Grace's First Cold

I am so in love with our chubby cheeked, smiley 17-week old baby. There is nothing I would rather do than spend the day holding, feeding, cuddling, and playing with her.

This week was a hard one for us though. Grace caught her very first cold virus (after three days of daycare). Seeing my poor innocent baby suffer through this cold was heart wrenching for me. Her nose got stuffed up, so each breath sounded like a challenge for her. She coughed these sad little baby coughs that I could feel as I held her, and also which unfortunately woke her in her sleep.

The worst night of all, I put her to bed at 9pm. She woke up crying at 11pm, 1 am, 3am, and 5am. Each time needing at least a half hour of nursing or holding to fall asleep again. And then I had to leave for work at 7, in addition to having these same cold symptoms myself. Never before in my life would I have been able to teach on that little amount of sleep with a sore throat and cold. But I just powered through. Being a working mom, who just used up every sick day she has for maternity leave, really gives you no choice. 

This week gave me even more reasons to be thankful that Grace is with my mom for 2 days. Those were days that Grace could just be held all day, in the quarantine of our home, and not risk making her cold worse by being at daycare.  Daycare is so important for her.  Being around other kids, learning to be adaptable and socialized are all so important.  But, being with my mom for 2 days a week is absolutely priceless.  I think we have the perfect mix of care.  The only thing better would be if I were with her myself for at least one or two of the days.  But I don't think there are any first grade teaching jobs for 3 days a week, so we'll just carry on.

Our strategies for getting through the first cold:

1.) Let her sleep in the swing again. We had weaned her from the swing,  and she has adjusted well to the flat crib. But with her being so congested, there was no way I wanted to lay her down flat. So, the swing is at an incline and that is where she has slept all week while sick.
Not looking forward to doing sleep training again when she's well.

2.) Steamed up bathroom. Every time I showered, I put her in her bouncy seat in the bathroom with me. And I take very hot showers. This steamed up the whole bathroom and I'm hoping helped her feel a little better.

3.) Nose Frida. We used this to suck out some of the snot buildup in her nose. Sounds gross, and Grace absolutely hated it, but it worked.

4.) Breastfeeding. We had been trying to do bottle practice (bottle bootcamp), but that went out the window when she was sick. When my baby is sick, needs nourishment, and I can provide it, then I'm giving it.

Once she's better again, we'll return to our bottle practice and flat sleeping in the crib. But when she's sick, she needs sleep and breastfeeding, so that's what she got.

Now that she's on the mend, the fact that she had one little cold sounds so simple and not such a big deal.  But in the moment, I was in tears to see our tiny little baby suffering and to feel so powerless.

Part of parenting is seeing your little one experience pain, and I knew that would be hard. There may be times that I will be able to take her pain away, but more often than not, I'll just have to do what I can to guide her through it. Here's hoping I can toughen up, because there are sure to be plenty of colds and more in our future.