Under the weather

Hmm. Well, it seems we experienced our first minor illness from Erik this weekend. He's always been a sneezy kid, but Saturday night he began to cough as well. They seemed sort of phlegm-y and his breathing sounded like purring from the phlegm. Kind of cute. Saturday night he woke up more often than usual, almost every two hours. When he first woke he would be phlegmy again but would sort of cough it out when he cried while we changed his diaper. He would then nurse, get phlegmy, cough it up and go back to sleep.

In the morning we called the nurseline and the nurse did not seem concerned. Erik's temperature isn't elevated so we were told to monitor him. He slept most of the day. After one afternoon feeding he spat up about an ounce. That's a lot! We tried the nurseline again but couldn't get through. So we went next door to our neighbor Michelle, who is a mother of two preschoolers. As an added bonus, her mother-in-law was there, and she's a nurse. They agreed that his symptoms didn't sound alarming, but if he spat up more feedings we should try the nurseline again. Fortunately, he did not. He slept again, nursed, kept the milk down and seemed more alert and more like his usual smiley self. I was curious to see if he would sleep at all last night, since he'd slept so much during the day.

It turned out I didn't need to worry. We fed him at nine. I, of course, was afraid the congestion would turn into bronchitis or croup and so I wanted to sleep on the same floor as Erik. So we set up the Pack n Play in the basement and Joe & I slept down there too. Erik did wake a couple times in the evening and need to be resoothed. However, once he finally settled down he slept from 11 pm to 5 am! I actually had to get up and pump because he went so long between feedings! Today he seems pretty much back to normal except that he's still coughing sometimes.

Whew. I did not enjoy that little foray into infant illness and I'm glad Erik seems to be on the mend. We're very grateful to Michelle for her support and sympathy. It's so helpful to know and talk to other parents. They just understand how scary it is when your kid is sick the first time. (and maybe the second time)