Nebulizer for Number 4

Now that Gary and I fully understand just how much the kids understand, we try to talk in code (which they’ve probably already figured out).  I always hate when someone is talking about little Johnny in front of little Johnny and says things like, “Little Johnny is just so shy he can hardly speak to anyone.”  Well, maybe he is, or maybe he just keeps hearing how shy he is. . . .  But that’s a whole new topic.  Anyway, we try to avoid doing things like that and also try to avoid talking about the kids at all in front of the kids.  When necessary to communicate in front of the kids about the kids, we used to call them by their first initial.  Now that Piper and Penelope have the same first initial, we’ve taken to calling them by their birth order number.  Once they really learn to count and learn about birth order, we’ll probably have to stop doing that, too. 

Tonight Penelope had her first nebulizer treatment.  She seems to have allergies and stays congested, particularly after being outside a lot.  We spent a good bit of the weekend outside, and Penelope has had red, swollen eyes since then, and even more congestion than normal (Rosemary had the same issues as a baby until she went on medication to help with those problems).  It looks like it’s time to put Penelope on Claritin on a regular basis.  Our pediatrician had warned us that Penelope may need a breathing treatment at some point, told us what dosage to use just in case,  and even gave us an extra mask to keep on hand for Penelope.  Sure enough tonight she started wheezing a little.  She was fine one minute, and then a few minutes later she was breathing a little hard.  She didn’t love the nebulizer, but she did pretty well with it and is now breathing fine. 

Rosemary has always had these breathing issues and allergies, and was diagnosed with asthma about a year ago.  She now takes Singulair and Claritin on a daily basis, and breathing treatments as necessary.  I had assumed that Rosemary had all these issues from being premature and so small, but now seeing the exact same thing happen to Penelope, a 39+ weeker born weighing almost 8 pounds, I think that perhaps Rosemary’s issues perhaps aren’t related to her prematurity after all.  We’ll never know, but that doesn’t stop me from wondering nonetheless. 

I don’t think I ever heard of a nebulizer until the past few years.  Have they always been around?  I wonder what people did without them?  I don’t remember other kids having them while we were growing up.  I’m sure that we would have had some extra trips to the Children’s ER if we didn’t have our nebulizer.  I’m just thankful that we have something that we can do at home before taking that Children’s ER trip (which of course always comes in the middle of the night).

Today was the fifteenth daily blog post in a row.  I’ve really enjoyed this exercise – but I’m really glad I’m only doing this for a month and not a year!  You folks doing the 365 Project have dedication!!