What a cough!

Well, we should have expected it, a week after traveling Maggie and I are sick! Seana also had a bout with it she just came down with it while in California. Maggie came down with the sniffles on Sunday. I am happy to say the runny/stuffy nose wasn't accompanied by a fever just watery eyes and she was rubbing her face a lot.

So Monday morning I called the pediatric nurse line for instructions. Our instructions were to suck her nose when needed (use Little Noses Saline solution when stuffy) and give Tylenol every 4 hours if needed, we were also instructed to hook up a vaporizer in her room. Seana and I also did a little internet research and we decided to steam Maggie whenever I showered... Seana would sit with her while I took a very hot steam producing shower. We also added eucalyptus oil to the water in our humidifier.

We have learned that Maggie is not a fan of Tylenol, but she will take it if I put a small amount on her pacifier let her suck on it a bit then put on some more until we get through the entire dose... otherwise we get sticky chin from her spitting it right back out. We already knew Maggie didn't like the bulb syringe so we had actually ordered a Nose Frida before our vacation... little did we know it would be so useful. A nose frida is a syringe shaped tube that has a filter then smaller tube with a mouth piece. A mouth piece??? you say. YES! I use my lungs to suck out her boogies!! Well she doesn't like it either but recovers from it much more quickly than the bulb syringe and I like it more because I can see that I am getting results. It is a different approach and not good if you don't want your babies germs but it really works great!

I'm pretty certain I didn't get my cold from the nose frida... I started feeling gunky Monday morning and my symptoms seemed to worsen by Tuesday while Maggie's improved, so with Seana's prompting I called the pediatric nurse line to see what if I could take Mucinex (the expectorant). Which I did and I got the go ahead for using it. In my defense I had been using the Netty Pot and I still am... I wish Maggie could use the nose pot.

Needless to say, we are both still fighting it, Tuesday and Wednesday were my hardest days but I am progressively feeling better... Maggie however seems to have plateaued. She doesn't seem to be getting any better than she was on Tuesday and she has added wet cough to the list of symptoms. It breaks my heart to hear her little cough.

Unfortunately for my sleep schedule Maggie's sleep schedule is all off but I am not too concerned I just want her to rest as much as possible and that is one thing she doesn't seem to be having too much of a problem she has been having some nice long naps.

As of last night we are adding some other holistic options suggested to us for treating her stuffiness. We were told breast milk is better than the Little Noses saline, so we tried it. We used a dropper to put some breast milk into her nose. It seemed to help loosen stuff up. Today we added eucalyptus oil to our shower/steam experience which was quite refreshing and Maggie's nose has been draining ever since!

Hopefully the weekend will bring health with it! I know this cold is not the worse of what we will face as parents but this first cold is unnerving.