Tired Does Not Begin To Describe It

So we have been home a few days now-I think. I do not even know what day/time it is for the most part. We struggled when we first came home with dizziness and jet lag and tummy issues which were all pretty miserable, but normal. What has not been normal and was not expected is what else we have been doing in the last few days. Meet our new best friend around here, Mr Penguin:Mr Penguin is Zoe's new nebulizer with which we are having to give her breathing treatments every 4 hours around the clock in addition to a few other medications we need to give her every day. Remember how I said she had some chest issues we were concerned about in Ethiopia? We had a pretty tense night there our last night as she was wheezing and pretty much panting and getting very little air in the middle of the night and I felt completely helpless as I didn't even know who to call, where to go, how to communicate, etc-it was very scary. So I called on the Great Physician (repeatedly!!!!) as I sat holding my precious little girl and slept with her sitting up and He miraculously carried us through that night, but I was more than ready to get home and get her to a doctor as I knew this was not just an ordinary case of the sniffles. She was blessed to have a pretty good trip home which was great because again, I have no idea what I would have done if she had another wheezing episode on the plane. We got home and by bedtime (really by dinnertime) we were honestly delirious from exhaustion and collapsed into bed. I was awoken in the middle of the night by Zoe's frantic rapid and tight breathing/wheezing and just scooped her up, went into our bathroom and turned the shower as hot as it would go, shut the door and sat in the home-made sauna with her. I was thinking she probably needed to get to the ER but I was so out of it I couldn't figure out how to do that since Pat was sick in bed and my mom was downstairs in our guest room-yes, I know I could just go get her but I was SO. TIRED. I literally could not function and was just paralyzed so we just sat there in the steam praying and dripping with sweat till she at least slowed down the frantic panting and things seemed a little looser in her chest. We slept the rest of the night, with her glued to my side in my bed and me with one eye open. The next morning she seemed pretty pleasant, but still horribly junky coughing/rattling/wheezing so I took her to the after hours clinic where I was blessed with an angel of an on-call doctor. He was so nice and very concerned-he did say if we had another night like the one we had to get to the ER immediately (and that I really should have the night before but the steam was the next best thing, ugh) and he waffled back and forth about sending us on to the ER right from his office (a little disconcerting-I was feeling a little panicky by then) but decided he would just give me the meds and equipment and teach me how to do all the things they would do at the hospital so that hopefully we could get things turned around a bit and avoid the hospital if possible. So, I came home with 4 new prescriptions and Mr Penguin in his little igloo carrier. As well as a screaming baby who had had ENOUGH of being out and about at the doctor and pharmacy. I then McGuyvered up a little mist-tent in our room for her to help her have warm mist to hopefully keep things from tightening up too much when she sleeps-it is a full sized sheet that is pulled over her crib and down and around the vaporizer on the floor so the mist hopefully stays in her sleeping area and not dispersed all over our room:

We have our appointment for tomorrow already scheduled for her general check up so the on call doc told us to definitely keep that appt to follow up and there is a good chance they will do a chest x-ray and a few other things that sound equally enjoyable. We are looking forward to going because we need to know what is the next step and how can we get our baby doing better and a few other questions. Anyway, we are tired beyond words and just want to SLEEP. We have to set the alarm for every 4 hours during the nite too to do the breathing treatments until the doctor gives us the go ahead to change that. Sometimes I am so tired I do not realize I am asleep, standing up. I cannot even explain it. So anyway, I didn't get my last few days' posts up from Ethiopia since the internet/power was down-I am sorry and they are written and I may post them in the next day or 2 since I will not have a lot of time to write I do not think. And fro the AGCI folks reading this, I also got some time with the waiting babies and will let mommies and daddies know how that went, but right now we are just trying to even function!! So I will get with you, but please give me a few days to email you if you can stand to wait while we figure out exactly what we are dealing with with our Zoe. I will leave you with a cutie picture of her at her first bath last Monday when we got to bring her back to the hotel with us, and ask you to join us in praying that we can get our little lady well asap because she just seems miserable. Thanks!!

Little Miss Zoe Mahlet