Long Winter

It has been such a long winter.  Every winter seems likely to never come to an end, but this one especially so. I think that part of it is the never-ending battle with illness.  Avery managed to escape illness all together until she was almost 10 months old, in part I'm sure, due to the fact that she was a spring baby.  Even once she had a cold, her first winter was seemingly illness-free.  This winter, however, has been an endless battle with the germs.  Avery started off with an episode of bronchitis in the fall and has had several lung infections since, including pneumonia.  I'm not sure exactly why, but these infections always seem to take hold in her lungs.  There is nothing worse than watching your baby struggle to breathe.  Our wonderful pediatrician gave her breathing treatments with a nebulizer that are an immense help.  He told us to expect her to hate getting the treatments, but she does amazingly well.  We spend the approximately 7-10 minutes singing her favorite songs...ABCs, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and similar others.  

Even with the breathing treatments, she seems to have a day at the beginning of each illness where she just doesn't feel like doing much, probably because she is having so much difficulty with her breathing.  When this is the case, she is perfectly content to sit/lay on the sofa with her baby, blankie, and "Little Mickey" (her travel DVD player that she only watches Mickey Mouse on.

So, while we are grateful to have some medication to help ease the struggle, we are so anxious for spring and the end to all these germs, at least for the short-term.