Being Stuffy at 17 Months is Not The Same as it Is at 30

Our little Baby B has a cold. She looked like she had a bit of a runny nose Monday night when I was giving her a bath, but I thought it might just be that her face was wet from the bathwater. But by Tuesday at naptime, Dad was giving her a dose of baby dimetap to help dry her up so she could sleep. When I got home from work, she was doing a lot of breathing out of her mouth and was pretty miserable. She was also very clingy, wanting boob over and over again but not really because she couldn't breathe and nurse at the same time. She was like a drowning man, agonizing as he gets a breath of air only to be pulled back under by the current, in Brigid's case, the lure of the boob. We were on our own for dinner last night because Dad decided to exercise so I took the girls to Applebee's. Brigid was just not herself and although she ate some, she didn't eat much and was whinny and miserable. She cheered up a little at the end so we went to Walmart where I tried to find her some more baby dimetap, but of all places they don't carry it. We passed their banana display rack near the entrance by the pharmacy and she went ape, wanting a 'nana 'nana 'nana! So we got her one -- had to stand in line to pay for it and keep her calm while telling her she'd have it as soon as they weighed it. She ate about two thirds of the thing. Had to go to Kinney Drugs for the dimetap.

When we got home, she was practically falling over her own feet, so I got her in her PJs without giving her a bath and dosed her again with the dimetap. She nursed for a while and the girls and I started watching "Kelly's Heroes" (a great World War II movie with Clint Eastwood, for those of you who have never seen it). But Brigid didn't seem to be getting any sleepier, so I put her in bed where she protested a few minutes before falling asleep. I worried that she'd wake during the night because of her breathing, but it wasn't until just after 6 a.m. that I heard her on the monitor. I went in to get her, and she was once again trying to get her foot up on the railing to climb out. She looked up at me and I just shook my head, "No." She dropped her foot and held out her arms. Gotta love when a baby does that. She didn't go back to sleep very easily and it was fitful when she did snooze. Her fitfulness in the bed means kidney kicks and punches to the head for Daddy and Mommy as she thrashes around. I left her in good spirits this morning with Daddy and the girls. Hope her breathing eases up for her today. And in the meantime, I hope the runniness of my own nose is no indication that she gave me her cold.