dodging the sickness bullet

Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon, but I think Ava and I are escaping with only minor colds this time! Her nose is still runny but with the Vick's plug-in, the humidifier, and keeping her head elevated; she's not faring too badly at night. The worst is when she's too congested to breathe out of her nose at all, because this prevents her from sucking her fingers, which is how she falls asleep. Last night she woke up around 10:30 and could not get back to sleep (she couldn't suck her fingers and I think she had a little bit of a tummy ache) so I just brought her downstairs with me...we cuddled on the couch and watched one of her Baby Einstein videos (one with just music, no talking) and this calmed her enough and she slept until 7:30 this morning! I don't like to get her off of her schedule and would've preferred to get her up earlier but she (and we) needed the sleep. She was much better today and has fallen asleep without any fuss....hopefully she stays down all night. I, on the other hand, woke up with such a miserable sore throat and headache that I thought maybe I was getting strep throat. I've never had it. I looked up the symptoms and it didn't quite seem to match so I just took a bunch of Tylenol and some throat spray and went back to bed--Craig was on baby duty so after I helped get Ava's breakfast ready (he didn't need the help but I wanted some hot tea for my throat anyhow so I just took care of it) I crashed until 10:00. Luckily, that seemed to do the trick and I felt much better today! (Plus, I took Zicam...I swear that stuff works.) Craig has graciously offered to man the monitor again tonight so I can get another night of rest under my belt and hopefully completely kick this cold. I have to say, he has really stepped up lately and taken on more baby responsibility, and I've been able to let him do it without trying to micromanage everything. It has made things much easier on me.

On another note...in four weeks my family will be here for Thanksgiving! Sadly, my aunt, uncle and cousin won't be able to make it due to my cousin's commitments at school; and Craig's parents won't be able to make it due to his mom needing back surgery. And my brother Michael might not be able to make it, but I don't want to think about that....I'm being optimistic on that one. Billy will be bringing his girlfriend, so that'll be fun and balance out the testosterone a little bit! ;o) Can't wait to see everyone!