It Was Getting Worse ...

I had mentioned that Riley had caught her first cold. The hardest part of this is that I know I am the one she caught it from, which makes me feel like such a bad mom. I called the nurse at Dr. K's office on Monday and explained her symptoms - runny nose, congestion, coughing. The nurse suggested that I take that day as a baseline and that only if she seemed to get worse, to come in. We are scheduled for her 2-month well-visit on Friday anyhow, so the nurse didn't seem to think she needed to be seen prior to that, given how she was on Monday.

Yesterday seemed to be the same as Monday, so I thought maybe Riley had plateaued and we were rounding the corner on this, but then today she sounded worse. She had a fabulous night - she slept 7.5 hours and at her 2:45am feeding she sounded great - no coughing and her nose sounded clear. However when she got back up again at 8:30am, her cough sounded the worst yet.

I called Heather (the perks of having a sister-in-law whose specialty as a nurse is the respiratory system!!) and she came over again this morning to check Riley out. Her lungs were still clear, but Heather agreed her cough sounded worse ... and her breathing was still a little labored, intermittently. I called Dr. K's office again and they were able to squeeze her in at noon today.

Dr. K examined her and said she certainly does have the cold virus, but was encouraged to hear that she seems to be eating okay (taking only 2-3 ounces per feeding, though, compared to her normal 4 ounces) and that she is sleeping well. He said that sadly she is too young to be given any medication for this. Her temperature in the office was 99.6 - her highest yet.

Our directions are to continue to do what we're doing - allow her to sleep and eat in an inclined position, run the humidifier in her room, keep a watch on her temperature, her breathing and her eating. Also:

• If she seems to be worse by Friday, come in for the well-visit appointment, although she won't receive shots, then.
• If she seems to be the same by Friday, reschedule the well-visit appointment for late next week.
• If she seems to be better by Friday, come in for the well-visit appointment and she'll get her shots.

I've always said that if I am going to err, I want to err on the side of caution, so I am happy that we had Dr. K look her over ... it helps me rest a little more easily knowing that we've had several people look her over. Dr. K said this virus seems to run about 7-10 days long. Friday will mark day 7 for her.

Again, we were able to get her weight today - 11lb 4oz! What a growing baby girl! And bless her heart, the entire time in the doctor's office, she smiled so big. It may be because her daddy came to the appointment to meet us - and she loves him so much!

Uh oh - there's the cough over the baby monitor. Better run ...