Baby's First Cold

It's been a week over here. The little man has had his first little virus this week. On Monday morning, the little guy seemed to choke on some milk after eating and had this big ole' coughing fit. It scared me to death but he got himself together after a while and I was finally able to get him back down. But once he was up for the day, I noticed that he was still periodically coughing and his breathing sounded pretty junky to me. Being the over paranoid first time mom that I am, I was convinced he had aspirated some of the milk into his lungs causing the cough. So I called the pediatrician and after I shared my observations they said I should come in to get him checked out. So off to the pediatrician we went for their last appointment of the day! Hubby met us a the pediatrician which always makes me feel so much better. He is the absolute best dad, always wanting to be there for his little man. 

The pediatrician told us his chest sounded great, they looked in his ears and didn't see any cause for concern and gave him a little once over for anything else that might be the source of his troubles. She decided he was most likely coming down with something viral and it was just an unfortunate coincidence that it coincided with his little feeding episode but that the cough was probably unrelated to that. So to be cautious and since it's going around, she decided we should test for RSV. Y'all. He hated it and it was so so sad. The swab they use for RSV is basically a covid test. Now if you've had a covid test, you know they are not known for being comfortable. And our poor little baby boy did not like it one bit and made the saddest cry you've ever heard! But, the test was negative! Phew! So they sent us home with directions to watch out for a fever, and to let them know if the couch got worse or new symptoms developed. 

Well bedtime rolls around and we decided to check his temperature before starting our usual bedtime routine and were surprised and sad to see he had a little fever! I called the pediatrician after hours line (I mentioned I'm a bit over paranoid right?) just to get some guidance for the night. She assured me that now that he is a bit older a fever isn't the emergency that it can be when their younger. I was able to give him some tylenol and put him to bed. My pediatrician actually called me back about an hour and a half later..now that is some quality bedside manner if you ask me...and after we talked through what we were seeing at home she encouraged me to bring him back in in the morning to check a few other things. That night when he woke up to feed he had just the worst cough and it made it so hard for him to go back to sleep. It was positively pitiful. He did manage to get some sleep, although I don't think I did, and I was glad we were headed back to the doctor because he was pretty puny the next morning. 

This time we checked for the big C virus which meant another swab up the nose. He was much less upset by it this time thank goodness and it was negative which was a huge relief. They also ran a little blood panel just to be on the lookout for infections which came back clear. And his chest and ears still sounded/looked great so they reassured us it was most likely just a cold virus and would pass in a couple days. So him and I have spent the last few days, laying low, trying to take plenty of naps and stay hydrated. I'm hopeful that today might be a fully fever free day since up until now it has been coming and going throughout the day. It's weeks like these that I think having one stay at home parent isn't even enough, but I'm also so grateful that I'm able to be home with him when he needs me. 

Even sick he is the sweetest little guy and we've still been getting plenty of smiles and giggles. But I will be so happy for him to be feeling 100% better hopefully soon!