Flannery at 11 weeks

Yes, lots to tell this time.

Flannery is 11 weeks today and is also fighting her first cold. WOW, at 11 weeks, not even 3 months yet, she is already sick! Now I see why Amos had to be so protected. She got a cough right away and although it sounded bad, she's handling it pretty well with her full-term, healthy, fat baby lungs! I feel like everyday there is something new that happens like that that helps me understand Amos as a baby so much more. We had nothing to compare him to so for us, that was normal. Funny how our the healthy baby situation we have now is normal to most people but not to us! I'm glad Flannery was full term and healthy when she was born, don't get me wrong. It's just funny to see the many differences.

She is also a champion sleeper. We weren't allowed to let Amos be a champion sleeper until he was 18 months old. It's so crazy how different life is with a baby that sleeps so well so soon! On that note, we also let her cry it out sometimes, when we can tell that everything else is ok and she should be sleeping. It usually works and she goes back to sleep within 5 minutes. When she doesn't I go check on her and there's always a good reason.

So back to her cold...she coughed maybe twice on Sunday and they were so random that we didn't think anything of them. But by Sunday night, she had a barking cough and was coughing a bit more often. It was scary and we called my mom and a pediatrician friend of ours. Since there were no chest retractions or difficulty in breathing, we decided to give her a steam treatment and buckle down for the worst that night. She surprised us and did well, not coughing at all! But Monday, she was getting sicker, sneezing and coughing more. At one point during the day, she coughed so much that she threw up an entire feed that we had just done...just like her brother! That's happened a few more times, but thankfully she's got extra chub!

Last night, Jenny Dorsey (our friend and Pastor's wife) brought over her essential oils kit to show us what she does when one of her children's chronic cough flares up. She left us with R.C. (respitory congestion??) and Lavender and showed us how to use it. Thankfully, Flannery was coughing when Jenny was here so we were able to put it to quick use. We did another steam treatment, set up the vaporizer and settled in for the night. The oils worked wonders! I was amazed at how less frequent her cough became and how it didn't sound barky anymore. I only had to do one steam treatment and then at one point, put the lavender oil closer to her face for her to breath so she could stop a coughing fit. But it all worked really well.

Today she is still a bit stuffy and coughs some, and has even thrown up on me, twice, but all in all, is doing well. She is still smiling at us, "talking" to us and is eating ok, though not great.

Hopefully, she'll continue to get well so we can go to TN either tomorrow or Thursday!!