And then we got the plague.

Oh my goodness, we've been so sick in this house. It all started almost 2 weeks ago-- right after Camden's 3 year check-up appointment. Since he got the flu shot at that appointment, I initially chalked his high fever the next day up to a fairly common vaccination side effect. But when it persisted and turned into a nasty case of diarrhea and then culminated with a hacking cough and runny nose, I knew we were likely dealing with a pretty powerful and long lasting virus that has been going around our neighborhood.

Camden was pretty miserable for about a week, and I was so thankful when he was obviously on the rebound. It was very hard seeing my sweet boy so sick that he didn't want to leave the couch. Since the rest of us seemed to make it through that week unscathed, I thought we were in the clear. Ha-- not so much. A few days ago, what started as a small, annoying cough for me turned into a high fever, vomiting, body aches, a sore throat, and a much more violent (and persistent) cough. And then? Macey started coughing, which led to a particularly scary incident yesterday morning.

The previous night, I had been up for hours, alternately vomiting and wallowing in my misery. I finally was able to fall into a restless sleep around 5am. About an hour later, Macey started coughing and was having a hard time catching her breath. I didn't freak out right away; she was flat on her back, so I simply rolled her to her side and patted her back firmly several times. When the coughing continued, I picked her up and patted her back harder, feeling the panic start to rise. She was turning bright red and having great difficulty catching her breath in between coughing fits. When she did take a breath, it sounded labored and shallow and there was a lot of excess saliva coming out of her mouth. I suctioned her mouth immediately and ran to get Matt. I also called my mom because I figured if we were going to head to the ER, someone would need to stay home with Camden, who had been woken by my frantic yelling.

By the time my mom arrived at our house a few minutes later, Macey's eyes were red rimmed and she still had a lot of excess saliva, but she was grinning ear to ear. I swear, this is the happiest girl ever. She smiles through it all-- coughing fits, choking incidents, it doesn't matter. She's always got a grin on that adorable little face. Since her breathing had returned to normal and she wasn't running a fever, we decided to wait until her pediatrician's office opened instead of taking her to the ER and exposing her to countless more germs. We made sure she fell back asleep in an upright position instead of flat on her back to avoid another choking episode. A few hours later, I spoke to the advice nurse at the pediatrician's office and was told to run a humidifier (already had been doing that), elevate her while she's sleeping (back into the Rock N Play she went), and watch her carefully for a fever and/or shallow breathing. Thankfully (and knocking on wood as I type this), she has been fine since that incident. She's still coughing, but it's a dry cough and she's not struggling to catch her breath like she was yesterday morning. I was told that since I'm breastfeeding, the version of this virus that Macey gets will probably be milder, since she's already taking in the antibodies my body has been working overtime to make to fight this thing off. I pray that's the case.

And, speaking of breastfeeding, my supply has taken a big hit due to this illness. I lost 2 pounds in one day and wasn't able to eat anything more than soup yesterday, so you can imagine the toll that took on my milk production. Macey has been trying her best to make up for it by nursing much more frequently, so I'm hoping it will rebound soon. I've done my best to drink as much as I could today and have been eating a little bit more, so I'm hopeful. I'd really hate to have to start supplementing because of this pesky virus.

Hopefully this means that we've gotten our sickness for the season out of the way and our Christmas can be illness-free!