Gavin's First Cold

Gavin has come down with a big, tough cold for such a little, sweet boy. He had a cough and some sneezes on Sunday and got progressively worse each day this week until yesterday. On Tuesday night, Gavin didn't sleep at all. Cliff and I took turns staying up with him, walking him around the house, and even then, he still cried most of the time. His little nose was all stuffed up and he hasn't figured out yet how to breath through his mouth. He also tends to gag when he coughs, which sometimes makes him spit up. It can be a bit scary because he starts to choke and his face turns red and we just do what we can to help him to breath again. Poor sweet little guy. He's been so miserable.

We called Rita on Tuesday just to ask her if there was anything else we should be doing to help make him feel better aside from running the humidifier in the room and suctioning out his nose so that he can breathe. She told us that we were doing everything right. She asked if he had a temperature, and he didn't really. She asked if he was still eating, and he is, although not quite as much as usual. She asked if he was wheezy, and he wasn't. She wanted to rule out RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus - http://www.rsvprotection.com/) and Whooping Cough (http://kidshealth.org/parent/infections/bacterial_viral/whooping_cough.html). She told us to bring him in if he started wheezing or ran a fever. By Thursday morning he seemed more sick and more congested and just wasn't getting any better. For our own satisfaction, we wanted her to check him out to make sure that we weren't dismissing something that we should be concerned about. We basically just wanted the expert to either tell us that it is in fact just a cold and we need to let it run its course or to identify something else wrong that we could actually treat since the regular cold remedies don't really work for a baby. We picked up some "little noses" saline nasal drops to help keep his nose running instead of getting stuffed up. We also picked up some Vick's Baby Rub which is a milder form of Vick's VapoRub that can be used on little ones 3 months old and older. Other than that, and keeping the room moist, there isn't a whole lot you can do for a baby with a cold. We called Rita early Thursday morning and she said she could squeeze us in that afternoon. She checked him out, looked in his ears and nose, listened to his chest, took his temperature, weighed him, listened to his cough, etc. (He weighs 14 lbs, 11 oz by the way). She said there was some crud in his chest and that his condition wasn't improving as quickly as she would like. He should have already started improving by this point and didn't seem to be. So, she prescribed an antibiotic, Zithromax (azithromycin), which we give him in a syringe by mouth once a day. He already seems to be doing better. I can't say for sure that he feels better, but his nose is much less stuffy and he isn't coughing as often. He was content to play on his Gymini Playground mat yesterday for the first time in a few days. He has pretty much just wanted to be carried around for the last few days, so this was a good sign. Our little 8-hour baby went from sleeping 8-9 hours at night to waking up a couple of times during the night a week and a half ago and since he has been sick, he's been up even more often. Like I said above, he didn't sleep a wink Tuesday night. Then on Wednesday night he slept for 10 straight hours in his swing, and didn't even wake up when he was coughing. Last night we laid him down in his crib and he immediately started coughing and sputtering. So, we put him in the swing and he went right to sleep (at 11pm) and got up once at 1:30 to eat and then went back to sleep until 7:00 this morning.

We are grateful that this is just a cold and not some more serious illness. We say a little prayer for those babies dealing with much scarier, much more serious illnesses.

We are grateful that Gavin is generally healthy and strong and has had three months to grow and strengthen his little immune system before getting this cold. Thankfully, he didn't get this at just a few weeks old when Cliff and I were both sick. It is tough enough to have a sick three month old - I imagine a sick newborn would be incredibly scary and very trying.

Still, we would appreciate a little prayer for Gavin to feel better. We say a little prayer for him each night and ask that he can get some rest and feel better tomorrow. More prayers just might do the trick! : )