5 Months and First Cold

I love my son. I really do. He is so cute sometimes when he laughs and squeals in delight. But I thought I was going to sell him on Craigslist last week.

He got a nasty cough and was all congested, so he was extremely fussy. But he didn’t have a fever. The dr told us that we’d have to let him ride it out because he was too young to be given anything. She said it would last about a week. (Big groan.) He was only drinking 2-4 oz and would also start screaming, which we attributed to a sore throat. We would hold him in our arms and let him sleep because he seemed so miserable. He’d wail and wail whenever he threw up. It made my heart break!

Then it started to really get bad. Peyton started waking up every hour in the middle of the night. Wanting to be held. Screaming from the coughing. Wanting to be fed. It was like he was newborn again… but I think much worse. At least he would sleep 2-3 hours as a newborn. Then the hub got sick. Real sick. A stomach virus of some sort. So he was bedridden and I had to take care of Peyton, who woke up every hour that night and I barely slept. He also suddenly wouldn’t go down in bed unless he was held. Every time I tried to put him down, he’d scream bloody murder. I nearly lost it!

But it gets better. Then I got the nasty stomach virus and the hub had to get up from bed and start taking care of Peyton. I spent the night kissing the toilet and wondering if it was better to be dead than to go through this sort of pain. (The hub asked me if it was as bad as contractions and I told him contractions were worse.) We both felt better by the end of the week and could return to work, but Peyton was still coughing and being difficult, so we had to both take half-days. Finally — yes, a full week later — Peyton was almost back to normal except for the whole not sleeping thing and wanting to be held to sleep.

On Saturday, we decided to let him cry it out a bit. He cried for 2 hours straight and scratched up his head from all the thrashing. We tried the Ferber method on Sunday, but the kid is pretty stubborn — never stopped crying. I don’t think I got more than 2 hours of sleep. (I almost didn’t wake up for work! We were all so tired from the night before — including Peyton — that we slept past our normal time.)

I dread the first cold for every parent. It is not pleasant. You will think your child was put on this earth to test your limits.

Besides that, the cereal eating has been going really well. I was following directions — giving it to him once a day — but he still seemed hungry. A work acquaintance told me to trust my instincts, so I started to give it to him twice a day and he’s been really loving it. He lunges at the spoon and gobbles it all up! He’ll also drink his usual 8 oz bottle. Next week I’m thinking of starting on veggies. I can’t wait!