Poor Baby

Last Wednesday, I wrote about Peeper's new and improved sleep habits.

So, of course, thanks to Murphy's Law of Mommy Blogging, the past two nights, we've been up for 2 - 3 hours in the middle of the night, with a whiny, sniffly, snotty, coughy, exhausted-but-no-sleepy baby.

Of course.

She has a cold, though, so (knock wood) that's still in line with what I said before about her only getting us up in the night when she's sick.

Saturday, she'd napped early, and went to bed and 9:30. I wasn't sure if that was a nap or bedtime, but she was still asleep when we crawled into bed at 1 am, but then she woke up at 2 am, and was up until close to 4:30 am.

Last night, she napped late, and was having trouble getting settled and asleep when we tried to go to bed around 11 pm. We were up and down and finally went to sleep at 1 am. Then she was up around 2 am - until about 5 am.

That time, she was doing a lot of coughing, and it definitely seemed to be "productive" - rattlecough, rattlecough, gaggycough, swallow - so I was worried that the cold was moving down into her chest.

After we sat in a steamy bathroom for a while, it seemed to settle down, but I still wanted to get her checked out.

As luck would have it, we were already scheduled to get the second dose of her seasonal flu shot today, so I called and left a message in the middle of the night, asking if we could see a doctor instead, and take a peek at her ears and a listen to her lungs.

The doctor said that her ears are fine, and her "heart and lungs sound great," and that the cold is "all up here (her head)" so that's very good to hear.

It really did seem that she had some congestion going on last night, to do that kind of coughing, but maybe it was just post-nasal drip? (Ew.)

I was much more worried about a chest cold than a head cold, just because it would be the first time that her lungs have been "challenged" since her surgery, and although she is all fixed up, I don't know that I'm 100% confident that her lungs are 100% okay, after dealing with the excess fluid and pressure for her first twenty weeks.

No doctor has ever indicated that she would have any kind of permanent damage, mind you, but I'm just nervous about how they'll handle an infection or congestion or whatever, when the do encounter it.

So, the upshot of the whole exam was that "She has a cold. Keep doing what you're doing - humidifier, Tylenol when she seems to need it, keep an eye on her."

I felt a little silly about asking to see a doctor to hear that, but while in the waiting room, I did read a poster about runny noses that said to call a doctor if the runny nose is accompanied by a cough. So there.

Oh, and our original purpose for the appointment? She did get her second seasonal flu shot - and she didn't even cry!

She maybe made a little "Eep!" as though to say, "What the fuck?!" but then was fine.

I started to offer her some goody (I had her in my lap for the shot, with my bra already unhooked, ready to go.) but instead, she wanted to get down and "walk" around.

I was so proud of her!

(You'll notice that I didn't say that nobody cried.)