Recovering

So we've kind of been a sickly group this past week. I'll run down the list of characters for you.
Ellie - She's started up with a cold right before we went to Greenville 2 weeks ago and by the end of the week she had developed a congested cough. I wasn't worried because the last time she had a cold she got a cough at the end of the cold and it went away after a few days. This time however she started making a wheezing sound after she would cough or play a lot. Fortunately she was still sleeping good! I had to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday last week so Paul was going to take her to the doctor on Saturday morning to get checked out.
Emmie - Emmie was perfectly fine the whole time. Friday night when I got home from work Emmie was still awake so I went in and said hi to her and we talked for a few minutes..she was great. Fast forward to 11:45pm when I'm woken up by a seriously awful croupy cough. Poor Emmie sounded horrible and was so upset. I thought she must have croup and I was concerned about her because of how quickly it had come on so I slept in her room until about 4am when I went back to my bed since she hadn't gotten any worse...and I use the term sleep lightly. So I left a note for Paul (who slept through the whole thing including a conversation but how he needed to come in Emmie's room and wake me up when my alarm went off) to get Emmie checked out as well while they were at the doctor.
The Mama - I woke up Saturday morning with itchy ears, a sore throat, and stuffiness...sure signs of allergies...ugh. Combine that with the fact that I didn't sleep Friday night or Saturday night and I worked 3 days in a row and I was pretty worn out by Sunday night! I still have quite the runny nose but am well on my way to recovery...and I'm grateful for every drop of rain we get!
Paul and Franklin - Luckily they are just fine...plus Paul survived a trip to the doctor where both girls had to get checked out!

Doctor's office - So Paul took both girls to the doctor Saturday night. He said Emmie just had allergies and Ellie had bronchitis. So Ellie got a nebulizer and we've been giving her Albuterol 3 times a day. She's done so well with the breathing treatments! Especially impressive is that we have to get her up at about 10:30 at night to do one and she goes right back to sleep!

Bump in the road - Paul went and got Emmie some Claritin and we gave her that Saturday and Sunday night. She was up much of the night Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night and she seemed so miserable. She would say "ow" everytime she coughed and everytime you touched her. It was heartbreaking. Paul said she acted fine during the day but I think the allergies were catching up to her at night. Monday morning poor Emmie woke up and looked MISERABLE. Her eyes were so, so swollen and red and they were so watery it looked like she was constantly crying. So pitiful. She had a horrible, congested cough as well. Being the trooper she is, she acted like nothing was wrong. After we got to Summerville I went and got her some Zyrtec and she definitely slept better Monday night...she was still coughing a lot but her cough wasn't waking her up and it sounded a bit drier. So we've been giving her Zyrtec at night and Claritin in the morning and yesterday morning she finally started looking better and her cough seems much better...eyes are still puffy but no reddness.

Follow up - Today we had Ellie's follow up appointment and were given the go ahead to wean her off the Albuterol...yay! While we were there I told the doctor about all of Emmie's troubles and so he checked her out and said her lungs sounded fine...I was much relieved. (For the record, I keep my stethescope at work so I never have it when I need it at home to listen to the girls!)

We finally seem to be on the mend and hopefully we'll be well for a bit..I'm ready or things to be back to normal!