Sick, Sick, Sick...

When I was 17, I babysat two little girls for a sister in our ward. One of the girls was less than a year old and about an hour after I had put both of the girls down to bed, she woke up hysterical. I remember being unable to calm her down for quite some time...I finally sat down in their rocking chair and I sang to her. Right away she stopped and fell back asleep in my arms. I remember thinking that I couldn't wait for the day that I would hold my own child and rock him or her as I sang them to sleep.

Singing is part of our bedtime routine with Michael, but he gets so excited when I sing to him that it's almost not productive because he thinks it's playtime when I do. Jonathan and I limit it to one or two songs and then continue with the routine of nursing him and such. I've been sick since Monday and Michael finally followed suit yesterday. He had a runny nose and a cough and seemed warm, but every time I took his temperature he didn't have a fever. (To make things worse he's been having tummy aches because he's constipated...) At four in the morning he wasn't doing too well and we took his temperature again and it was 100.0 degrees (which I found out today isn't technically considered a "fever" for him...) He was having trouble breathing because he was so plugged up and was coughing constantly. I held him upright and starting singing to him and he immediately put his head down on my shoulder and whimpered his way back to sleep in my arms. It's unfortunate that my dream of singing my child to sleep had to come about that way, but at least I now know that Michael does find my singing comforting...

Here's a picture of poor Michael from this morning...

We called the pediatrician's office this morning, and since our doctor is out of the office on Fridays, we saw the on-call pediatrician. They weighed him at 13 lb 15 ounces. His fever however was gone and the pediatrician was impressed with how active and smiley he was (HUGE contrast to what he was ALL last night...). She said it looked like he just had a cold that has been going around. I was sure he didn't have the swine flu...but in the back of my mind I was paranoid since several of my in-laws and some of the family members of Jonathan's co-workers were officially diagnosed with it recently and I know any kind of flu isn't a good thing for Michael to get...His ears were very clear, but he was extremely congested. We're supposed to keep an eye on him and if his fever comes back and is persistent this weekend we need to bring him back in on Monday. She said that for his age a low-grade fever would be 100.4.

The rest of the day Michael did really well and besides the huge bags under his eyes, his runny nose with snot that flies all over me when he sneezes, and his occasional cough...he seems to be getting back to his old happy self. I was even finally able to get his "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma" on video...

Right now saying "ma-ma-ma" is his way of talking. He sometimes grunts or squeaks too...but ma-ma-ma is used most often. Hopefully someday soon that mama will refer to me :)

Anyway...I better end this. We're praying Michael continues to get better and that he will sleep through the night tonight...I don't know how much longer my body will endure this lack of sleep while I'm sick!