The Journey of Parenthood…

Tess’s RSV :(

I have never, ever experienced a sick baby. I have always counted my blessings when it comes to my kids and their health. Britt legit just got sick for the first time of her entire life and she was 1 month shy of turning 3! I know a lot of it has to do with breastfeeding as well as staying home but I also know a lot of it is just luck 🙂

Kye got sick for the first time around 18 months old but once he started school he got sick more often. Thankfully he started school while I was still pregnant with Britt so his immune system was already built up by the time she was born which helped minimize her exposure to stuff. But Britt started school literally the week after Tess was born. Britt has been brining it home and has had her first sickness as well as had just runny nose and coughing on and off.

It did NOT surprise me when Tess started coughing. She was a little congested sounding and had a cough and wasn’t quite herself on Thanksgiving. I really wasn’t worried. Like at all. I’ve never had a sick baby! I assumed it was just a little cold and didn’t have any concerns. I ran her Cool Mist Humidifier
in her room and used the NoseFrida on her and gave her lots of extra snuggles. I also used Baby Vicks on her feet and put socks on her but other than that I just rolled with it and figured it’d pass.

We ALL just had the CRUD. It turns out that Zach actually ended up testing positive for the FLU later that week. The big kids and I all had the flu shot and while we felt a little crummy, we def didn’t get the full blown flu. I know there are tons of people saying the flu shot doesn’t work this year…but it worked for US! It’s the first year I’ve had the kids get it and I’m SO thankful I did and I WILL be doing it from now on!

As the days went on Tess didn’t seem to be really getting over the cold symptoms. She’d get a little feverish (never got up to 100 though) and then she’d break it the next time I’d check it. Her poop was very green and she was just very sleepy and her cough seemed worse. She had clear runny nose and started nursing for a LONG time each feeding (one time she nursed from 10:50 until 12:50!). 

The timing was really bad as Zach and I were leaving for my birthday Disney trip! Normally I don’t take my kids to the doctor unless I know they are sick. I really didn’t know what was going on with Tess! So I debated about whether or not to even bother with taking her in. The walk-in clinic is FULL of people. SICK people. Taking her up there could expose her to more sickness!!!

Here’s a video of her cough

I mean watching the video now…DUH she was SICK. But having no experience with a sick infant I really didn’t even know it. And her symptoms were all gradual so I think it made it less obvious!

I decided to take her into the walk-in clinic the morning prior to us leaving for our trip. The MAIN reason I took her was because we were leaving and I didn’t want Mrs. Charlotte to be worrying about her or to end up needing to take her to the dr without me in town. I’m SO GLAD I took her!!! It’s always best to go to the walk-in clinic first thing during the morning so I did hold out until then. It was a Tuesday morning and she’d been starting to show symptoms the Thursday prior. She def seemed her worst on Monday and when I got her up Tuesday morning she seemed WAY better! 

Tuesday morning

Here’s a video of her…she sounded better too

Since Zach had tested positive for the flu and I wasn’t feeling 100% I figured it made sense to take Tess and get us both checked out. I LOVE that our pediatrician is also a family doctor and that I’m able to be treated at the same time as my kids! I got to the walk-in clinic a solid 30 min or so before they even opened and we were still the 4th person in line. By the time we got back to be seen it was Tess’s nap time. Not gonna lie…I totally enjoyed snuggling with her while she slept for her nap 🙂 

They checked me out first and I was fine: flu free! Then we went over to another room for Tess to be seen. The nurse did an oxygen test on her (which I’ve never experienced before) and had a hard time getting a reading. She eventually got one and it was 95 which I guess you want it to be 100. They had me do a breathing treatment with her and then rechecked it to see if it helped the levels come up and they went up to 97. 

The PA we saw is one of my favorites there and I’m super comfortable with him. I also know that he is borderline overly cautious. I knew he’d “freak out” a little but even when he said he wanted to test her for RSV I STILL was zero percent worried. I knew it’d come back negative. I knew she just had a little cold. Well I was WRONG. 

It came back positive for RSV. Babies her age tend to be hospitalized when they have RSV as it can so easily turn into something worse. People act like RSV is the scariest thing in the world but really it’s just a cold. In fact almost all children have RSV before the age of 2! The scary thing with Tess having it was her age. 

He told me since her vitals were good that he felt okay with her coming home with us and not having to be hospitalized. He wanted to have her back in 2 days to recheck her and prescribed a breathing treatment schedule for her as well as an oral medication (I think it was a steroid). Y’all I was in SHOCK. Even he was in shock and kept saying how surprised he was that I had a sick baby! They NEVER see us up there because my kids just don’t get sick!!! 

I was pretty much a nervous wreck. Here i was leaving that day for a trip and I had a sick baby. It didn’t even give me time to adjust to her being sick or knowing how to treat her etc. It was INSANE. It was one of the times that I was SO thankful that Mrs. Charlotte is a worrier. I knew she’d go above and beyond making sure Tess had THE BEST care. The PA asked me a TON of questions about who would be keeping Tess and I told him that she was probably really in better hands with my MIL than with me haha. Mrs. Charlotte won’t hesitate to go to the hospital or call a dr! I had him give me very detailed instructions so I could pass them along to Mrs. Charlotte.

He said to aim the breathing treatment at her chin so it wouldn’t go in her eyes. He also said to look for issues with her eating, gasping for air, or her nostrils caving in and that if we saw those things she needed to see a dr asap. He said not to give her Tylenol unless her fever was over 100.1 and to elevate her mattress by putting a book under it to help with her drainage.

I loaded up the kids and all their stuff and went to Mrs. Charlotte’s after naps that afternoon. I had SUCH a crazy day between taking Tess to the dr, worrying about her being sick, packing up the kids, packing up myself, etc that I wasn’t able to really fully let everything sink in until I got to her house. Y’all I legit had a panic attack. I’ve NEVER felt as much anxiety as I felt that afternoon. I snuck off to her garage and sat on the cold floor and couldn’t catch my breath. I was freaking out. 

At that point we couldn’t cancel the Disney trip. Zach had gone to so much work to book it all for me for my birthday. I couldn’t just throw away that money and that effort! I am BIG about putting Zach first and our traveling together is so important for our marriage. But I really, really didn’t know if I could do it. Leaving my SICK BABY?!?! Ugh. I was a MESS. 

In the end, I got it together and was able to go on the trip. I calmed myself down by reminding myself that she seemed a lot better that day than she had the day prior. I read that a lot of healthy babies just get over RSV on their own. I felt like she was on the upswing of it. I also knew that we were giving her the best care possible and that the PA we saw is overly cautious. And HE said that her vitals were good and he totally would have put her in the hospital if he even thought there was a tiny chance that she needed to be there. I found out later from our pediatrician that about 90% of the infant patients they see around her age who have RSV do get hospitalized! So that just shows she must not have been too severe with it! 

Mrs. Charlotte took her to the recheck visit and her oxygen levels were back up to 100! He was still little concerned with how her chest sounded so he had us do a few extra days of breathing treatments and did another oral steroid just to really make sure the crud was GONE. She was a trooper and was back to being her normal healthy happy self in no time!!!

While this experience was VERY scary for me, I did gain much more appreciation for my children not being sick often. I also learned that sometimes we can’t trust our guts! If I had followed my gut then I probably wouldn’t have taken her into the dr at all! I’m thankful we did have the trip planned as it forced me to get her care and learn that “just a cold” isn’t always “just a cold.” I also learned that OMG sick kids are EXPENSIVE. Woah! 

My biggest lesson in it though was a personal one. That night when I felt that intense anxiety I had to make a choice. I knew I was going to be worried about Tess while on our trip. But letting that worry consume me or allowing that anxiety to take over wouldn’t benefit anyone. Mrs. Charlotte was SO SWEET to help watch the kids and take such special care of Tess. Her efforts would be a waste if I didn’t fully enjoy the time away with my husband. I had to put those concerns aside and physically force myself to focus on Zach and on the trip. We ended up having an AMAZING time together, as you’ll soon see. It was probably one of our best solo trips in a long time and I’m so thankful I was able to get control over my emotions to allow us to have those fun memories!

Now that I’ve experienced a sick baby…it’s safe to say that I NEVER want to experience it again!!! 

Emily Parker
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