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First cold

January 18, 2010   

Our little babycakes had his first cold this week. He didn’t run a fever but had an alternately runny and stuffy nose all week, since early Monday morning when he woke up in the wee hours, all congested.

We did everything we could for him, but minutes after we’d help clear his nose, he’d be stuffed up again. Even with the runny/stuffy nose, he was his usual cheery little baby self, except when it was time to sleep. Wednesday morning, he was having so much trouble sleeping that I put him in the sling and sat up for three hours just to help him sleep half of it, as his more upright position in the sling helped him to breathe better.

He’s a tiny bit congested today but it’s clearly the very end of the cold. It’s been rough on all of us, as Seppo and I were sick as well. None of us got enough sleep, and Seppo still had to work while fighting the cold and caring for the baby as well. Most days, we were able to get the baby to nap a bit to catch up but he definitely didn’t get as much rest as he usually does.

As I said, he still maintained good spirits, while having no way of knowing why it was so frustrating to breathe and sleep, nor why his parents were torturing him with drops and bulb syringes in his tender, red, sniffly nose. He still giggled and smiled and babbled all day long, giving us extra energy when we were at our worst.

I adore him. Just couldn’t love another as much as our little one. My heart ached knowing he didn’t know why he felt so terrible yet not being able to do much to change the situation. When he cries, we are the only ones who can help him. And not being able to help him was one of the worst things I’ve felt. I can’t even imagine how hard it would be if he were suffering from something other than just a simple, uncomplicated cold. Bleh.

Luckily, that’s all it was. He seemed to get much better Thursday night. On Friday, he ended up taking a 5.5 hour nap, followed by two hours of cheery wakefulness, followed by another 2.5 hour nap. I freaked out about how much he was sleeping, but he was far less congested and much better all around both awake and asleep, so I let him catch up on many nights of poor, fitful sleep. He seemed all the better for it.

The first cold is a milestone of sorts, I suppose. I’m just glad he’s better.

1 Comment
January 18, 2010 at 5:41 pm

I am glad to hear he is doing better. WARNING out to other moms of newborns–if your baby is under 6 months and catches a cold, take the baby to the DOCTOR! Our youngest was hospitalized at 2 months with RSV, which is really just one of the many variants of cold out there. But apparently, not all 2 month-olds have the endurance to fight it off.

We spent a very harried and worried week in pediatric ICU. And the really scary part, is I almost didn’t go to the doctor since it was so clearly “just a cold”. Thank goodness the doctor was not willing to be so complacent about it.

Seppo sounds like he is doing better–what a relief!

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