Amelia's New "Friend"

Amelia has a love/hate relationship with this cute little panda bear. Actually, she HATES it, but I know it will help her, so I'll love it for her. This bear is a child size nebulizer (complete with its own backpack that Graham really wants) and we became the proud owners of it at 10:30 pm last night after Amelia spent the previous 3 hours at the pediatrician. Yesterday afternoon Amelia began to wheeze and it continued to get worse as the

evening approached. After placing a call to the pediatrician, we were told that Amelia would be seen as soon as she could get there-apparently a high fever and wheezing warrants an immediate after hours appointment. After an exam, an in-office nebulizer treatment, a chest x-ray, and three hours of hanging out in an exam room, it was determined that our sweet little girl has pneumonia....poor baby!

Every four hours Amelia receives her breathing treatment. It's not fun for me to administer, it's REALLY not fun for Amelia, and it's not fun for Graham since he's petrified of the noise it makes. After trial and error, I figured out that the only way to hold Amelia still enough so I can secure the mask to her face for 7 (LONG) minutes, is to strap her into the high chair, hold her head and mask in place, and let her watch Mickey Mouse or Barney on the laptop. Initially, I tried snuggling on the couch with her while I secured the mask to her face, but she was too upset and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get her to hold still. So, as cold and unfriendly as the high chair sounds, at least for right now, it's the only way. Amelia cries through the entire thing, and Graham runs around like crazy, very upset, insisting that the teddy bear is really a pressure washer (ever since Jeff used a pressure washer on the deck this summer, Graham is very afraid of anything that sounds even remotely similar)-to say those 7 minutes creep by is an understatement! Honestly, to an outsider right now, our house probably looks like a circus.

Hopefully, Miss Amelia turns a corner soon, because she's really not feeling well. I'm learning that parenting a sick child is really one of the most helpless feelings in the world...