Our first Cold and a Visitor

First off, here's the only picture of Mommy, Daddy, and Baby so far... Aiden is a little "milk drunk" in this picture...I'm sure you can't tell!

and a picture of Aiden "singing" to his Auntie Audra who helped him get all better these last couple days.


OK, so Aiden and I got sick. Yup, both of us with some nasty boogerish crappy feverish junk of a cold that I'm SURE we contracted while at the pediatrician's office last Wednesday. I started feeling cruddy on Saturday, and in hindsight, Aiden probably was feeling poopy too cuz he was a little "off." The snow storm kept us in, thankfully and we rested most of the day. Saturday night (LATE!) I went to the airport to pick up my big sister Audra who turned out to be a blessing in so many ways when she was here...primarily with Aiden and his cold...she used to be a pediatric intensive care nurse. Sunday was a rough day with Aiden, he was awake more than normal, crabby, and being a not so good eater. In the afternoon we discovered he had a low grade fever, but we were having trouble keeping track of it cuz the thermometer was CRAP! So we gave him some tylenol and he seemed to do better. Sunday night I slept downstairs with him on the recliner so he wouldn't disrupt everyone else and he slept pretty well and ate relatively well, but refused to eat when he woke up at 5am and fell back to sleep after 20 minutes or so of straight up weirdness. Monday was NOT a good day for me OR Aiden. I felt the cruddiest, and so did he, his fever was up, his soft spot was a little sunken, and he REFUSED to nurse. This was hard for me, running on so little sleep, I couldn't figure out why he wouldn't nurse. But he would take the bottle. Audra assured me it was because he was congested and not feeling well and it was easier for him on the bottle. So I pumped (after getting very upset that he wouldn't nurse) and we started giving him bottles, which he took much better. I had to remind myself that he's been nursing very well for a month, so he should go back to it.

Aiden was awake almost the entire day. He wouldn't stay asleep and when he was asleep he was sleeping really lightly and fitfully. He was crabby and completely not himself. We thought we were on top of his fever and discomfort with infant tylenol, but the thermometer sucked and B had to go get a new one because it kept giving random readouts...on all of us! Finally we figured out that even with the tylenol, in the evening he was still showing a low grade fever (99.2 and we were worried (including my extremely level headed sister). His respiration rate was also on the cusp of "time to go to urgent care" for a little while. So we gave him a light sponge bath (another recommendation from lifesaver sister Audra)to help the heat evaporate off of him. Which worked a bit, but we had to strip him down and keep him in just his diaper all night to get his fever down and keep it down. The sponge bath after we stripped him seemed to do the most good. He settled down quite a bit, ate, and finally fell asleep and STAYED asleep at 10pm.

At this point he was due for his tylenol (at the latest) by 12am...but at 12am, he wasn't showing a fever, and his soft spot felt perfect...so I let him sleep. We checked him again at 2am, he wouldn't wake up, too tired, but everything was still fine. Two hours outside of his tylenol, he didn't have any fever, and his softspot was still good. So he slept...he finally woke up at 5am this morning. My poor little 5 week old was so sick and worn out from his wide awake sicky day that he slept a full 7 hours...solid. We didn't even wake him to change his diaper (I had put an additional insert in it to make sure it wouldn't leak). when he woke up he had another bottle, 5.5 oz...the most he's ever taken. Audra heard us up with him and we checked his temp, it was normal, and Audra concurred that his softspot was so much better than yesterday, his respiration was back to normal, and that we shouldn't give him the tylenol unless the fever came back. When you are sleep deprived, sick, and a new parent...it feels better to have someone who KNOWS these things to confirm what you think is the right thing.

He went back to sleep immediately after his bottle and slept another 4 hours...then woke up and had another bottle, stayed awake about 30 minutes, and fell asleep again...for 3 hours! This is the first day in about 2 weeks that he's slept this much. He definitely slept more than usual the rest of the day. But he didn't run a fever at all today and was a very happy baby. He looked better, the rash on his face (which I think was there because of the fever) started to clear up some, and he actually started nursing again. All this while I've been pumping, not sleeping, trying to visit with my sister, and worrying myself sick over my sick baby.

Aiden loves his Auntie Audra!

So Aiden is feeling better, but I think I'm still running a fever and I'm about the same as I was yesterday. Hopefully tonight my little champ will sleep well so I can sleep well.

Audra went home today. I'm so grateful she was here, Baris and I didn't know what to do when his fever was staying up despite the Tylenol. And I'm pretty sure I was going to fall over dead over his troubled nursing. (I think he was having the same weird back of nose/throat pain I was and holding the suction was hurting him on top of the congestion). I'm glad she was here to help us do the right things. I don't think it was a coincidence...There is definitely a reason Aiden's first cold happened while she was here to help us. Although I'm sad that we weren't well enough to do anything other than sit around and talk.

Talking was good though. It's been too many years since Audra and I have seen eachother and it was healing to talk to her. The last time we saw eachother was just a couple months after her son (my nephew), Sam, passed away 7 years ago. It was so good for us to talk about our father (we are half sisters), about Sam's life and death and the time that followed that, about life and healing, forgiveness, growth, and God. Audra is 13 years older than I am, the closest of my 4 siblings to my age, and did not grow up under the same circumstances I did...but it's amazing how much we are alike in personality. That's a point for nature, I think. Even though our circumstances were similar, it's amazing how we both think alike and in so many ways act alike. In the past year or two my relationships with my sisters and mom have changed so drastically, I'm glad Audra is a part of my life again.

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SO! Tonight Aiden was feeling and looking better....and he got into the eggnogg...



Merry Christmas from Aiden who is "SOOO BIG!"