first cold

My darling daughter has her first cold.

As we went to bed last night, I told Al that he had to get up with Bridget if she woke up during the night. She's been doing so frequently lately because her two bottom teeth are poking through her gums (I can finally see the tips of them!) and making their slow, excruciating way into their semi-permanent position (semi-permanent because she'll lose them someday, of course). My logic for making Al get up? One, she's on a half-formula, half-breastfeeding diet plus lots and lots of solid food (even meats) so he can get up and give her a bottle or just rock her back to sleep if she needs it (no, not with a ten-pound rock). Two, I have to work today (that's what I'm supposedly doing right now, grading) and he doesn't. Yeah, but. Didn't work that way.

I think he actually did get up with her once, but when she woke up at 3 a.m. and I tried telling him that she was awake and he needed to take care of her, I heard a grunt and then snores. Hmph. Since she was happy, saying "Dadada" over and over again, I let her lie there (lay? I never did bother figuring that one out). About 3:40 a.m. she started crying, so I dragged myself to a sitting position, found my robe and slippers, and stood up. Suddenly, Bridget cut herself off in the middle of a loud cry. Hmm. I turned on the hallway light, walked into her room, and she was asleep. Repeat waking/playing/crying cycle a couple of times, and I finally just decided to get her up during the playing cycle at 5 a.m. (Of course, Al never woke up this entire time.) I figured I'd get more rest by breastfeeding her than having her interrupt my dozing every few minutes, and she'd be comforted by my presence even if her gums were bothering her. Only problem was, when I picked her up she was burning up.

I took her temp. 100.6 degrees. Changed her diaper, stripped off her pjs, gave her infant tylenol (no, it wasn't in the recalled batch) and went in to wake up Al. Said his name loudly four times before he woke up with an irritated "What?" Told him about the fever and about being upset that he didn't get up with her two hours earlier (I was scared; my baby's never had a fever and I wasn't quite sure what to do. I think I was hoping he'd get scared, too, to justify my fear). Told him I was going to feed her and see if her fever went down. He mumbled something and went back to sleep. I took her into the living room, stretched out on the lazyboy I still haven't returned to dad (borrowed it during my pregnancy), fed my baby and cried and prayed.

Fever went down, nurse said, "Doctors will tell you that teeth coming in doesn't bring on a fever, but many mothers swear by it that it does. But better come in to check out her ears since she's been a little congested." We went in at 9:30 a.m. this morning, ears are fine, doc says it's "just a cold," which means they don't really know what's wrong and so we'll label it a cold. That's fine. She has cold-like symptoms (sometimes) and we've ruled out something worse, which is what I was worried about. And except for evenings and night-time, when she's really tired, Bridget is in her normal high spirits. She may not be as hungry, but we all know that food does just not taste good when you're sick (usually).

Get better soon, Bridget. I love you. (And I'd really like some more sleep...)