Our happy bronchiolitic

Yesterday was Nolan's first 'unplanned' trip to the pediatrician :(

When we left Indiana last week, he and Brad had both started coughing a little bit. Brad is almost over it, but Nolan's little body hasn't bounced back quite as quickly. Yesterday morning he had a mild fever, so I called the pediatrician's office when I got to work (after consulting with Nurse Polly/Nanny, of course!). Apparently everybody is sick, because the only appointment they had was at the end of the day. Brad called the daycare to make sure everything was okay, and Miss Erica said he was having a good day, so we decided we could wait until that afternoon to take him in. I hadn't taken him to the doctor before this because Nurse Polly/Nanny said as long as he's still eating and sleeping well, he's not too fussy, and not running a fever, he'd be okay.

Now, keep in mind that in the midst of all of these coughing spasms, Nolan is a perfectly happy baby. He doesn't even act like anything is wrong! It's so confusing and frustrating because he can't tell me what's wrong, and I feel so bad because I know it hurts when he coughs like that. But he's such a good baby....thank God he's laid back like his Daddy!

The official diagnosis is bronchiolitis. It's going around, and this year it's lasting about 2 weeks. Which is not bad compared to the 2 months they've seen in prior years. The bad thing is that there's not much we can do, but since Nolan is a 'happy bronchiolitic', we don't have the worst situation by far. Last night he was up a little more often than usual and didn't eat quite as much as usual, so we hope we're going through the worst of it right now and that by the end of the week, we'll see some improvement. As long as we can keep him eating and hydrated, we should be in good shape. He was so good letting the doctor clean out his ears and check him out. She was talking to us about everything and the whole time Nolan was just grinning at her. He's such a little flirt, even when he doesn't feel good!

Here's a link that I found today that tells a little bit more about it. Let's hope that Nolan doesn't get the asthma genes from his Daddy, since that's more common in kids who have had bronchiolitis.

On the upside, we got a weight check while we were there too - Nolan's up to 14 lbs. 5 oz.!

So a few more sleepless nights are inevitably in store for us, but I know we're not the first ones (or the last) to go through it. We're just thankful that it's not a severe case and that Nolan seems to be happy most of the time. That makes our job much easier!