We've reached a totally unexpected milestone in the life of our four-month-old son–he woke up a couple of days ago all congested and obviously under the weather.
Our little Abel doesn't go to daycare and he hasn't been around any obviously sick people, so we were completely caught off guard. As new parents, we had no idea how to handle it–I mean, I'm not even sure how to use that booger-suction thingy! After consulting with my husband, my mom, and my best friend, I called the doctor and was told to flush his nose out with saline spray and to keep on eye on his mood. Not a whole lot of help, but at least I didn't have to pay a $15 co-pay.
To be honest, I'm not quite sure whether Abel actually has a cold or if he's just suffering the symptoms of early teething — I'm inclined to think the latter, but nevertheless, the past few days have been emotionally and physically draining.
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I've been up multiple times a night helping him clear his nose, cleaning up his uncharacteristic middle-of-the-night dirty diapers, comforting him and putting him back to sleep, while my husband who cares for him while I'm at work, has been dealing with clinginess, inconsolable crying and one confused little dude.
Despite the stress and exhaustion, the most difficult part of all has been accepting the fact that we can't make him better, that we can't solve this problem for him, that all we can do is give him extra cuddles and someTylenol and wait it out.
I know this is just the beginning and that we have decades of illnesses and ouchies ahead of us, but it's been almost painful to see my helpless baby in such a sad state. I naively thought we'd have at least another couple of months before we had to experience this.
Looking forward, I suppose it's a good thing that we're getting a taste of what to expect once cold and flu season is in full effect — but, really I'd be more than happy to forgo this part of infanthood altogether.
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