Poor Baby

Zane has been sick all week. In the picture above he was feeling pretty good and being silly with Mom's slippers and PJs. Last Sunday night he started coming down with a cold. Monday we went to the doctor for his 15 month checkup, and Zane got 4 shots, including a flu booster. I didn't do a good job of holding his hands, and he grabbed the needle after the first shot; he didn't hurt his hand, but he put a big scratch in his leg. By Monday night he was limp, feverish, snotty, and his legs were sore, scratched, and bruised. I took a sick day Tuesday to be home with him, and Wednesday I don't work any way. Those two days he was kind of low key, but not feverish anymore. Meanwhile, I got the cold. Thursday and Friday we managed to get off to daycare and work, but neither of us were doing well after being up all night with Zane's coughing. I left work early on Friday to try to get home and rest at a decent hour. Zane's daycare Mom mentioned he had been feverish again on Thursday.

Friday night Zane and I had really nice sleep with only two brief wake ups and a nice sleep in. I thought we'd be OK! But no, Zane has been feverish all day Saturday and Sunday, and Saturday night was crap sleep again with Zane coughing and whimpering and crying. He's also not eating well, which is pretty stressful, since he's already too skinny. Thank goodness I still nurse him, and we did lots of that this weekend.

The only ray of sunshine in all of this is that Zane has been so limp that he nestles into our laps and sits with us for quite a long time. Our little zippy boy hasn't done that since he was just months old and unable to move. Michael and I watched a lot of TV with him. Zane and I watched 3 PBS shows on dogs, crows, and elephants. He loved it and responded to the animals with barks and caws and hoots. He even repeated a few words he heard that he knows, like "hot" and "up". I figure the sin of TV with a baby is not so bad when he's sick and I make it an interactive activity.

The doctor visit revealed that in the last 2.5 months he's only gained about 13 ounces and a half an inch. His weight percentile compared to other babies went down again. Rather than go ahead with blood draws which are painful, we are first being referred to a pediatrician to see if he thinks the tests are necessary. Our doctor is a little puzzled since Zane is so clearly an otherwise very healthy active bright baby. Probably he's just built like me, eats like me (not much), fed healthy food, and is very active.

Zane got to see his first snow today. We had some beautiful fluffy flurries. Unfortunately, he was too sick to do more than a quick step out onto the porch. We have a snowsuit and boots, though, for when we go to Maine over Christmas! I'm hoping to get some good snow play time in.