Vent

Okay. So Maddy woke up early for her 4am feeding, and she was REALLY stopped up. Nose was stuffy, and she had little mucous bubbles coming out of her mouth, and I could tell she was struggling to breathe well. Now, up until today, I have maintained a conservative hands-off approach to the baby medicine cabinet I overstocked when they were born. Didn't even reach for the mylicon when Gabe was writhing with the devil's gas pains (have you looked at the contents of that stuff? no 5-syllable crap is going into MY 2monthold's system!)

But one look at Maddy stretching her neck to get a good breath, junk rattling in her nose and chest, eyes closed with exhaustion, and I had Philip holding her nearly upside down while I attempted to apply saline drops to her nose.

And here's where the vent comes in: WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING??? That stuff poured out and all over my Cookie's face. Some of it went in her eye. Now, granted, it's saline, so it's not that big of a deal. But then I had a wheezy child with a swollen eye. Sad.

Babies are resilient. Babies are resilient. Babies are resilient.

Sometimes I find that mantra is helpful.

And 30 minutes and one bottle of warm milk later, she was fine. Wheezing had cleared up, and eye was back to normal. I know why she got so stopped up. I heard something on that stupid TV show "The Doctors" about fans reducing the rate of SIDS. So I moved an oscillating fan into their room and ran it for a bit. It had some dust on it, but I honestly thought the dust was so caked onto the fan that it wouldn't come off. Needless to say, the fan is no longer in the babies' room.

Is guilt an inevitable constant when you're a parent?

Gabe has been having digestive issues. He fusses after he eats, and had been working on a good poo for about 5 days. Is it reflux? Allergy? Or something I ate? I'm starting to think it's a combination of the first and last of those. No one tells you that when you give your kid breastmilk, you blame yourself every time they have tummy trouble.

Okay, so to end this on a positive note, Gabe had a good poo this morning. Now he is sleeping so hard I keep checking to make sure he's breathing. Also, yesterday Maddy gave me a big, open mouth grin, and then told me a story. Hurray! Smiling and talking are two things we've really been looking forward to.

Thanks for listening. :)