I had so much cool stuff to blog about from this weekend, but instead I feel the need to talk about how hard it is to watch your 4 month old baby be so sick. Sat. night, Gregory came down with the same cold that both Topher and Jonathan have had all week. This makes perfect sense– Courtney does me the huge favor of watching G on Mondays and Tuesdays for the 45 min. before Jesse gets home while I beat traffic and get to my piano lessons. I knew there was a possibility, but I didn’t think he’d had enough exposure to get it.
It’s not that the bad cough and runny nose have me terribly worried. The “gunk” is pretty thin and clear, so it’s easy to squeeze out with one of those bulb things they give you at the birth. Add some saline drops, and it washes all the gunk down and out.
The problem is that his excessive coughing is making him gag and throw up. LOTS. And when it happens in the middle of the night, accompanied by a little brown stomach bile? YIKES. Very scared momma.
Last night was pretty bad. By this morning, I had only slept a combined total of 3 and a half hours, seeing as I waited until 1am to go to bed (I’d had a long nap after church). When I nursed him at around 4am, he started coughing, and then, all of a sudden, all 6+ounces were all over me, the bed, the blankets, etc. Jesse had heard the guttural noise and jumped out of bed for the light. Most of the vomit was brown, so, naturally, I started freaking out. I called my mom in CA, woke her up, and asked if I should take G into the ER (I was convinced it was blood). She helped me realize that it would’ve been a different color or consistency if it was blood, and just to keep his nose clear so he could keep nursing.
Once G had gotten all of the gunk out of his airway through this coughing episode, he was happy as a clam. Both of his parents, awake and paying very close attention to him. Was it play-time? Hooray! Party on!
Unfortunately, he felt this way until around 6am, where he took a short 1/2 hr. nap, then wanted to eat again. He only nursed a little before he was asleep again. We did this same thing at 7. At 7:30, right around the time Jesse left for work (poor tired guy!), the coughing started up again. I decided that we needed medicine to get this coughing in check. Most of it didn’t sound productive, just the “tickle in the back of your throat” kind, and I wanted to suppress it so he could keep milk down.
We made it to Albertsons and into the produce aisle before he coughed twice and vomited EVERYWHERE. Mostly brown and white, again. I contained most of it with his blanket, wrapped it over on itself, and made a bee-line for the pharmacy section. I grabbed Vicks Vapor Wall Plug Ins (I have a few students who swear by them, saying they open everything right up, plus they smell good!), Children’s Dimeatapp, and Saline drops.
So far, we’ve achieved one long nap where I slept next to him so that I could keep him on his side without rolling over. That seems to work better than being on his back, elevated. He hasn’t thrown up again, which is good! Please pray that we make it through this unscathed. I’m especially worried about using the Dimeatapp, because the box says not to use it on children under 6. Courtney’s Pediatrician, however, gave her a manual that says they can have .8 mL a few times a day. I’m trying to give him .3 mL every 5-6 hours, because I’d rather under-dose him for now and see if that gets the job done. So far, it has!
And pray for me, emotionally. It’s horribly gut wrenching to see your baby coughing spastically, unable to stop long enough to catch a breath. The first time this happened, he looked up at me, so scared, with tears coming out of his eyes, and I had to leave him with Jesse and cry it out in the other room. Since then, I’ve tried to be calm about things, distracting him with toys to help him stop coughing, singing and rocking him when he’s suffering, just so that he knows things will be okay, eventually.
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[…] have noticed that my milk supply has been diminishing. In the beginning, I had too much. Ever since G’s cold, however, I’ve noticed that I have a hard time pumping any extra for piano teaching days. For […]