Is it Sunday? Yup...never fails...

Since Ashleigh was 2 she's has some breathing problems. Every year from about October to May she is "sick" pretty much weekly with a bad cough. Her various doctors have told us numerous times that she is not sick-she is not contagious-she just has a cough. Something in her lungs reacts badly when the weather starts getting cold.

It seems inevitable that her cough ALWAYS gets worse on Saturday afternoon/evening. Last night was no exception-although her cough has started about 3 weeks earlier this year than in years past. The problem is, her cough doesn't seem to bother her much, but it ALWAYS keeps Nick up at night (I can sleep through anything) and it usually wakes up Preston. So this morning when I got home from work at 4am Nick was in Ashleigh's room giving her her breathing treatments. She was happy and wide awake and not phased at all by her constant cough. Nick looked tired and not quite annoyed, but frustrated just the same that her cough is back for another year. Preston-amazingly was still asleep. So, after being up all night we ended up not making it to church...we always try...but the lack of sleep usually overcomes us and we can't do anything except for close our eyes and let sleep take over. Today, I slept until 3pm and then Nick went to sleep at 4 and here it is 7 and he's still asleep....I'll let him sleep as long as possible.

Each year-we've been told-could be the last year that she has these problems. That she may grow out of it by next year...but each year it comes back and we have sleepless nights 4-5x/week for the next 6+ months. My wonderful husband takes the worst of it--he's usually the one who wakes up every hour or two during the night to do her breathing while I sleep soundly and deeply in the next room barely aware that anything is going on around me...Poor Nick!

My task tonight when I go to work is to buy a few warm air humidifiers and a few boxes of Kleenex. I have to get her checked out by her doctor AGAIN--just to make sure AGAIN that it's not contagious. Then I have to call her school, tell them what's going on and get their opinion about her missing school or not...Then we have to get back on our schedule of 3x/day sitting in the bathroom while the hot shower is going--breathing in the hot air, then doing her breathing treatments every 2-4 hours (during the night too), and during the day trying to keep her calm--much less playing-so that her lungs don't spasm out of control which makes her coughing worse. *SIGH* It's really times like these when I am very grateful that Nick and I are DONE having anymore kids!!!