January 26, 2012
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Hack Sniffle Doze
Soooo…it’s been very quiet on the home front around here. Except for all the rattling coughs and the blowing of the noses. And the occasional puking of the children. What a very pleasant time we have been having since arriving home from Christmas, indeed.
I’ve had this horrible nasty horrible deep nasty cough for about three weeks. Layla has been sick and cutting her top two teeth all month. This is how the nights have gone for about a month:
Layla falls tiredly asleep around 9:00 PM.
I lay her in her bed.
She wakes up coughing in about 30 minutes, and will not, absolutely will not, go back to sleep.
Until about 12:30 or 1:00 AM.
I lay her down and hurriedly creep into bed.
She reawakens coughing in about 30 minutes, right as I am on the edge of sleep.
I wearily trudge back into her room and nurse her back to sleep, but as she is just falling asleep, I am overcome with involuntary convulsive coughing, which reawakens her.
She finally settles back into sleep, and I fall asleep in the chair nursing her…
until she wakes herself up by coughing, then nurses back to sleep…
right as I begin convulsively coughing again.
Rinse and repeat.
I creep back to bed finally at some random hour of the night, only to repeat this cycle 3-4 times a night, then rise and shine flicker a tired and feeble light a bit after 7 AM to get Gabe out the door for school, and Layla wakes up so there is no going back to bed, and then she naps about 30 minutes maybe twice a day because of her coughing, which means no naps for me, and then we re-enter the horrible nighttime cycle.
Dearie, you may ask, with a confused look on your face, why on earth why don’t you take some cough medicine?? This is an excellent question, indeed, and one that my sleep deprived brain cells did not entertain until I also developed an upper respiratory infection and pleurisy (ie. stabbing pain to your lung when you take a deep breath or cough. TWICE within the span of a year I have gotten this horrible thing.) SO, two and half weeks after my cough begins, I rush to the medicine cabinet to make it stop. Novel concept. It’s a wonderful thing, not coughing.
Dearie, you may ask, with a confused look on your face, why on earth don’t you give that baby of yours some medicine to help her sleep better?? This is another excellent question, and once again I refer you to the previously mentioned brain cells. Baby Girl can’t stomach the multiple milliliters of Tylenol now required since they have phased out infant dosing, and it wasn’t until three nights ago I finally bought some baby ibuprofen. And cough medicine. And Baby Orajel. And two nights ago, it took, and for the first time in probably six months, Layla slept from 10 PM to 5 AM. Then she woke to drink, and went back to sleep until 10 AM.
It. Was. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. She’s been waking about once a night since then and napping regularly. Hallelujah!!!!
I, however, am worn out. I think this is actually why I have gotten pleurisy twice in one year. So now I am diligently taking my vitamins, and my antibiotics, and my cough medicine, and my ibuprofen, and trying to heal. What a month.
Along the way, I turned 34 on January 7. Doesn’t that sound suspiciously close to 40 to you?? I thought so too. We got a sitter to take the kids away, went to do some returns in Salisbury, picked up Indian food takeout and a movie and came back home. Just easier with an 8 month old on board. It was a good time. My main impression of my 34th birthday was that I felt very tired and flat. Like I had been feeling. And like I still am. Apparently it’s the theme of the month.
Comments (9)
oh man!!! I feel for you, how you can get back up on your feet again~
Awww, you are still amazingly young, just sick and feeling like you are older. Add LOTS of liquid, water and juice, and vitamin C to the mix. When you are sick you need a lot more Vitamin C…says the mommy nurse kinda person. Hope you feel better soon. I so relate as I broke a rib coughing when my boys were little.
Happy Birthday!! I hear the 30 in that number
@ABAHM - OUCH!!! What did you have that made you cough that hard? Thanks for the happy birthday.
I will accept it in all my thirtyness. 
@The_Carpers - Thank you!! I will look ahead in eagerness to the peppiness and zippyness my future surely, surely, holds.
@allthosemillers - I just had bronchitis, but it was one of those heavy cough, cough, cough kind of illnesses. The doc finally gave a better recommendation for cough syrup…AFTER I broke the rib. BTW, only women can do that,something with the way our ribs cage.
@ABAHM - That’s very interesting about the “only women” thing. I’ve noticed that it seems like I feel my lower ribs making these weird sort of crunching, flailing movements when I’m coughing. Seems like maybe if they would move enough that’s when it could happen. Shudder. The nurse practitioner acted like I might be getting pleurisy from coughing so much. I can’t figure out if that’s right or not. Here’s to no rib cracking.
I can’t IMAGINE how much it would hurt to cough after the fact, because I strained a chest muscle one time in an accident and it hurt terribly, and that was without anything breaking. !!!
So sorry! Bryce hasn’t been sleeping well either, but sounds like Layla was much worse. Right there with you on the Tylenol. I never had a baby that hated taking medicine. . . until Bryce
. I had bought a few bottles when he was born, so I didn’t need any for a while. When I went to get more, I couldn’t figure out why all the stores had no infant Tylenol 
. Hope you all get to feeling better. . . and sleeping better!! Janice
I missed that part about being 34! Happy belated birthday!
I just read Tim’s note to Cannon — and I wanted you to know that you and your family are in my prayers today. I keep wondering if you have anyone to help you. I know your husband is there, but is there any way that someone could come in and take over for you for a little bit? I remember how hard it was when I was a young mom — and even though my own children came a bit farther apart than yours are, there was a summer when between our two little girls and the three little boys that we were foster parents to, we had five under five. Three in diapers. And I wasn’t worn down from bearing all those children, but I remember wondering if I would ever be rested again. It is especially tough when you are sick. May God grant you some rest, respite and (especially) healing. Praying for you!