Its all fine and dandy till the baby gets sick!!!

Yup... there it is.. the face that kills you... the one that when you look at her your heart melts... My DS loves his sister soooo much.. and he we taught him to share so well that he shared his cold with her. What comes with a cold and trouble breathing. Yup!! trouble sleeping. Her diagnosis isn't clear yet. We went to the doc who thought a check up with a Ped at mac would be good. BUT the 5 hr wait just to get out of the waiting room wasnt appealing. The place is a germie bubble. To a baby with a low immune system already, it didnt take me long to get out of there. Keep in mind this would have been my babies first ever visit to a hospital as she was born at home. We left before being seen in 25 minutes. the words RSV were mentioned so i looked it up. Fit her description perfectly and though it can be serious, so can lots of things and i am watching her like a hawk. (NOTE: Im a paramedic and DO NOT ADVISE LEAVING A HOSPITAL FOR ANY REASON. ) I made the choice on my own and will return if i feel things are worse. 
Anyways. Back to sleep. Last night this all hit just before bedtime. Runny nose, congestion and drool. She fought her bedtime for the first time in.. well i dont know how long. i checked on her a bit more frequently cause my feelers were out wondering how sick she really was. She wasnt letting up and i could start to hear it in her that she was feeling horrible. Here comes the problem. We have never rocked her to sleep. She loves to cuddle but will stay awake. She stares at us and pets our face, smiles the most heart warming smile ever, but when it comes to falling asleep she arches her back and wants in her crib. Lil Miss Independent likes to do it herself (but thats ok... thats what we have taught her). 
my husband and i had to try for almost 2 hours to get her to fall asleep. It ended up that she gave in to being held upright with some patting but it felt like she fought me as long as she could. I kept trying her in her crib but i couldnt stand to leave her and the bum patting and rubbing her back just wasnt helping any. 
once asleep we were lucky she did stay asleep till about 5am. I checked her and she had a fever so after some meds she rolled over and slept till morning. This momma didnt sleep though.. waking to check her all night. (while daddy slept)

So what do you do for your baby with a nasty bug. For this situation. i have one end of the crib elevated with a few towels under the mattress (never put a pillow in your babies crib). i have a humidifier in her room with Eucalyptus oil in it (thanks Auntie Ali). Her room smells like a spa. Baby Vicks on her chest and making sure shes hydrated. Hydrated via water overnight IF she needs it. Nourished via milk in the day. Shes gone MONTHS without a feed at night that i know thats not the reason shes waking. Shes waking cause she feels icky and i will gladly cuddle her and make her feel better if i can. 

Same goes for all other illness you may encounter with your sleep trained child. When they are sick, they need you. Crying isnt going to make them feel better and it sure wont make you feel better. So comfort them as you should until you know they are back to their normal fun energetic gleefully screaming self. 

Once DD is back to her normal self we will go back to out regular routine and I'm confident she will gladly take it back. In the meantime though.. i'll enjoy the snuggles while i can. 

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