Saturday, April 18, 2015

breathing and unbroken

Oh hey look, another week flew by. 

Well, parts of it flew. Some parts were a bit draggy. Millie started wheezing again, right about the time when her sinus infection should have been clearing up. Time tends to drag when your baby is struggling to breathe. For the fiftieth (or so) time this winter/spring.

Luckily (??) this time was the straw that broke the camel's back and we left the doctor's office with an asthma diagnosis (not really serious- "mild intermittent asthma," triggered by respiratory illness) and a prescription for a nebulizer! I am so relieved, to be honest. I hate feeling helpless every time her otherwise-inconsequential colds/allergies/viruses morph into constant wheezing and struggling to breathe, leading to too many after-hours chats with the doctor and prescriptions for steroids. Now we can do breathing treatments at the first sign of respiratory junk and hopefully keep her from getting to that point again.

So we spent all our spare time learning how to do breathing treatments!! True to character, Millie was pretty chill about the whole thing.

Don't bother me, Mom. I'm reading books and looking like Darth Vader!

A nebulizer selfie? Isn't this kind of pathetic, Mom?
 The doctor and pharmacists all said that most babies fight the treatments, but she really isn't too fazed by the whole thing. Sometimes she naps, sometimes she imitates the noise that the machine makes, and sometimes she just keeps on doing her thing- jumping, as the case may be.

Don't be jealous of my awesome Saturday morning fashion.
And as hoped, her breathing and coughing immediately improved once we started treatments. Now she's just a normal snotty baby- yay! And she can focus on the truly important things in life: learning to pull up on stuff.


And pretending she's about to crawl. Even though she's not.


She's also working on penning her first novel. Probably the Next Great American Novel, actually.

...and yet all they give me to write on is this little pad of sticky notes. How they underestimate me.


As for me, I've spent every spare moment of the week trying to read Unbroken for book club tonight. I finished at 4:00 this afternoon, so give me a gold star or something. (Actually, if you're going to give me a gold star, it should be for the goat cheese-stuffed, bacon-wrapped dates that I made to take tonight. If I make it there and there are actually any left...that will be star-worthy.) I'll admit that this isn't the type of book I would ever have chosen to read on my own (it's a biography, for one. NOT FICTION. As in...not really my thing), but I'm glad that I did read it. It was long and really hard to read at times (for different reasons- sometimes because they were going on and on about the minutiae of the various planes used by the Air Force during the 1940s (surprisingly, another thing I'm not really passionate about!), sometimes because the subject matter (being a POW in Japanese work camps) was incredibly disturbing and horrifying)...but I feel like I learned a lot and it was an amazing story in the end. It also made me feel like the stupidest person ever for anything I have ever complained about. Like even my deepest pain and most awful situations seem laughable, basically. Poor little spoiled American brat...waaah, waaah. Anyway, I think that our discussion tonight will be a good one. I'm also hoping that I'll find that I'm not the only one who knew so incredibly little about the role of Japan in World War II. That was my other takeaway from the book. I'm a spoiled brat, and incredibly ignorant about WWII. Well, at least one of those things I can remedy with some more reading and my old friend Wikipedia...

The dates Book club is calling my name- time to go! Have a great rest of the weekend!

24 comments:

  1. Poor thing! Glad she's getting some relief and isn't too bothered by the treatments.

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  2. I'm so glad she doesn't mind the neb :) And she looks so cute doing it! I love her little pink pants!
    I have Unbroken as my next book to read and I've heard pretty much the same review you gave it. I've wanted to see the movie but I wanted to read the book first.

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  3. I'm so glad she doesn't mind the neb :) And she looks so cute doing it! I love her little pink pants!
    I have Unbroken as my next book to read and I've heard pretty much the same review you gave it. I've wanted to see the movie but I wanted to read the book first.

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  4. That little wheezer sure is looking grown up! The asthma ain't slowin' her down!

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  5. What a little champ! So glad the treatments don't seem to bother her. :)

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  6. Millie is such a good girl! We had the same exact diagnosis for our youngest and he has since out grown it. The nebulizer really is a respiratory life saver...treatments at first sign of distress will save many calls and doctor visits! Hoping your girl continues on the mend!

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  7. She makes breathing treatments look good!

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  8. I'm glad the breathing treatments help! My fiance has really bad asthma and I feel so bad when he is struggling to breathe, I don't know how I would be able to handle it if it was my baby! My friend and I were also inspired by your post and we started a book club and our first meeting is this week! I hope that you enjoy yours. :)

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  9. Oh my goodness she is so beautiful! I'm glad that the treatments are helping.

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  10. I'm really becoming very appreciative of your weekend blogging routine. You're filling a very obvious gap in my late night/early morning feeding situation on those nights.

    Glad Millie is doing well with the breathing treatments. Though I kind of wish she'd pitch a fit about SOMETHING! I'm just going to assume she's saving up her fits for the toddler years, or better yet, the teenage ones. ; )

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  11. Milie has to be the most relaxed little baby in the south! (We've the the one in the north!) I hope Millie was writing her 'guest blog' post. I'd love to hear what she has to say!!!

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  12. Glad the nebulizer seems to help! The twins have never used one but I watched Davis do it and it was just so pitiful :( So I'm glad she's taking it in stride... I wonder if she will always be this laid back?

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  13. Aww! J had to use a nebulizer when he was a baby too. He had severe asthma though. The stories I hear kinda scare me because he didn't have it easy. He actually still has his old school nebulizer lol used it once when he was having trouble breathing. Hope she continues to get better and doesn't have any complications.

    BTW good for u for finishing a book that wasn't on ur favorites list. I have a hard time finishing a book that I'm not really into.

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  14. Aww poor thing :( I am so glad the treatment helped. She and I could be nebulizer twins!! I occasionally still have to use mine do to asthma and I've had to have one since probably 3rd grade.

    I had a hard time reading that book and I couldn't even finish it. I have heard so many people talk about how great it is but I just could not get into it.

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  15. SO glad you got a diagnosis!!!! Sweet girl!

    Such a good book (way too long though)! I want to see the movie!!!

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  16. She sure is a champ! Way to go Millie! I am glad the treatment helped and I hope she feels better soon :)

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  17. Only your daughter could still be that adorable during a breathing treatment. What a little champ. Let me know when she's done penning her Great American Novel--I'll make a trip down to your local Barnes and Noble to have her sign my copy ;)

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  18. Asa got honored with a nebulizer at like 3 months old, thanks to RSV. And I have to say, I'm glad to have it! (The nebulizer, not the RSV) Using it helps prevent any of his upper respiratory illnesses from turning into infections or asthma like symptoms, which is prone to happen with him . And hello? Where were nebulizers when we were kids? Surely I could've used one.

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  19. I wonder how quickly I could get to GA right now and steal your goat cheese-stuffed, bacon-wrapped dates?!! That sounds amazing!!
    I'm glad Millie is feeling better and is a champ with her breathing treatments!!
    I know so little about American History I should probably be deported…as an American…whoops!

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  20. I'm so sorry sweet Millie has to do breathing treatments, but how wonderful that she doesn't cry & fight it!!! :) And hopefully it continues to make her feel better & breathe easier. She is SO cute. I might say that every time I comment! Haha!

    I have heard Unbroken is wonderful & have been wanting to read it...even though i never get through non-fiction books! Which is sad, I know!

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  21. I'm sooo jealous that she doesn't mind her treatments! It takes both of us to pin my kid down when he needs a treatment :( You'll love the peace of mind that comes with having it on-hand. Hope she feels better soon!

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  22. Soooo happy the nebulizer is working!! She seriously gets more precious with every picture posted!

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  23. Millie is so precious and adorable! I love how chill she is about everything and hope she continues to feel better with the new breathing treatment. Also, your Saturday morning fashion is totally acceptable, perhaps even warranting a What I wore Wednesday post. Meanwhile I'm sporting my weekday afternoon "barely-wrapped-in-a-spit-up-on-robe" ensemble with no prospect of ever actually getting dressed today! Motherhood looks much better on you :)

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  24. Now I want a video of Millie making her nebulizer treatment sound!

    And I read "Unbroken" for Camilla's Mattornety Life book club and really enjoyed it. It was a tough read and made me feel like I have it so easy, but I also really liked all the airplane details. I also like books which give me a new perspective on either World War and I had never read anything about Japan and WW II before.

    Dave even stole this off my "to be read" pile, read it before me, and really enjoyed it.

    Dave even stole this of my"to be read

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