- I sit her nursing my little baby. She is one month old today. That amazes me. She has grown so much, but is still so small. She’s a little more sick today. I hope it’s at it’s worse. When I hear her cough, it makes me want to cry. She concerned me when she first woke up today. Her coughs sounded so congested and just kept coming. I could hear her ragged breathing. I felt my heart rate accelerate a bit, but like I do at work when a patient seems to be taking a turn for the worse; I went into an autopilot mode of what I needed to do. I suctioned my baby and performed some mild chest percussion (in other words, I clapped on her back with cupped hands and her head tilted down). The saline in her nose and suctioning caused her to cry angrily, which I think broke up the congestion better than anything. She improved quickly and is doing fine. She is still coughing and congested but her lungs are clear and her appetite is good. I’ve been praying that God keep me vigilant to watch her for any signs of complication.
- Needless to say, things have been a little crazy around here. Basically, Bailey gets an antihistamine and gets fed. She cries for 1-2 hours without relief, then she sleeps for a couple of hours. Around two hours before she’s due her next dose, she is awake, coughing, congested, and inconsolable. She cries for most of that time. So typically, if you broke time into 6 hour increments (that’s how often she can have her medicine), she cries for 3-4 of those hours. Perhaps the medicine helps her rest or perhaps it’s just exhaustion that finally causes her to sleep. It does help to loosen the congestion though, so I give it routinely. Last night she cried from 8:30 pm until 12:30 am. Around midnight, I began to cry too. Once again, I started to pray out loud. I think Bailey likes prayer and God must be listening too, because for the 2nd night in a row, she finally fell asleep when I did this. I prayed that she would rest, fearing that I’d be unable to handle it when she repeated this at 4 am. It so happens that at 4 am she did wake up congested but I fed and medicated her and she went back to sleep without incident.
- Today was my little sister’s baby shower. I really wanted to attend. I felt like the girls were up to it. Chloe feels pretty good. She’s still coughing and clingy, but she was excited to go and eat cake. Unbeknownst to me, Ben contacted my aunt this morning and asked her to come help me. I felt bad at first, but then relieved. It was a huge help. I was able to blow dry my hair which is something I haven’t done in almost 2 weeks. I got to the shower ahead of time instead of an hour late! On my way there, both girls were uncharacteristically quiet. I listened to the radio and worshipped as I drove. You know, God’s grace is an amazing thing. He always gives you just enough to handle the situation. His strength comes just when yours runs out. My situation may not seem like a big deal to some. Conversely, someone else’s big deal, may not seem like much to me. Each one of us have our own trials. God knows how they affect us and He alone knows just how much help we need to get through it. I’m so glad Ben and I are not in this alone.
That is all 🙂