Nebulizer, Anyone?

Yesterday about an hour into Charlie's nap, I hear a whimper at the top of the stairs. When I go to investigate, Charlie is standing on the top step saying, "I threw up."

Great.

"It's okay, honey. I'll come help you."

When I come around the landing to head up the second half of the stairs, I notice the puke bits that are sprayed onto the wall at the top of the stairs, along with the first 4 or so steps. (sigh)

He starts coughing again, and I usher him into the bathroom to get this under control. He's had a cold for a few weeks now that is being aggravated by the ridiculous oak pollen that covers every surface you can see. I turned on the hot water in the shower, hoping the steam would help his cough, and stuck him in there to breathe and relax. But all this did was give him a more convenient place to cough and puke.

Thankfully, a few months ago our compact carpet cleaner broke and we splurged and bought the SpotBot. It's this little gizmo that cleans the carpet for you - but also has a brush/hose situation you can use to clean manually. I got that bad boy out and started after the stains. Charlie had thrown up in his bed, at his doorway, and at the stairs. Poor guy.

At bedtime, the coughing started up again and thus, the throwing up started up again. We gave him a hershey bar - thanks to Dr. Scott Oberhoff's advice (the caffeine was the magic solution) and that got him stable enough to lay down and listen to some music in his bed until he fell asleep.

This morning, I took him in to see our amazing pediatrician, Gwen Collmann. She's actually a nurse practitioner, but we LOVE her and see her everytime we have to go in. She suggested we give him a breathing treatment. He cried and had a cow, but did finish the treatment. I posted the puking issues on Facebook, and LOTS of mom's suggested the nebulizer. I guess the cough-&-puke game is popular among young people!!

We're going to keep a lookout for asthma - which is possible since Mark struggled with it as a kid. But regardless, we now have this handy anti-puke machine...the nebulizer. I'm thinking we should give it a name. Nathan, Norman, Nelson. It'll come to me.

Nemo?

I like it! I'll ask Chuck about it when he wakes up. Maybe we can put clownfish stickers all over the machine...