Baby's First Lung Infection

Lucy has been in daycare for two whole weeks, and after just two days she became congested.  The congestion has been around ever since...  Which I'm fine with, I expected this (the occasional runny nose, dry cough, and maybe even an ear infection or two).  Comes with the territory, right?  Well the congestion has since expanded into a wet, hoarse cough, green mucus and swollen bronchioles.  Her cold lasted so long that it became a bacterial infection in her lungs.  Which I am not fine with, and I did not expect.

Our pediatrician didn't put an actual label on the illness, but she did put Lucy on two antibiotics.  For seven days.  I have to pin my kid down twice a day, for seven days, and squirt teaspoons of medicine into her mouth.  Do you have any freakin' clue how BIG a teaspoon is???  You think I'm kidding.  Lucy cries every time she coughs.  Her nose and throat are raw.  She absolutely hates having her nose wiped, and you can just forget about the bulb syringe - that's officially a two-person job!  But despite all the pain she's in, she is still my sweet, happy girl.  She plays, laughs, smiles...

I know we were very lucky to be able to keep Lucy out of daycare for as long as we did.  And we're also really lucky that she's never had a real, full blown illness before now, not even a fever.  But that doesn't make me feel any less guilty...for being a working mom...for supplementing with formula...  And it sure as heck doesn't make me feel any less sick.  (Because, oh yeah, the whole family caught the bug.)