(no subject)

[rivka]

I am feeling almost drunk with sleep.

I went to bed at 11 last night. Michael woke Alex at midnight to feed her. She woke me at 6am. Six! I fed her and cuddled her, and she went back to sleep at 7:15. After pumping, I went to bed myself - and Alex let me sleep from 7:45 until I woke up on my own at ten. She woke up perhaps twenty minutes later, while I was finishing my breakfast.

Do you have any idea what a ridiculously huge amount of sleep that is for the mother of a young infant?

Sadly, I think she probably slept so well because she's not feeling well. She started coughing on Thursday morning, and by Thursday night it had progressed to raspy breathing, sneezing, congestion, and a skimpy food intake. Yesterday, instead of bringing her to work again, I took her to the pediatrician. She's fine - her ears and throat look great, she doesn't have a fever, and she's active and relatively cheerful. The pediatrician recommended that I squirt salt water into her noise (I suppose that's to clear up the "relatively cheerful" problem), offer her smaller amounts of food more often, and otherwise just wait for her cold to go away. We're supposed to call if she starts running a fever or if her breathing becomes rapid and shallow.

She's a little whinier than usual, but she also still has periods of smiling and playing.

I feel a bit sheepish about going to the doctor for a cold, but she's just so tiny! And the weekend was coming on! ...And holy cow, I'm just like all those mothers who drove my father crazy all these years, paging him at 3am because the baby made a funny noise.

Comments

[eeyorerin]

Summer colds are no fun. I have one right now, so I sympathize with Alex. Certainly better safe than sorry with a tiny baby, I think. Or even a not-so-tiny one.

[therealjae.livejournal.com]

Wow! And here you were thinking it would be an especially bad night! I'm so happy for you.

-J

[fairoriana.livejournal.com]

Huzzah for some sleep! May more be in your future.

[saoba.livejournal.com]

Poor little thing, colds are so annoying when your nose is only the size of a button to begin with.

Re: taking her to the doctor when it was 'only a cold'... Rivka, dear, it was 'only' her first cold and you had nothing to gauge it against. Every child is different and every mother must learn from scratch what that child's signals and symptoms mean. You and Alex and her fine pediatrician are engaged in learning the dance of watchfulness and care that will keep her well.

[tammylc.livejournal.com]

And holy cow, I'm just like all those mothers who drove my father crazy all these years, paging him at 3am because the baby made a funny noise.

We are all like all those mothers.

Your comment about the squirting salt water in the nose totally made me laugh! But I just wanted to note that we've found this to really help for nasal congestion. Liam tends to have a lot of trouble breathing when he has a cold, and "hosing the nose" (as Dr. Sears calls it) loosens up the secretions and makes it easier to suck out with a bulb syringe. Talk about clearing up the "relatively cheerful" problem - Liam actually doesn't mind having the saline squirted up his nose, but hates the bulb syringe with a fiery passion.

[zeldajean.livejournal.com]

My mom used salt-water drops (we called them nose-drops) to clear out my sinuses. For many years I vastly preferred that to blowing my nose. In fact, I still do, but carrying around kleenx is much easier than a dropper and container of salt water.

[lcohen]

i think you get to be a first time mother same as all those other mothers even if your dad was a pediatrician. you might have heard him kvetching but you didn't see what he was looking at to know what it looks like yourself.

*major hug*

[janetmiles.livejournal.com]

Family legend is that my mom would call the pediatrician's office and say, "Janet is going to be getting sick in the next day or so."

"Oh? What seems to be wrong?"

"Nothing specific, yet, but she's getting sick."

"Mrs. Miles, we appreciate your concern, but we really can't diagnose anything until the baby has some actual symptoms."