Carpet Cleaner

Filed Under Allergies, Asthma, Home Sweet Home, This Rocks | 2 Comments

Oh I am sooo excited. We finally got a deep cleaner for our carpet! I really wish we had hardwood floors, but since we are hoping to move in the next few years we don’t want to pay to get the entire house refloored. And since we have a two year old (and a messy husband) at our house, the carpet is NOT spotless. Jonathon and Bailey also have seasonal allergies and she has asthma, so we thought it would help to clean the carpets for that too. So the steam/deep/high power cleaner was on our list for a while and we finally got one.

It takes a while to use (I would say about 45 minutes to do a room, by the time you vacuum, then put water in this and change out the water/add solution probably two or three times per room). Jonathon does it all though so I don’t even really know how to work it- and I don’t want to learn! HOWEVER. Our carpet is now almost completely spot free and looks like a whole different floor than it did a week ago. I can’t say enough about what a great job this machine did- and now for what it would cost to get the carpet cleaned one time, we can do it whenever we want! We bought it at Kohl’s and had a 30% off coupon, in addition to the sale price, so I would look there if you are considering buying one of these.

Now our next project is to finish making the storage room a little nicer. Jonathon has converted part of it into an office space since our fourth bedroom is now MY office/Avon area. We are working on cleaning some outdoor rugs that we have and putting them down in there to keep it a little warmer for him. Someday we will have a house with more space!

Works For Me Wednesday- Breathing Machine

Filed Under Asthma, Two and a half years old, Works For Me Wednesday | 2 Comments

When we first got Bailey’s “breathing machine” (a.k.a. nebulizer) she was NOT a fan. It’s noisy and requires her to sit still- two things she does not like at all. So what we quickly learned? It’s easier to make it into a fun event. She gets to pick a favorite show to watch while we do her machine, and then when she is done she can put a sticker on the machine. Sometimes she doesn’t even care about that part anymore, but it helped a lot in the beginning. I have also gotten great advice from other moms of asthma kids- ordering a special fish-shaped mask, putting stickers on the mask, using just the tube under their nose… but for us it really comes down to just having fun with it. Bailey is very strong willed- so if she thinks that SHE was the one who wanted to do the breathing treatment it is just fine. It all comes down to making everyday events fun for her.

For more Works For Me Wednesday, visit We are that family!

Swine Flu- no, we don’t have it!

Filed Under Asthma, Church, Second Pregnancy, Sick | 3 Comments

I have to admit that I am keeping Bailey home a lot more in hopes of not getting the swine flu. Normally I am NOT one of “those” paranoid moms who doesn’t go to public places for fear of germs. But I feel like we have two strikes against us already with Bailey having asthma and me being pregnant. I am still not sure whether we will get the vaccination if/when it becomes available. I am leaning toward NO but I am not 100% decided. Please don’t turn this into a vaccine debate, thanks. But so far we have kept her out of church nursery and just stayed home the past two Sundays, and we plan to stay home again this week. Also my mom has been watching her on Tuesday mornings so that she doesn’t have to go to church childcare. I love our nursery and I can’t say enough about how clean and well-run it is, but two year olds are just so stinkin germy. I am hoping that if we can avoid this for another week or two it will have run its course in our area and our church. Please pray for us that we stay well!

So this week has been fun…

Filed Under Allergies, Are you kidding me?, Asthma, Difficult Stuff, Doctor Stuff, Firsts, Sick, Two Years Old | 8 Comments

We started out with a visit to the pediatrician on Monday because Bailey had trouble breathing during the night. Once again, her lungs were fine, ears were fine, nose was fine, etc and no explanation for the breathing or chronic coughing. They assume it’s her allergies again. Meanwhile I am getting much less sleep than I need to be.

Tuesday her coughing seemed to be getting worse. Then Tuesday night she fell and busted her head open… resulting in an ambulance ride and a night at the hospital. The reason we called the ambulance- other than the massive bleeding- was because she started falling asleep right away. I actually sat on my front porch to make sure the ambulance could find us. It’s funny the things you do when you panic. I had the sense to change my shirt and grab my phone and charger on the way out the door too. The police and firetruck showed up first because the ambulance came from another district. She started calming down right away because she was excited about all the sirens and lights. Silly girl. We rode with the lights on but not the siren because they didn’t want to scare her. She had to sit on my lap on the stretcher- the other option was them strapping her down alone which was just not going to happen.

They were able to use glue instead of stitches or staples on her injury. I was glad because it is supposed to scar less. The worst part was holding her down to get it washed out- it took the doctor, two nurses, and Jonathon and me to do it. Then after we were released she started throwing up so we had to spend the night at the hospital. Several drugs, an IV, and a ct-scan later, we were released. Her results were all normal and we were told to keep her head dry for a few days, limit her activity, and don’t let her bump anything. That was Wednesday morning so my mom picked her up and let Jonathon and I sleep and get stuff done around the house.

By the way if anyone knows how to get blood out of your carpet, please let me know. Of course it’s right at the top of our stairs near the entryway. I have gotten it to fade but not a whole lot. I have been looking for something also to pad our doorway with. She needs some kind of fall protection or corner guards. The spot where she hit her head was in the doorway to our kitchen. It’s one of those cut out doorways that doesn’t have a door frame in it- basically drywall with metal in the corners or something. Probably the hardest place she could possibly have hit her head of course. So we need to fix that. The things that you don’t think of babyproofing until your child gets hurt…

Wednesday she seemed to be recovering from the head injury but she started coughing until she threw up. Back to the pediatrician on Thursday morning about the coughing (again) and to get her head checked. Her ped ran a test and had us do a chest x ray. The conclusion is that she most likely has cough-variant asthma which would explain why she coughs all night long for weeks at a time. We are borrowing a nebulizer for two weeks and if that stops the coughing then we will talk about a preventative treatment plan and visit a specialist. They think it is allergy-induced because it’s much much worse in spring and fall, and seems to come along with a runny nose. Yesterday we did her breathing treatments every four hours, once during the night, and today we have spaced them back to every six hours. She has only coughed a handful of times (even in the night) since starting them. So I think this is working!

As much as I hate for my child to have asthma- it could be SO much worse. I know someone whose three year old just got diagnosed with CF, and I kept thinking of all the crazy things that could be causing the coughing. I am thankful to have an answer and that it is getting better now.

The first few treatments, she hated it. Now she will hold the mask herself if I let her sit in front of the tv while we do it. That’s a small price to pay to avoid two of us holding her down for the entire treatment!