The Culbertsons vs. Cold Season

Tuesday night, the day I had dreaded finally came...Paul and I were watching TV downstairs and we heard Claire starting to cry around 10pm. Nothing unusual about that; many times she'll wake up in the night and just need to be burped or held for a minute. We bounded up the stairs so that she wouldn't wake Caroline, and when we peered into her crib, we heard this panting and snorting...OH NO! It was true...poor little Claire was congested and must have picked up a cold...So our schedule that night was:

10pm - hold Claire and put back down
midnight - Claire wakes up again; hold her, put her back down
2am - repeat above step
6am - repeat above step; go ahead and wake up for the day

After calling the doctor, I took her temperature (slightly higher than normal) and was told that all I could really do is use saline drops, elevate her head while sleeping, and use the suction bulb on her. Fortunately, I had all of those already in my possession, so we were good to go. I did make a run to Target to pick up some Vicks Baby Rub so it would open up her nose a bit. (I have two bottles b/c I have to have one for each baby!)

I gave Claire a little medicine for her fever and discomfort, and ended up using our thermometer on her b/c the baby one just blinked once and went out - how dumb is that b/c we had never even used it before! I guess the battery was already dead?

All day on Wednesday, I made sure I washed my hands over and over, and kept Caroline at a distance and was overly careful about keeping everything separate...I kept hoping it would work...but alas, all of my good intentions were for naught...Thursday night, around 10pm, the same drama unfolds in Caroline's crib...she started crying and I go in to pick her up and poor thing couldn't breathe. Unlike Claire, who would go back to sleep after I picked her up and patted her, Caroline just talked and talked in her crib for hours to express her discomfort. Here is last night's schedule:

10pm - hold and comfort Caroline

11pm - she finally falls asleep

midnight - she wakes up again, go in and hold her, stays awake talking for an hour

1:00am - finally goes to sleep, and so does Mommy

1:30am - wakes back up and now will NOT go back to sleep

2:30am - Mommy decided to put Caroline in the bouncer so her head is elevated a bit, but is worried about her sleeping like that, so decides to sleep on the couch right next to her in the gameroom

3:00am - both Caroline and Mommy finally fall asleep

5:00am - Mommy wakes up when Paul wakes up, but goes back to sleep for a short time

7:00am - Caroline wakes up after sleeping for 4 hours in the bouncer

7:01am - Mommy realizes she has a sore throat

So, looks like our first Halloween will be a sick one for all! I think the girls actually have severe allergies and not a cold, but we're keeping our mini-drug store open over here until the symptoms subside.

Caroline did go down for her nap this morning on her elevated mattress, so that's a good sign...

Meanwhile, Claire has been sleeping in the pack and play set up in the guest room so that she wouldn't wake Caroline up and so that Caroline wouldn't wake her up in the middle of the night. Her picture pretty much sums up the Culbertson house right now! Let's just get some sleep and feel better soon!