Hold on, Baby

Some days I want to just lean down over my belly, hug it tight, and whisper, "Hold on Baby, hold on just a few more days."  As much as I anticipate meeting this little new one, I know that it is much more difficult to care for a baby on the outside.  On the inside, you just have to eat well, hydrate, and try to get rest.  The baby takes care of the rest.  On the outside, the demands of a newborn are much greater.  It's totally worth it, I know, but I also know that we have just about a week left before the due date and at this exact moment I am perfectly fine with Pickle taking that week to hibernate and develop a bit more.

Last night was a rough one.  Our poor little man was up...a lot.  Coughing, coughing, and coughing some more.  It started with a major coughing fit around 1 a.m.  It took us almost 30 minutes to calm him down, stop the wheezing, and get him breathing normally again.  I hated every minute of it.  He has been on a puffer lately, trying to even out this brutal cough that never seems to leave.  We call it his breathing medicine, and hearing him cry out, "I need my breathing medicine, I need my breathing medicine!" in between wheezes made me so very sad.  I just wanted to scoop him up and take it all away from him.  He was then up almost every half an hour until just after 5 a.m. when he finally fell into a fitful slumber. 

Once he was awake, he seemed fine again.  Cheerful, totally smiley, his normal self.  We took his temperature and he seemed to be ok, so we sent him to daycare.  The call came at 3:30 p.m.  He had been fine all morning, but he woke up with goopy, red eyes...could he possibly have pink eye?  We rushed to pick him up and took him to the doctor.  Yes, indeed, he had the beginning stages of pink eye, as well as a virus that is working on him.  Sigh.  Poor little monkey.  We will have him home tomorrow for sure.  I'm just praying for a good night of sleep for him tonight, both for his sake and mine.  I keep thinking, what if the baby comes tonight?  That's when I lean over and whisper, "It's okay Baby, you can take your time!"

I'm hoping that by tomorrow our sweet Rusty is feeling a little less like this

and a little more like this. 

He's got mac and cheese in his mouth...crazy monkey!