It started with a weird tiny baby cough but it wasn't happening very often. Like once a day or something. So little in fact that I just brushed it off. Then on Tuesday last week (the 3 month mark!) he slept for like 3 hours over the middle of the day. Unusual. Then was whingey, clingy and not his normal happy self. It took me nearly an hour and a half to get him to bed that night, and my Mummy radar was pinging like something is off. He was clearly tired but just wouldn't settle.
Fast forward to 11pm and I'm awoken by urgent crying. What the hell is going on? My boy sleeps through to at least 5 am and here he is at 11 o'clock having a meltdown. And that's when the coughing started. Any thoughts of my dysfunctional maternal instinct has now flown out the window. Didn't I read somewhere that whooping cough was going around? Doesn't whooping cough start with a normal cough and cold like symptoms? What the hell?
Mushroom is screaming the house down and crying non-stop. He won't feed, he won't calm. The coughing and spluttering continues. I'm freaking out and almost call the Dr to your home people, but after what feels like forever, he finally starts to calm down. After I put him down to sleep, he's still shuddering and I'm all panicked now. I hunt around in the red baby book for the whooping cough brochure and freak myself out even more by reading their case study which involves a 32 day old baby dying! I wake Juffin up and advise him that I'm calling the Doctor and he says to stop panicking and he's probably got a cold because baby's get colds all the time and didn't I read the email from the babycentre advising this... uh no, must have missed that one.
I lay there staring at the ceiling, knowing that I should be sleeping but can't stop worrying. I keep thinking about that stupid brochure and want to kill the stupid vaccination people for writing such fear invoking literature!
We have a rough night. The Mushroom is up 2 more times and I don't think any of us get any sleep. When he finally passes out exhausted at 6am I jump in the shower and force Juffin into the kitchen to make coffee. We're heading straight to the Doctor.
Once we get to our regular GP and they agree to see us asap, I'm convinced that it's not whooping cough but want to make sure. The Mushroom is happy and smiling and gurgles contentedly at the Doctor whilst he listens to his chest, checks his ears, takes his temperature etc. He even manages to cough when we're in there so the Doc can hear it and he's not concerned at all, but praised me for coming in asap. Basically the little man does have a cold, but if the cough gets worse and starts sounding like a whooping sound, bring back immediately. He advises some infant paracetamol if he has a slight fever, a nasal aspirator to get the gunk out of his nose and take him into a steamy bathroom. Though he laughed at that as it's been VERY humid here recently.
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| "Seriously Mum, I'm sick. Do you have to take a damn photo?" |
Hallelujah for no whooping cough but boo to sick baby! Our whole week has been disrupted and we're only catching up on sleep now. My Mum said it's all teething related. I guess there's more fun stuff just around the corner... oh dear!
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