I hoped that we’d be able to make it until Nora goes to daycare before we’d experience her first sickness. But as it turns out, that wasn’t in the cards.
My poor little baby has her very first cold.
Oh, and to make things even more fun? I have it, too.
She’s actually in pretty good spirits–except when I am sticking that stupid bulb aspirator in her nose, of course. When that’s happening, she screams bloody murder the entire time and makes me feel like a terrible, awful, no good, very bad person. It is horrible. Who invented that thing, and why do all babies *hate* it with the fire of a thousand suns? I want to find him and hurt him.
But Nora is in bed for the night now, and we’ll see how it goes. We have the humidifer going, and I just hope she can make it through the night with her limited ability to breathe through her nose.
I called the pediatrician’s office to ask about Nora and see which medicines I can safely take while breastfeeding her. You know, I figured that since I’m not pregnant anymore, the list would be longer. To my surprise, it was actually shorter. Much shorter. I CAN’T TAKE ANYTHING. Nothing. As it turns out, the decongestants that are designed to help “dry out” congestion can also dry out your milk ducts, too. In other words, it can severely hinder milk production. Not good. Soooo no medicine for me. But I figure if my little Nora can make it through this cold without anything more than some saline nasal drops and an aspirator, so can I.
The one really nice thing about Nora being a little under the weather is that I don’t have to feel so guilty for spoiling her a little. Yesterday ended up being really, really rough. It felt like I spent my entire day trying to get her to sleep in some way or another. After I gave up on the nap in the crib, she was so overtired that I couldn’t even get her to sleep anywhere, really. And trying to get her to bed last night proved to be really difficult, too. It was just an all-around awful day. I felt like an awful mommy. So today, I decided to take it a little easier.
Due to the cold (I’m guessing that’s the reason, anyway), she slept a lot today. In fact, she napped for 50 minutes straight in the crib this morning, then another 20+ minutes after that–not too shabby, I don’t think, especially given that she’s sick. I’m starting to think that the problem with the crib is not getting her to sleep, but getting her to stay asleep. Once a sleep cycle is over and she gets into that “light sleeping” stage, she wakes up too easily in the crib, and doesn’t yet have the ability to put herself back to sleep. I’m not really sure what to do to improve that. Is this just something she’ll learn with age?
Anyway, this morning, when I gave up on trying to soothe her back to sleep in the crib and took her out, she was still tired, so I let her sleep on my chest for another hour or so.
My poor, poor sickie. I hope we both feel better soon!
9 Responses to Snotty.
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About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
oh nooo; that sounds absolutely positively HORRIBLE! i am dreading that first sickness. hope you two get over it soon. :(
poor baby!
just a thought..our pedi told us NOT to use the bulb syringe..saying it inflames the nostril and can make it worse. if you havent yet, you may want to ask your pedi his or her own opinion. hope she feels better SOON! and you too!
Our LO got a lot better at self-soothing closer to three months. She started sucking on her fist around 11 or 12 weeks, then found fingers and her thumb. Although I dread breaking her of a thumb sucking habit, it is nice that she can put herself to sleep at night and we don’t have to hop out of bed to put a pacifier in her mouth every time she stirs. We swaddled her until she was two months old, then quit cold turkey (I was terrified). But she slept great, and I think that was part of the process of finding her hands and using them to self-soothe back in to that deeper sleep.
regarding the crib- are you still swaddling her? We have had ours in the crib since day one (he is 9 weeks old) and he did much better in there once we went back to swaddling him. He went from waking up 4 or 5 times a night to 2. Just a thought :)
Mmmm…hope you feel better soon. Honey is a natural cough suppressant, and I’ve found taking a teaspoon is helpful. And for nasal congestion, have you ever tried a neti pot? They’re weird, but heaven-sent, I’ve found. (I BF’d too and had to get creative when the colds got me down.) For the little one, I’ve found a Nosefrida much more useful than the bulb (again weird, but really, really good at its job).
And, finally, about sleep – it sounds like you guys have a great little sleeper on your hands and that your work will be helping her to learn to sleep on her own on the flat. Sleep will consolidate in a much more recognizable form around 6-7 months – until then, just work with whatever pattern she’s throwing: long naps, catnaps – just watch those signals and respond and she’ll do great. Maybe consider something like the Nap Nanny *in* the crib or pack-and-play as a transition? (I also think this pillow looks amazing. Amazing, and expensive and hard to get, but nice nonetheless.
You can use a nasal spray (e.g. Afrin) to help with your cold. I’m BFing also and it worked really well for me. :)
Those bulb aspirators are the devil! I cannot more highly recommend the nosefrida http://www.nosefrida.com/ It sounds absolutely disgusting but it is amazing. Maya screamed bloody murder with the bulb but this doesn’t bother her at all (and works 10000x better).
You can obviously order online but I (and other bumpies) found it in certain stores around us…whole foods type places.
Thanks, all.
To those who recommended the NoseFrida…. THANKS! A few other people recommended it to me yesterday morning so I was looking into it. I found it at a local specialty store, so I went and picked it up this afternoon. She still hates it (I think she still may be traumatized about anything touching her nose, thanks to the bulb!), but it is definitely more effective.
We both felt like garbage today, but hopefully we’ve hit rock bottom and we’ll be on the upswing soon!
Amy–That’s good to know about the bulb syringe. What did your pedi recommend doing instead? I’m just curious, since it seems you’d have to remove the mucous somehow.
Kristin–That’s one thing that does suck about a pacifier… having to put it back in! She’s still swaddled right now so it’s not possible for her to find her hands, but I’m sure we’ll be breaking her of the swaddle at some point in the not too distant future. I’m just not sure if I should be doing these changes one thing at a time or if I should try them all at once! I wonder what’s worse!
Robin–Yes, still swaddled for now.
Anonymous–I’ve never tried a netipot. Too scared! And thank you for the sleep suggestions.