bronchiolitis or asthma, and they gave me a nebulizer to give him treatments at home. True to my little boy's wonderful nature, he takes it all in stride, but I have to admit that it is hard to see him with that little mask on his face....

He seems to be doing better now. Ted and I have been giving him treatments and his cough seems to be getting a little less "deep". Oh, and by the way, he is already close to 18 pounds....