The Bailey Chronicles

This is not fun at all. I feel awful for her. She is so congested and every time she starts coughing it triggers her gag reflex causing her to throw up everywhere. We have gone through all of her receiving blankets and many pj's. Doing her laundry as we speak. I am a little soar from all of this nursing, (she coughs and throws up and then demands to eat again because she is back to empty) feels like we are spinning tires here. If only she could sleep, we would all feel better, but it is hard to sleep when you cough so hard you throw up and need a wardrobe change and need to eat all over again kwim? Poor thing! Let's see we are on day 3... maybe day 4 of the cold, surely it will go away soon right?!

Bailey just puked for the first time. It shot out of her mouth and nose about half a foot in front of her covering the both of us. She seemed more bothered by me removing her soiled clothes than the actual act of puking so that's good at least. I am quite impressed by the amount and distance she got for being such a little thing. No worries we bathed and she has some fresh pj's on and now she is taking a nap on Daddy. I am hoping she is done with all of that for the rest of the night.

I am very excited though about this new thermometer I purchased off ebay. I had began to worry about my little one's immune system because it seems anybody and everybody is sick right now and most of them fail to mention this to me before they come over or when we come to them. After my Dad's visit, which he did mention he was coming down with something, but I seriously underestimated the something because it sounded like what John and I have been battling and judging by the fever he seemed to be running it was definitely not the same thing... anyway for good reason I have become super concerned for her health because I am really not fully prepared for her to be around all of these germs. Bailey received a gift card to Target for Christmas from her Great Aunt Janet so I thought that maybe I should use it towards a fancy thermometer that I could trust but wouldn't be as evasive as a rectal thermometer. Honestly I know rectal is the most accurate, but it just seems mean to probe a sick baby constantly, and since I am paranoid you know it would be constant. Anyway I never buy anything without going online and reading what the customer reviews have to say about it. I found one that uses infrared and just scans the forehead without even touching anything giving an accurate temp within one second. Crazy! Customers raved on and on about it on all the websites I researched, but it was $90 everywhere I looked. I cross checked it with ebay and got a brand new one in sealed packaging for a quarter of the price so I snagged it. It also came with a pacifier that has a liquid medicine chamber to make sure baby swallows all of her medicine.
After the puking episode I had John go check the mail and it arrived! Right in time! No fever which is reassuring, maybe she didn't catch Granddad's super bug after all. Fever or no fever we are still calling the Dr. tomorrow because she has a cough that developed earlier today, and I am going to bring our thermometer and compare it's reading with his to make sure it's accurate like the reviews claim it to be. If it truly is then I believe this is one of the coolest new inventions! A no touch thermometer that will never wake a sleeping baby.

*********************UPDATE******************************

We just got back from her check up and it is confirmed that she has a little baby cold. Fortunately it's nothing to be concerned about at this point because her lungs are clear so no meds are needed just the humidifier during nap times. I on the other hand have been prescribed a z-pack to help clear up my soar throat, looked like strep, and I have been cleared to start low impact exercise (walking is all I am aloud to do for the next 4-6 weeks but that's better than nothing... now if only it wasn't freezing outside). Perhaps some of those antibiotics will help out little Bailey through the breast milk, not sure if it works like that but maybe. She was weighed at her check up and came in at a whopping 9 pounds 12 ounces! That little chunky monkey has gained 3 pounds in a little over 30 days. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I know it's good that she is gaining, but is that too much in just 30 days?

The new year is always a good time for reflection. Traditionally I spend New Year's Eve doing naughty things such as going out to the bars in Addison or to a rock concert and drinking myself silly with some of my closest friends, but of course this year is much different. Did I make it to midnight at least?? NO! Thank God LOL! Bailey let me sleep two nights in a row so I took full advantage of it. Who cares about staying up to party when there is the option of sleep. Most nights I am pulling all nighters anyway so I might as well roll the new year in the way I hope the rest of the year will go, being well rested. So as I mentioned the new year is a good time for reflection... I realize now that I am old and lame. Oh well, what can you do?

Tonight has been the first night in the last couple of weeks where Bailey has actually been asleep during the hours of 2am-8am. I guess she has had her days and nights confused... not sure really. She just seems to become incredibly cranky and impossible to please between those hours. Constantly acting hungry so we nurse, still fussy so we burp, still fussy so we mess with the diaper... still fussy we rock, we nurse some more we might even take a bath and then she nurses one last time and passes out for the rest of the day. If I could drink coffee without her getting all cracked out as a side effect I probably wouldn't even be bothered by this routine, but the coffee just makes things worse for us so I have to work through it with her and try not to get cranky about it. However tonight has been different. She has actually been sleeping fairly well between these hours, and has been easy to please each time she wakes up. Yes tonight she has been quite easy like she is the rest of the day... so why can't I sleep? I bet ya when I finally drift off she wakes up mad, just a guess LOL. Oh well it would be my fault this time around not hers. I have been conditioned to sleep in the day now and she decides to change it up on me ROTTEN! *sigh*

Today Bailey is officially one month old and she is celebrating her first Christmas! We have had such a full year and it flew by so quickly, but I couldn't be more thankful for all of it! Christmas cards are delayed because they didn't arrive here on time, but they are coming. Here are some of our sweet first Christmas baby photos (taken by our very talented Aunt Candi and Uncle Kobi) to share until you get your card! Merry Christmas everyone, I hope it's perfect! We love you all!!