Baby's First Cold

Along with the First Smile, First Laugh, First Roll, First Sleep Through the Night, inevitably comes the dreaded First Cold.  We saw the first symptoms on Sunday (runny nose, sneezing, coughing, low grade fever, glassy eyes, sleepy) but she seems to be doing a whole lot better today.   

 With every sneeze, cough and cry, our hearts broke a little more as we’ve spent three sleepless nights (so far) watching/listening to the monitor so that we could be by Delaney’s side before she even finished inhaling to cry.   At such a young age, there is no medicine that we could give her, so with aspirator in hand, burp cloth on shoulder, and as many hugs and kisses as she would tolerate, we rode it out.  Thanks to my mom-friends that have weathered this storm, and worse, many times before, we did try a few things that seemed to help:

-          We tried to get Delaney to sleep on the wedge portion of her crib so that her head would stay elevated.  I think this lowers the risk of further head congestion and possible ear infection.

-          We used a cool mist humidifier. 

-          We used Vicks BabyRub (w/ eucaplytus, aloe vera, rosemary and lavendar) and rubbed on her chest and her feet. 

-          We used saline nasal mist before using the aspirator a few times to break up the congestion.   As much as this pissed her off, it worked really well, so we limited it to when she was really congested or right before bed. 

-          We eased up on the strict enforcement of her schedule so that she could get as much rest as possible.

I find it ironic that despite ALL the effort we go to reduce germs (breastmilk exclusively, no day care, limited contact with other kids/people, disinfecting toys, bottles, pump parts, steam cleaning floors, etc., etc., etc.), she still managed to get sick.  However, you would have thought by now I would have learned and accepted the fact that I have absolutely no control over the situation and that she will smile, laugh, roll, sleep through the night and get sick in her own time and we can only do our best to create a safe, loving and supportive environment for her to do so.