At 3:00am this morning, I was awakened by a thunderous sound coming from the baby monitor. Before I knew I was awake, I had already run halfway across the house on my way to Cutie Pie. Still bleary eyed, I looked down at my Cutie Pie's crib to see a very unhappy baby coughing violently. Now I know I'm not supposed to pick up the baby every time he makes noise at night, at least that's what everyone says. So I stared at him for a moment trying to figure out what I am supposed to do. I gave him his pacifier, I put Baby Vicks on his chest and I rubbed his back when he rolled over on his stomach. He wasn't fully alert yet but the way he was coughing, I knew I didn't have long before I had a wide awake coughing baby. Sure enough, in a short time I saw my little Cutie Pie's eyes, looking up at me and heard the first of many cries. Cutie Pie told me it was time to stop doing what everyone says and pick him up NOW!
For the next two hours we rocked in the rocking chair, we nursed, we tried walking around the house, we tried sitting in the swing, we used the saline solution, we used the aspirator and when nothing could stop Cutie Pie's coughs, my mind naturally turned to the Swine Flu. Now that I'm a Mom, I have to worry about these things. Maybe I'm not worried enough. We've got a hurricane plan and we know what to do in case of a fire or a tornado. Some of my friends who watch too many horror movies even have an alien plan and a zombie plan! Should I have some kind of a Pandemic Plan for keeping my family safe? I started reviewing the symptoms in my head. Cough- check, body aches- well, he seems unhappy, lethargic- no, he seems pretty wide awake, fever- nope! Hooray! Cutie Pie is safe from the pandemic!
But what could be making him cough like this? I think I read in one of those books that sometimes babies cough a lot because they swallowed something and it got caught in their windpipe. I wonder if Cutie Pie will open his mouth and let me have a look back there. He was nursing right then so I decided to hold off on inspecting Cutie Pie's tonsils, when all of a sudden he let out a monstrous cough that I'm sure they heard in China. This was followed by projectile vomit, the kind I've only seen in movies. Hooray! I immediately decided Cutie Pie must not be choking. If he'd had something stuck in there it surely would have come flying out. I've never been so happy to see a baby throw up.
Around 5:30am, Daddy came in and immediately identified the problem: the humidifier wasn't working. He fixed it and Cutie Pie soon stopped coughing. He was out like a light by 6:00am and slept in until 9:00am. Lucky me!
There are two things I learned about being a Mom last night. One, apparently I tend to overreact when I don't have enough sleep. Two, next time Daddy should get up to check on the baby.
For the next two hours we rocked in the rocking chair, we nursed, we tried walking around the house, we tried sitting in the swing, we used the saline solution, we used the aspirator and when nothing could stop Cutie Pie's coughs, my mind naturally turned to the Swine Flu. Now that I'm a Mom, I have to worry about these things. Maybe I'm not worried enough. We've got a hurricane plan and we know what to do in case of a fire or a tornado. Some of my friends who watch too many horror movies even have an alien plan and a zombie plan! Should I have some kind of a Pandemic Plan for keeping my family safe? I started reviewing the symptoms in my head. Cough- check, body aches- well, he seems unhappy, lethargic- no, he seems pretty wide awake, fever- nope! Hooray! Cutie Pie is safe from the pandemic!
But what could be making him cough like this? I think I read in one of those books that sometimes babies cough a lot because they swallowed something and it got caught in their windpipe. I wonder if Cutie Pie will open his mouth and let me have a look back there. He was nursing right then so I decided to hold off on inspecting Cutie Pie's tonsils, when all of a sudden he let out a monstrous cough that I'm sure they heard in China. This was followed by projectile vomit, the kind I've only seen in movies. Hooray! I immediately decided Cutie Pie must not be choking. If he'd had something stuck in there it surely would have come flying out. I've never been so happy to see a baby throw up.
Around 5:30am, Daddy came in and immediately identified the problem: the humidifier wasn't working. He fixed it and Cutie Pie soon stopped coughing. He was out like a light by 6:00am and slept in until 9:00am. Lucky me!
There are two things I learned about being a Mom last night. One, apparently I tend to overreact when I don't have enough sleep. Two, next time Daddy should get up to check on the baby.
Posts
I'm so glad Cutie Pie is better. I have a question though...where can I find the alien and zombie plans?
ReplyDelete