Welcome to Crazy Town

I haven't had a chance to post in a while because life has been inSANE around these parts. I have literally sat down to blog at least 4 times in the past week and just deleted the post after a few lines out of sheer exhaustion.

Lucas has been sick for more than a week, and having a sick baby is exhausting in every sense of the word. I'm physically exhausted because he wakes himself up at night coughing. I'm mentally exhausted because I'm expected to think and function after these nights. I'm emotionally exhausted because I'm constantly worried that things are going to go from niggling cold to pneumonia in no time flat.

Ah, parenthood. The good life. We've taken Lucas to the doctor, I've called the Nurse Line through my health insurance, I've called the doctor twice. The doctor is concerned but confounded. All he can tell me is that it must be a cold that's really hanging on. Lucas hasn't had a fever, hasn't lost his appetite, and isn't turning blue when he coughs (which apparently is the only color we worry about. It's no cause for worry when your baby coughs so hard that he turns bright red and the veins in his head protrude like little blue pipe cleaners. Just in case you were wondering.)

The nurse on the Nurse Line basically asked me yes or no questions which she plugged into her computer, then read whatever the computer spit out at her. I know this isn't her fault, I'm sure she has to follow protocol and can't tell me about what she did when her kid was sick. But it doesn't make me feel better when I call the Nurse Line and get the same results I could have gotten from plugging Lucas' symptoms into WebMD.

So basically all I can do is continue to smother Lucas' feet in Vicks (you only put it on his feet because apparently Vicks can cause babies to overheat if you put it on their chests), give him warm baths before bed, run the cool-mist humidifier at bedtime and fill the bathroom with steam and sit in there with him. Which is what I've done for pretty much this whole week. With no visible positive effect. ::Sigh::

I've been fortunate that Dan has been home for the worst of it. When Lucas first started getting sick last Sunday, he only had a little cough and suddenly started sleeping from 8:30 p.m. until 6:30 without waking up. I was a little concerned but glad he was sleeping because I knew he was getting the rest he needed and I knew I was getting the rest I needed. Dan was home from Thursday until last night, and Thursday was when things really started going downhill.

We actually moved Lucas back into our bedroom on Thursday night because we were getting up 100 times a night to put the paci back into Lucas' mouth after he coughed it out. (And by we, I mean Dan, because when Dan is at work I am the one who gets up with Lucas every time, so I lovingly provide the same opportunity for Dan when he doesn't work.) And normally we don't have to get up to put the paci back in for him because he'll usually spit it out but stay asleep, but now he's coughing it out which wakes him up and then he wants it to go back to sleep. In a word, it's been miserable. And now Dan's back to work. I can only pray that Lucas gets his rest tonight, because I know his poor little body needs it.

And the very best news of all is that I have now contracted Lucas' cold. Never let it be said that my little guy doesn't know how to share!

So usually I am not very good at accepting advice, but now I am begging for it. Does anyone have any idea how to help Lucas kick this cold? (And that's what I really want to do - kick the crap out of this evil, sadistic cold that has taken over his helpless little body.) I am willing to try anything that doesn't include putting medicine in him, which the doctor has explicitly told me not to do. Please help!