It's That Time of Year

I wish I meant that in a good way, but right now I don't. It's the time of year when Matt and I have to be hand-washing Nazi's to make sure that none of us get sick. The first thing we do when we walk in the door is wash our hands!

Unfortunately, it's not fool proof and Cadance ended up with a cold last week. No big deal, she's had a runny nose and a couple nights where it felt like we had a newborn again, but she's doing better.

Bauer, on the other hand, ended up catching it from her. He woke up on Monday and sounded stuffy. On Tuesday he was stuffy and sniffled a few times throughout the day. Then, at about 4:45 this morning, the you-know-what hit the fan. I was awake so I got up and went to the bathroom. After I got back in bed I thought I heard something... It sounded like Bauer so I nudged Matt and said, "I think Bauer's awake and he might be yelling for us." Matt got up and opened the door and immediately we heard Bauer screaming for Daddy to help him.

Matt ran up the stairs and I jumped up and followed him. We got up there and Bauer was leaning over the toilet saying he had thrown up (which he hadn't). He was wheezing and coughing so bad he was gagging and could barely breath! He was scared, sobbing, and told me this morning that he was "bamming on the stairs" to get our attention. It's hard for me to even type this out because it makes me sick to think about how terrified he must have been. It was 5 o'clock in the morning and he was having this horrific asthma attack all because he had caught a little cold from his baby sister.

We gave him a couple breathing treatments and then Matt sat in the bathroom with him with the shower running and the steam helped, too. He's doing better today but we've already done two more breathing treatments and will probably have to continue through the winter...again.

It's not that I mind the extra work it takes on our part, but it makes me so angry that he's only 4 years old and has to worry about waking up in the middle of the night because he's having an asthma attack. I know some people think we're paranoid about our kids getting sick, but that's because it's devastating to Bauer's respiratory system. I know I've told this story before, but last winter we ended up spending over $100 in co-pays and medications for one cold that Bauer caught. One cold!

I just had to write this down because I don't want to forget. This will be a reminder to us that the next time any of us gets sick, Bauer will be doing preventative breathing treatments because I don't want to him to have to experience anything like this ever again.