Take a deep breath

I knew it was coming, it was inevitable. Julia has her first bad cold. Ugh. It started yesterday with a slight cough, and then she got worse about 1am this morning with more coughing and sniffling. She was really restless, but she put herself right back to sleep and didn't wake up until 6:30am (that's my girl!) Today, though, its full blown coughing, sneezing, goopy nose (love those snot bubbles) and a fever. I know that 1 cold in 8 months of life isn't bad. It's got to be the breastfeeding, because I'm certainly not following after her wiping her down with anti-bacterial wipes or Lysol-ing every surface of my house on a regular basis. I'm just not that kind of mom. But (and the hubby will attest to this) I am a stress-bag. And I am stressing a bit over this cold.

But in my defense I feel I have good reason. First, this is her first cold and her first real fever (102.8! Ack!) and I'm not sure I'm doing everything correctly. I've given her Tylenol and put her in a cool bath and now she's (restlessly) sleeping. Tomorrow we'll go see the doctor. But, hey, I'm a new mom and we all feel like we're failures from time to time. Right? Second, Christmas is coming. Trips to see the relatives, festivities that will wear her and me out, etcetera, etcetera. Third, and this is the topper, I think my dog Lana just had a seizure. Here I am all by myself (the hubby is at a x-mas party) with a sick child and a dog who's having a seizure. Great.

Julia comes first but Fisher and Lana were my first babies. They are very important to me and I worry about their well-being. Tonight I had to hope that my dog got better on her own because I obviously couldn't leave the baby and there's no such thing as doggie ambulances in my neck of the woods. Luckily she did, she's curled up on the couch next to me as I write this and tomorrow I'll call the vet to have her examined (we'll schedule that around a trip to the doctor's office and preparing for Christmas because I apparently have more than 24 hours in my day). But for a minute, that felt like an HOUR, I had good reason to stress out. And stress out I did. Now I'm drinking a glass of wine, de-stressing with my dog asleep next to me, the baby asleep upstairs, and waiting for the hubby to come home. And he will PAY if he dares to call me a stress-bag.