jennanddave.com

Last week on Thursday Henry woke up with a runny nose. On Sunday I felt a little under the weather. Henry developed his usual cough but we started using his asthma medication straightaway and after a couple of nights full of good sleep we were both on the mend.

Until Wednesday night. I didn't sleep very well for whatever reason, and was exhausted all day yesterday. Sometime in the early afternoon Henry developed a dry cough which got progressively worse. He had a hard time falling asleep for his nap, then an even worse time last night. He was consistently coughing every 30-60 seconds. At 2AM we were all still tossing and turning. I came downstairs and caught a few z's on the couch, but needless to say we all woke up today feeling pretty lousy. I'm practically walking into walls over here, delirious from both a lack of sleep and from a cold that won't go away. Dave's been burning the candle at both ends trying to get grading done so he's not feeling that great either, and Henry just won't stop coughing. We took him to the pediatrician this morning. I was fully expecting to leave with a prescription for steroids which is what usually happens when he has a persistent cough like this, but when the doctor listened to his chest he said Henry's lungs sound clear and his ears look great (I was worried about another ear infection) and that we shouldn't bother with his albuterol anymore for this cold because it's not going to help. This was all very good news except it turns out our kid is probably coughing because of a tickle or irritation in his upper respiratory system, the prescription for which is honey during the day and a mild sedative at night, the sedative's purpose being mainly to help him relax enough to get some sleep since the cough is keeping him up. So is there an end in sight? Who knows.

Meanwhile, I'm on edge because I've been listening to Henry cough nonstop for 24 hours now. There's no where to escape from it in our house because our place is so small. I end up sitting around waiting for him to start coughing again, and when he does, I get irritated, and then I feel incredibly guilty that I'm irritated because good grief, I'm his mom! That combined with the lack of sleep resulted in a quiet bout of crying on my part when Henry spilled the entire contents of his cup of milk all over the dining room table and floor this afternoon at lunch. I cried all the way to the bathroom to get a towel, I cried while mopping it all up, and then I was okay. It passed just as quickly as it came.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that tonight is better.