As The World Turns

It's amazing how quickly things can go from great to really, really bad and then back to normal when you have children. When we woke up this morning, the girls were suffering the beginning symptoms of a cold (runny nose, sniffling, sneezing) but otherwise were in good spirits. We decided to spend the day at home since they were obviously starting to get sick, and the girls jumped right into reading, playing and having fun. Overall, a calm, quiet, fun morning. Then Leila started wheezing. Okay, no problem. She nebulized and then was back to playing again. A couple hours later she was wheezing again! That wasn't a good sign but I decided to let her nebulize again and hoped that we could keep her breathing under control. I knew we were going to eventually have to go to the doctor because this has become something of a routine with her this winter -- she catches a cold, she starts having trouble breathing, we go to the ER or doctor, and she ends up on steriods. But I was really hoping that I could control it until we could go to the doctor's tomorrow. Unfortunately, as we were making lunch, she threw up and I knew I had to take her to the ER. It was a good thing I did because she was definately having trouble breathing (obviously. Why else would I take her?) She ended up having to get a shot of steriods in her thigh (because she threw up the medicine they gave her) and needed 3 breathing treatments, which is much more than she's ever needed. When they finally let us go home, she still wasn't breathing at full capacity, but she was a little better. Then wouldn't you know it, on our way home Robert called and said that Gabrielle had thrown up while taking her nap. Apparently the fun never stops. By the time I got home, Robert had Gabrielle all cleaned up, but her face was covered in little red spots. Petechia, or basically burst capillaries all over her face, from having thrown up so hard. So now she looks like she's got freckles all over her. Soon after, they ate their dinner of plain rice (our staple dinner whenever they've been sick to the stomach. It's great because they like rice so much that they never complain) on Superbowl Sunday and then they were off to bed with little drama. And just like that our household was back to normal again.