The End of the Plague

For the first time over a week we all woke up feeling pretty good.

I still have a lingering sniffle and Stretchy still sounds a bit like Darth Vader when she breathes sometimes, but overall, we're happy to be feeling mostly better.

Stretchy still has her moments when I'm not sure if she's 100%:

But she has seemed a lot happier lately.

Other signs of happy baby: she is eating and no longer wants to take naps.


I have to say, being sick really, for lack of a better word, sucked.  Not only could I not just lie around in bed and drink ginger ale and watch TV until I felt better, but I couldn't even take anything for it (oh, DayQuil, how I missed you...) since I'm still breastfeeding.  Arg.  Enough complaining... off to enjoy some nice weather and get out of the germ-infested house!

Not So Sick, Getting Sick and Vaccines

Finally yesterday Stretchy seemed to be on the mend.  Aside from sounding like Darth Vader and occasionally appearing to be attempting to cough up a lung, her mood was much improved and I even elicited a few smiles and giggles.  Awesome.  Five days of sick baby is five too many.

So we were hanging out, playing and doing our thing when I start thinking to myself, "Gee, why am I so tired??"  About an hour later as we're singing Wheels on the Bus for the eleventieth time, I start feeling overwhelmed.  Thoughts like "How am I going to play with this baby for the next x hours?" and "What? She's done napping for the day?" start crossing my mind.  Soon after the dreaded headache makes an appearance and before you know it, I feel like I got hit by a school bus (probably that one we've been singing about all day) and I just want to curl up in bed.

Dang it.  Now I'M sick.  Just as Stretchy is feeling better and wants Mommy to be her normal, happy, energetic, Wheels-On-The-Bus-singing Mom.  Figures...



On another related note, Stretchy had her 6 month appointment on Monday and aside from the incessant river of goop flowing out of her nose, she's doing great.  15lbs, 4oz.  26.5" tall.

Now, Monday morning I debated calling (not that I really would have had time to call before our 8:30 appointment- what was I thinking) and letting them know Stretchy wasn't feeling well and we'd need to reschedule the vaccinations because I didn't want to hit her while she was down.  Rethinking my idea, I decided with a cold going on 5 days she should probably be seen anyway.

Good news- they were out of one of the vaccines!  Which meant I didn't have to sound like the crazy, overprotective, worrying mom and tell them I wanted to wait.

HOWEVER... IF she had been well, I would have been pretty angry, because who wants to drive their kid to the doctor TWICE in one week.  NOT ME.

Which brings me to the fact that now that Stretchy is feeling better and I am sick, the office calls and says they can vaccinate her today.  I figure, "Why not?" maybe she'll sleep it off all day and I can recoup... does that make me a bad mom??


And of course, since I don't want to end on a depressing Not So Sick, Getting Sick and Getting Vaccinated note... here are some cute pictures to tide you over until I feel better :)

Practicing standing!

Too Many Sick Days

Having a sick baby is no fun.  Stretchy has been sick since Thursday.  That makes three days of sick baby.  "Three days?" you say. "That's not so bad..." (Or I'm imagining that's what you might say.  That's probably what I would have said to me a year ago, you know, before I had a kid...)

Anyhow, this is how Stretchy's days have been going:

3:00am: Wake up coughing.
3:02am: Eat.
3:20am: Fall asleep while eating
3:22am: Wake up while being put back in crib.  Start screaming
3:30am: Go sleep in Mommy's bed.  She must be tired.
3:35am: Fall fitfully alseep
3:40am: Wake up coughing.  Start screaming.
3:45am: Repeat falling asleep and waking up until...
6:30am: Wake up for the day.  Appear happy and good natured.
6:40am: Refuse to eat breakfast.
6:45am: Scream your head off like you are hungry, but refuse to eat.  Again.
6:50am: Play normally.
6:51am: Cry for no reason.
7:00am-8:30 am: Repeat bi-polar activities of giggling while playing and crying inconsolably.
8:35am: Nap. But only ON Mommy, not in crib.  Take an abnormally long nap in which Mommy could
be doing so many other things...
10:45am: Wake up crying and refuse to eat.  Again.

10:55am: Scream your head off like you are hungry, but refuse to eat.  Again.
11:00am: Play normally.
11:01am-7:00pm: Repeat all of the above.
7:01pm: Cry inconsolably until bath time.
7:45-8:15pm: Have a blast in the bath.
8:16pm: Finally eat normally and pass out.
8:40pm: Wake up crying every 10 minutes until finally sleeping for a few hours at 10pm.
12:00am: Wake up and eat.
12:30am: Wake up crying every 10 minutes until finally sleeping for a few hours.

... It's been a long few days.  It's rough when your baby is upset and there's nothing you can do to fix it.
I do have to say though, that those abnormally long naps where she only wants to sleep on me are awesome.  Usually she wants to play, play, play and it's nice to get some cuddles once in a while.

I hope she feels better soon.

Here are some cute pictures of Stretchy during one of her "happy moments" the last few days.  At least it's been nice out so we could enjoy the fresh air.

**DIY side-note:  like those super cute leg-warmers? $2.50 knee high socks from Target with the feet cut off.  SO CUTE!

Darth Vader

The past two nights I've been in the company of Darth Vader Baby. We're sharing a room since we're at my parents visiting, and let me say that sleeping with a baby who snores louder than my dad (think chainsaw) makes sleeping very difficult. Not to mention the possibly lethal levels of Vick's Vapo-rub particulates circulating throughout the room or the fact that humidity levels in there rivaled the rainforest. Let's just say I'm tired... Strethcy hasn't been sick yet (though I've supposed some days of not feeling so great to give her an excuse for being fussy 24/7), so the past couple days I've been the most paranoid mother on the face of the earth. Its probably a good thing that I'm here with my own mother to keep me grounded or we'd probably have been to every hospital in the state multiple times. ("What do you mean she's fine and just keep her elevated? Clearly she has brochitis or some other respitory disorder." "It's NOT pneumonia? Well then it must be whooping cough- those vaccines suck!!") Fortunately, Stretchy is still alive. She's clearly not a happy baby, but her condition looks like its not life threatening. Probably a good thing I didn't go to all those hospitals because now I'd feel like an idiot. Dear baby, Please get better soon. Mommy doesn't sleep well with a snoring baby next to her. Also, she's very tired from getting up every 10 minutes to check if you are breathing. Love, Mommy.