Last Wednesday night, Lily was having a very hard time sleeping. For the first part of the night she was waking every 30 minutes; as far as I could tell, there was no reason for it, although, she was eating a full 4 ounce bottle each time. I became very frustrated with this, just as I would start to relax she would wake up. The third or fourth time that she woke up, she was all of a sudden very congested, she had a hard time drinking her bottle because she couldn’t breathe, and falling asleep was much more difficult this time because when she laid in my arms her nose would get more stuffed up and she wouldn’t be able to breathe with her soother in her mouth. I sat with her in the chair for a while, she slept sitting in my lap leaning up against my chest, this kept her from getting more congested. Once I managed to get her back into bed after this, she slept for about an hour and a half. Unfortunately, I assumed she would wake up quickly again, so I was on edge for the first 30-45 minutes of this sleep, and the next time was the same. After that, she was awake for the day. I was exhausted, but I didn’t mind, I was more concerned about how she was feeling. By supper time, she had developed a slight fever, but she was still in pretty good spirits (as long as we weren’t wiping her nose). Thursday night she managed to sleep for two hours at a time, which felt like heaven to me. But on Friday, she was not herself. She was getting upset over small bumps that she usually wouldn’t notice, she actually spent most of the day cuddling with me – which I was okay with, but it made me sad because I knew she had to be feeling miserable to be cuddling with me that much. So, Friday night we started giving her Tempra for her fever and for any aches and pains she might be feeling. It was amazing, by bedtime she was hardly congested at all, and she slept through the night. Since starting with the Tempra, she is now in better spirits for most of the day and is much less congested. But, I am still feeling like that overprotective new mom. I know that she is okay, and that it is only a cold – because my husband and I both have it as well. It’s no fun, but it is still just a cold. But, when she’s feeling it, she is so miserable, and I feel like she should be over it by now, but she’s not. So, I keep contemplating taking her to the doctor just in case it is something more. I actually called 811 this morning because she has been sick for so long that I was getting worried. They reassured me that I am, in fact, just being that overprotective new mom (my words, not theirs) and told me to call back again if anything changed. I am so grateful for that service, I am sure that our family doctor would end up hating me (and by child by association) if that service was not available. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to deal with her first illness, I have seen so many infants at the day care go through the colds, I know what it brings and that it is okay as long as the fever doesn’t get too high or the symptoms don’t linger too long, and yet, here I am, so worried about her over a simple cold. I know it’s normal and that all parents are like this, especially when their first child is sick for the first time, but I thought I would be better prepared to handle it from my experiences at the day care.
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