Baby's First Cold

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, and since John and I have been sick for the last week and a half, it should be no surprise that Lily had a fever today. So of course we called her clinic, and talked to a nurse. She said we can call 24/7, so that's a relief. We gave Lily some baby Tylenol for her fever, and she has a little congestion so we use the nose sucker when necessary. I know there's a more official name for that thing, but "nose sucker" is easier to remember. We also have humidifiers going in the two rooms we have her in the most, which brings back memories of humidifiers in my room when I was a kid and getting strep throat every other month, or so it seemed. I liked the sound of it, it was a white noise that made it easier to go to sleep, and I was always an insomniac when I was little.

Lily hasn't been very active today, no surprise since she's sick, and so she's sleeping a lot and we've been holding her a lot to keep an eye on her and also just to comfort her. I have her in my lap right now, sleeping all wrapped up in one of the blankies Gramma Jane made her, and lying on a pillow. She's mostly asleep but she's making these tiny little noises. Earlier today when John and I were both taking a nap, Lily woke from her nap all fussy and making little moaning noises. Oh, so sad! So we put her between us in bed and snuggled up next to her. Usually this comforts her and she goes to sleep peacefully, but she just kept moaning. That's when we suspected she might be getting sick.

So, no play mat time today. I missed the first Baby Storytime at the library last week because I was sick, and this week we'll miss it because she's sick. Darn. But as John pointed out, we have baby storytime here several times a day. Often we read to her after a feeding to either entertain her or soothe her with our voices into sleep. It doesn't matter that she isn't looking at the books yet. So I read her my favorites: The Golden Egg Book, The Sneetches, Baby Farm Animals, Winnie the Pooh: A Tight Squeeze, etc. I have a lot of favorites. It's so fun to read aloud and know my voice is soothing her. I've also been starting to collect more books, like anything my James Marshall, especially the George and Martha books, which are hilarious. George and Martha are two hippopotamuses (hippopotami?) who are the best of friends but are constantly annoying each other. The stories are short and very funny, and Marshall's drawings illustrate the characters' personalities in very subtle ways that makes the books worth reading over and over.