Halloween ... a week later

Bradley's first Halloween post! A week and a half late ... but I promise I have good excuses as to why this post is so late. A recap of the past couple weeks at our house includes fun things like ear infections, doctor's visits, breathing treatments ... take your pick.

But before I get into all of that, Bradley had his first Halloween! He and his big sister Millie dressed up as dinosaurs this year and they were both cute as can be. The grandparents and Uncle BJ all came over that evening and took pictures of B in his costume and then we took him trick-or-treating on our street. We only went to four houses (all people we know) because we felt silly taking candy for ourselves since Bradley can't even have any. But he was a little trooper as a dinosaur and after the first minute of trying to rip off the hood of his costume (thank goodness it was all attached!) he forgot it was even there. Millie on the other hand was trying to get out of her costume the whole time and halfway succeeded but I'm pretty sure that was due in part to the costume being a bit snug on her and the velcro coming undone. Either way we got some cute pictures and Halloween was a success!



{sweet little dinosaur}

 

{ready to go trick-or-treating}




{our family}

And then the sickness began. Halloween afternoon we had an appointment with a pediatric ear, nose and throat specialist. Since B has had so many ear infections the pedi's office recommended we make an appointment there for a follow up. We got very lucky and Dr. Orobello (very highly regarded) had an opening so we snatched it up. Bradley passed the hearing test but they said there is pressure in his ears and the next thing we knew we had scheduled his procedure to get the tubes placed. I am very much looking forward to this as it should mean an end to the chronic ear infections our little guy has had to suffer through. So that was scheduled for this Thursday, 11/10.

The following morning B was scheduled to have the second part of his flu shot. No problem there. Then that afternoon/evening his cough got really bad and had a fever. Lovely. Not knowing if that was a side effect of the flu shot we gave him some Tylenol and watched him overnight. He didn't sleep well at all and we noticed that his breathing was a little shallow. The next afternoon I called the pedi's office and they said to bring him in right away. Dan and my mom took him and after some breathing tests to rule out RSV he was prescribed an at-home breathing treatment. So now we had to do this 10-minute long breathing treatment every 4 hours while B is awake. Oh, and I forgot to mention how Bradley is both too strong and too smart to be tricked into taking his medicine. He fights it with everything he has, and he usually wins. If we are able to get the medicine in his mouth he completely spits it out half the time. It is an ugly battle. And while there is nothing to spit out with the breathing treatment, it consists of placing a mask over his mouth and nose for ten minutes which he wants nothing to do with. The only thing we have found that completely calms him down is the rain song on Yo Gabba Gabba. It's kind of freaky how he just stops and is just calm when this comes on but we don't question it. Thankfully this episode is On Demand right now. But this saga doesn't stop with just two medications. Nope.

Saturday morning Bradley was still coughing pretty bad so we went back to the pedi's office. B was then prescribed steroids for 5 days (twice a day) along with the ear infection antibiotics and breathing treatment. Oh joy. I am unfortunately getting to know the pharmacists at Walgreens very well. And he recommended that the tubes be rescheduled so he has time fight off this illness first. We got very lucky and there was one opening left for the tubes on 11/17 so that will be the big day. The procedure should only take about 3 minutes per ear, and he should be back to normal the following day.

See? I think my tardiness in posting the Halloween pictures is perfectly reasonable. But I'll leave you with some fun things that Bradley has been doing since my last post. We are now brushing his teeth every night. Yes, he has teeth that you can actually see! He really loves having his teeth brushed, I think it feels good on his sore gums. He is also cutting another tooth but not the top middle ones as you'd imagine. Nope, he is working on the one to the right of that empty space. Who knows when those top middle ones will make their appearance. But those bottom ones are sharp as can be.

Speaking of sharp teeth another new thing he loves to do is try to bite my nose. I thought it was so cute at first and we all (Dan, too) laughed and laughed. Until he actually bit my nose. Ouch! He also tries to do the same thing to Millie and one of his stuffed animals. This is a (funny) habit that we must break. Another habit he now has is standing up in his Pack & Play and throwing all of his toys out, one by one. The result is our family room looking like Toys 'R Us exploded all over it. I think I have a solution for that, but it will be saved for another post when that project is complete. Said project hasn't even been started yet, but it has been added to my never-ending list of projects. Stay tuned!