Bryan caught a cold two weeks ago. He was really congested for the first few days and got really mad for not being able to breathe through his nose. I read somewhere that younger infants don’t know how to breathe through their mouths if something blocks their nasal passages — this makes me feel better that Bryan got his first cold now.
We had to learn to use one of those suction bulbs to clear Bryan’s nasal passages so that he could breathe better. At first he hated it — he would cry, scream, use his hands to block the bulb, turned his heads so that I couldn’t get to his nose… etc. It was heartbreaking. But after first couple of suctions, he realized that thing did him good and remained calm for the next few suctions. Luckily he got much better after a few days. But man, getting that mucus out of his nose was quite an interesting experience…
The first three nights of his cold was almost unbearably heartbreaking. He couldn’t sleep, eat or even enjoy his toys. He coughed so hard that he’d wake himself several times in the middle of the night — it was almost like we had a newborn again — taking turns to wake up every couple of hours to comfort and soothe him as he cried himself to sleep.
We also learned something new through this new experience — Bryan has associated the verbal sound of “mamma” with Grace as being the mother. And often he preferred Grace to comfort him over me (to which, strangely enough, I don’t feel jealouse). And we know this because he’d call out “mamma, mamma” while unstoppably sobbing, looking at Grace’s direction even when he was in my arms.
He recovered from the cold in about a week. Sooner than Grace recovering from her cold — the same one the Bryan had*.
Then a couple of days ago, Bryan experienced a mild fever. We were pretty scared being that this was his first fever, and we saw that he became very inactive and reluctant to play. The doctor said to observe him for a couple more days and see if the fever goes away or that he develops any rash.
Sure enough, we saw rash all over his body on Sunday**. Now with more evidence, the doctor determined that Bryan had developed Roseola, a very common viral illness for young children.
I guess Bryan’s immune system will be bombarded with more and more illnesses from now on. It’s also time for Grace and I to buckle up and brace ourselves with more sleepless nights and occasional sore throats.
Ah~… Parenthood…
*I am usually considered the weak one in the family. But I was okay throughout the entire cold episode.
**We had to cancel our plans with Jason and Alicia because Bryan didn’t feel very well.