This week brought to you by the letter C

The last couple of weeks we could tell Matthew was on the verge of starting to crawl. Monday he moved forward twice towards the wireless mouse that operates our Home Media Center in the living room. Btw Daddy, being the computer engineer he is, was very proud that was his first thing to motivate him. By Monday night, he was going half way across the room by sheer arm strength, His tummy is on the ground, it's a very impressive army crawl. It's so neat to follow his line of vision to see what he has in his sights. I've taken some pictures but I traded cameras with my brother in law this week and haven't figured out how to download them yet. I could get spoiled with all the neat features of this Pentax K100.

I was able to upload, pardon the blurriness. I'm not used to the camera. I did capture him briefly up on all fours


Matthew started having a runny nose on Tuesday night. His throat was getting scratchy but other than that Wednesday he was his usual self:, great appetite, regular potty habits, grinning and army crawling that he started doing on Monday. That night he went to bed like usual but needed comfort from 3:30 to 4:30 in the morning. That was the first time I heard a single barking (Like a dog with an angry bark) cough. By Thursday afternoon it was apparent he was getting worse. Not napping, runny nose much worse and the coughing became a little more frequent. At 7 pm Billy did his usual night time ritual of giving him his last bottle and rocking him to sleep. As I was doing my evening pumping Matthew woke himself up scared from the sound of the loud coughing coming out of him. By 10 pm, His breathing was audible, so we went to the Acute Care place that is thankfully 5 minutes from our house. They were efficient, thorough and kind to Matthew. We were out of there 30 minutes later with a breathing treatment for croup, prescription and notification was made to our primary pediatrician. Following their advise, we picked up a cool mist humidifier on our way home. Matthew finally fell asleep at 11 pm on the way home. We spent the night in newborn sleep mode. He would sleep about an hour and a half, wake for two hours and start again. Normally rocking him just agitates him and he gets himself to sleep much better on his own rolling over to his side or tummy for his naps during the day. We definitely got quite a bit of cuddle time last night. I got to rock and hold my baby and even though it wasn't under the best of circumstances, I treasure any excuse. So it was a rough night, but it's in those moments that it's a precious reminder, we are not babysitters. We are Matthew's parents. That's the dirty work, the nitty gritty bonding events. Changing two blow out diapers, bulb syringing his nose when he would wake, before I'd feed him and after I would change a dapper., rocking, walking, singing, getting him fluids, entertaining him at 2 am. It's emotionally draining, physically exhausting and tears were shed watching my precious boy struggling. I wouldn't trade a moment of the experience. As I walked him in the middle of the night soothing him, I kept repeating a scripture (that I can't remember this afternoon) and just thanked God for our precious gift.

Look at the pink around those tired eyes. Even sick, he's still such a even tempered sweet baby.


Thank you to:

Robin W and Robin E for the Acute Care recommendation.
Amy for your advise yesterday and calling this morning to check on us
Indee, Jill, Kristen and Anna for checking on Matthew this morning.
Ben and Sarah for picking up pedialyte for our little guy this afternoon.
Most of all to my best friend and love of my life Billy. He's an amazing father and I can't imagine being a parent with anyone else.

Raising a child surrounded by the love, encouragement and support of friends and family is a priceless gift.