I: Illness

This is a part of my ABCs of (my) Parenting series

My baby boy is a grump. He's easily upset and very prone to throwing a tantrum if things don't go as he sees that it needs to. Why? My baby is teething. While not necessarily an illness, we have been plagued by the Phoenix teething cold. We got rid of it after tooth #1 fully cam through and then- boom!- it came back to live with the upcoming arrival of tooth #2. The poor guy is miserable. We've got the elevated bed, humidifier, and our nose sucker on hand to help fight the fight (as well as our teething tablets and Tylenol), but it just doesn't seem to do enough. It can be so frustrating trying to keep him calm and happy now, but it's hard to get mad at the situation when you know that he just feels like crap.

We've been lucky that Jeffrey is a healthy little guy. Besides teething and the ickiness that he feels post-vaccinations, we've only had two cases of sickness. The first was when he was a week old and had the clogged tear duct. Then, he had a cold in January. We've gotten off pretty easy, which we are hoping is because both Jony and I don't get sick very often. I assume breastfeeding and not being in daycare has played into it as well.

It's a tough time to be a mommy of a sick baby- mostly because there is so little that you can do, and you just want them to feel better! The worst night was when Jeffrey wanted to sleep so badly, but he just couldn't breathe enough. He was so pitiful, and it hurt my heart. The only good thing is that he loves/needs to snuggle. At this point, I accept that any way I can get it.

I hope that we continue to be as lucky with avoiding illnesses and really really hope that we don't have 18 more teething colds to get through.