We had a wonderful start to the weekend — my first altered weekend with Friday and Saturday off instead of Saturday and Sunday. Baby B and I had a wonderful time together on Friday, and The Husband and I decided to take her to the drive-in movie on Saturday night to see Up. (My apologies to those who do this, but I refuse to take my two-year-old to a regular movie theater, even for a kids’ flick. Disaster would certainly ensue for all parties involved.) Despite her testing how many times she could climb from the front seat to the back seat to the front seat (answer: 15 bazillion), we had a nice time and she ended up falling asleep, albeit very late for her, before the movie ended.
Just as the movie ended, rain started coming down, and I think it startled her and she began to cry in her sleep. But it wasn’t a normal cry; it seemed very distressed and pained, and definitely different than usual. We thought maybe molars were coming in because she had told us her mouth hurt earlier and she’d had a slight clear runny nose, so I thought maybe she was actually getting a cold instead.
We took her home, got her to bed right away, and went to bed ourselves. Thereafter, about every hour and a half, Baby B would wake up with the same crying wail and was totally inconsolable. Needless to say, it was very frustrating not knowing what was wrong or how to help her. About midway through the night, she started having trouble with her breathing; a couple hours later, it was full-on wheezing, fast, labored breathing with her sucking in her chest on each inhale. When she finally woke up for the day around 8 a.m., she was not herself at all. Clingy and lethargic. No smiles to offer. Still the issues with breathing that her albuterol didn’t seem to help.
“Hrm,” I thought. “I’ve seen this before. Sudden onset. Breathing issues. Pneumonia.”
Sure enough, that’s what the diagnosis turned out to be. I called the doctor that morning and The Husband took her to the doctor’s office (they were taking patients on a Sunday morning, god bless them) and they said it sounded like small spots of pneumonia when listening to her chest. Honestly, I would have been surprised if it’d been a different diagnosis. He didn’t send her for a chest x-ray but went ahead and prescribed antibiotics in case it’s bacterial (which it likely is since that’s the kind that hits so suddenly).
Boy, that sure did blindside us. She’d had just that slight runny nose and a slight — very slight — cough when she was laying down the night before. That’s it. And I think it especially surprised us since she’s been so much healthier during the past year compared to the year before (when she had pneumonia at least three times and all her ear infections).
When I came home from work on Sunday night, Baby B was in much better spirits, making jokes and laughing and dancing and playing. This morning I took the morning shift at home and she ended up sleeping until 10:30 a.m. I’d gone in to wake her around 9:30 a.m. and told her I’d come back to get her when her breakfast was ready, but I saw she’d gone back to sleep and I didn’t have the heart to wake her right away. She still wasn’t quite herself when I went to work at lunchtime, but her breathing was much more normal, so that’s definitely a good sign.
We’re definitely keeping her home tomorrow, then will judge on Wednesday if she’s okay to go back. If it’s bacterial, she shouldn’t be contagious now that she’s on the antibiotics, and if it’s viral, she shouldn’t be contagious if she doesn’t have a fever (which she hasn’t had much at all, and when she’s had one, it’s been under 100, so not even a fever in the technical sense). But we’ll use our common sense when making the determination of when she returns. The good thing is that pneumonia itself isn’t contagious, just the illness that led to it. (Sort of like how ear infections aren’t contagious, but associated illnesses are.)
