Update!

Well, a little over one week later, Addie has no symptoms of wheezing or her cold! Yay! That day was so scary - we ended up having our first (hopefully last!) visit to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. As soon as I finished my last blog entry, I woke Addie up from a nap (she had missed her normal naptime with our trip to the pediatrician). I noticed that she was already wheezing again, and it had only been an hour since her last treatment (which was supposed to last 4 hours). I called the nurse and we counted her respirations. Addie was starting to panic a little again, so I knew she was working harder than normal. Anyway, she had 50 breaths in one minute and they like to see 40, so the nurse told me to take her on up to the emergency room. Reminder again that John Michael was out of town for all of this. I called my parents, freaking out (of course!) and asked them to meet me. I held Addie down and gave her her inhaler to try to calm her breathing (this was faster than the 15-minute nebulizer treatment, although she HATES the inhaler). I also called Cindy, John Michael's mom, and she met us up there as well. I have to say that I was VERY impressed by Vanderbilt. They had Addie back within 10 minutes and had the respiratory team in there checking her out. They gave her another treatment and monitored her. It turned out that the steroid that the pediatrician had given her that afternoon had just not quite kicked in, so the albuterol wasn't making it all the way to where it needed to be in her lungs. Phew! We finally got home a little after midnight. What a long day!

Anyway, last Friday, we saw Dr. Hood for the follow-up and she decided to put Addie on a twice daily preventive medication (Pulmocort). We give it to her through the nebulizer in the morning and again at night. There is a medicine that we can give her through the inhaler (which would be much faster and probably less annoying for Addie, who cannot stand to be still for any amount of time :)), however, she is currently freaked out by the sight of the inhaler. We are hoping to get her re-accustomed to it over the next few weeks (you can imagine we'll be giving her stuffed animals breathing treatments :)).

So before I post some pictures, I just wanted to thank everyone SO much for your prayers and good thoughts. We truly appreciate it and thank God for friends like all of you!

Addie and her "pony!"
(Look at that hair!!!!!)

Addie's princess chair!

The princess chair again! Addie is very possessive of this chair and doesn't even like for John Michael or me to be in it (we're trying to teach her the concept of sharing, honest!). Ha ha ha...


A flying princess chair!
(Can you tell we just finished reading Harry Potter? Think Hagrid's flying motorbike... :))

Sometimes I like to give her messy foods just 'cause it's cute :)
Check out the ravioli unibrow - ha!
(Aunt Elizabeth made this bib for Addie at one of my baby showers!)



After playing with her magnetic alphabet, Addie couldn't figure out why this pen cap wouldn't stick to the refrigerator! Too cute!

Scary day

So today was probably the scariest day I've ever had since being a mom. First, I'll go ahead and say that Addie is fine and was never in any true life-or-death danger. But...

Addie and I both came down with a cold this weekend. My throat was a little scratchy on Friday, but I just wrote it off as allergies. Unfortunately, Addie started sneezing, coughing, and having a runny nose yesterday, so I knew that we either are allergic to the same thing, or both had a cold. Anyway, last night, she coughed a lot, and had a hard time falling/staying asleep at first, but ended up sleeping through the night without a problem (Thank God!). This morning when she woke up, she seemed okay, but a little congested.

Around 10 a.m., I noticed she was wheezing a little bit. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it here before, but last November, she had her first episode of wheezing, and the doctors gave her an albuterol inhaler. She has had to take it three times since then; each time it has worked almost immediately and she has gone back to playing like nothing was ever wrong.

Not so much today. I gave her the inhaler around noon (after she took a nap without a problem), and when she was still wheezing after 30 minutes, I decided to call the pediatrician's office. Oh, of course, this is all happening as JM just left to go out of town for the night - argh. ANYWAY, the nurse told me she'd like to play it safe, and for me to go on and bring her in, and that she'd work it out with the receptionist. That made me a little panicked, because in the past, they've just said, "Keep an eye on her, count her respirations, etc."

SO - on we went to the doctor's office. She was fine in the waiting room (a little fussy, but only because I wouldn't let her explore due to the other sick kids in the room). By the time we got back to be seen, she was obviously having more trouble breathing. The nurse took her O2 levels, and they were fine (98), but the look on the nurse's face told me everything wasn't okay. She stepped out and the doctor rushed in. By this time, Addie's chest was heaving like crazy, her nostrils were flaring, and she was freaking out. The doctor had the nurse immediately start her on the breathing treatment nebulizer, and THANK GOD, her breathing calmed down almost at once.

Oddly enough, her O2 levels were lower (95) after the treatment, which makes me think they must have gotten pretty low in the short time between the first reading and the treatment.

Okay, so the doctor told us that it was the time for the official diagnosis of asthma. This isn't a huge shock, since John Michael and his mom both have it, but still an understandable disappointment. He said I'll need to give her the nebulizer treatment every four hours for the next 24 hours, and then twice daily for the rest of the week. Then we'll have a follow-up with our regular pediatrician on Friday (we saw the on-call doctor today - which leads me to have to do a brief sales pitch (or whatever) for our pediatrician's office - Pediatric Associates of Franklin. We LOVE them - every single one of them). He said that she will probably put Addie on a prophylactic treatment to try to prevent another attack.

Geez.

I know asthma is very common. I know millions of people live healthy, active lives with it. But still, it scared the poo out of me to see my baby unable to breathe! I just thank God that we were in the doctor's office when the whole thing happened.

Phew.

Next post - only adorable pictures of the baby, I promise :)

Okay, I have a confession...

The real reason that I've been so absent from blogging lately is that I have a new addiction: Harry Potter!!! I put off reading the books for years, because they didn't seem like "my type." But for Addie's birthday, Lynn, Kris, and Holland sent her (us :)) the complete set (books 1-6). John Michael started reading them, and when he was on the 3rd book by the end of the week that he started them, I knew there had to be something good about them. So I picked up the third book, and it was all downhill from there :)

I finished all six books in a little over a month. So that's what I've been doing after Addie goes to bed, or when she's napping on the weekends.

With that being said, John Michael and I are waiting patiently for our pre-ordered copy of Deathly Hallows to arrive. I feel like it's Christmas Day!!!!! :)

Cute little booger...

One of the times my parents watched Addie for us while we were on vacation, she discovered the box to her booster seat. It became her favorite toy of the week. We all watched her play in it one morning after breakfast - that was our favorite pasttime of the week!

Vacation wrap-up!

I haven't blogged in forever, but it's only because we've been so busy! We went to the beach (St. Augustine) the week of 6/23 to 6/30. We had SO much fun! We rented a condo next to the one my parents rented and it was a wonderful week! And Addie had her first flights! She did so great. We were very proud of her. On the way down, she was a perfect angel. We didn't buy her a seat (next time we will - I just think she would have been more comfortable in her car seat) but she sat in my lap without too much wiggling :) The way back was a little different, but she still only fussed for about two or three minutes total - and it turned out that she was getting sick, which we found out when we got home. It also may have been because it was so early - our flight left at 6:40 a.m. Eastern time, so we had gotten up at 4:00. We almost missed the flight, too, due to the security backup at the Jacksonville airport! What an adventure...

Anyway, the week was perfect - we spent about an hour at the beach each morning (not quite enough for my liking :)), then would go in for Addie's nap time. The afternoons consisted of either more beach time, pool time, park time, or Mimi & PawPaw time :) John Michael and I really enjoyed spending so much time together, too, and went on three whole dates while we had "built-in" babysitters (thanks Mom & Dad!!!! We love you!!!).

Addie had a blast at the beach and ate plenty of sand! That's why you'll notice her paci in her mouth for most of the pictures - it was the only way to keep shells out of there. She had so much fun knocking down sandcastles as her Daddy built them, and she also really enjoyed the water! She was just too cute, and we had tons of strangers coming up to tell us how cute she is (duh! ;))

We also had a good time visiting my family - my dad lived in St. Augustine til he met my mom, and I still have aunts and uncles there (he's the youngest of nine). It was so great to see everyone, and Addie had a good time with her cousin Ben, who is 11. He kept sitting in her little travel booster seat (while it was on the floor, after dinner). She was NOT ready to share, and kept trying to push him out from behind, or pull him out by his collar. TOO cute! Everyone was laughing hysterically at her, and all she wanted was her little seat! The sharing thing will be fun to tackle soon :)

It was a perfect vacation - we really can't wait til the next one!!

So now, it's picture time!

Addie climbing to her favorite place, the end of the beach chair!

Some of Addie's new favorite toys, "shats" (shoes)!



Hunting shells!



"I could swear there were some Teddy Grahams in here somewhere!"



"Take that, sand castle!"
(er, sand blob...)


She stepped into this and thought it was hilarious!



"Woohoo! I'm ready to dig!"


In the condo on our last day there
(shameless picture to show her cute curly hair, I admit :))