So we're officially THOSE new parents who are easily freaked out and take their baby to the pediatrician for what is actually nothing. In our defense, it was breathing-related and I'd rather be safe than sorry with anything related to Joey's breathing.
He woke me up this morning with his normal minimal fussing and when I looked over he had a huge gob of mucus hanging out of his nose. I picked him up and took him to the living room with the baby snot sucker (technically called a bulb syringe). I took care of that gob but he started fussing and crying even more (this is a kid who hasn't cried more than a few seconds at a time in his life and even then it was only when in pain from being stuck at the hospital). He appeared to have a hard time breathing, like he forgot he could breath through his mouth. Using the snot sucker I got an adult-sized amount of mucus out of his nose and mouth, but he was still having a hard time breathing and still fussing and crying. He wasn't turning blue, he stayed a healthy pink, which is the only reason that I didn't call 911, but I think the only reason he was getting air was because he was crying. When he was crying, he was gurgling in mucus that was too far back for me to get with the syringe. He kept throwing his head back and arching his back, trying to lie back.
Our pediatrician's office has Saturday hours, thankfully, and I called asking if I could come in right away. Initially they asked if I could bring him in an hour later, but I said I'd prefer to come in immediately and I think hearing the baby crying in the background helped my case. At this point, Dan was up and holding Joey vertically against his chest. That position seemed to be helping a lot--even though Joey was still struggling and trying to lie back, because his breathing got easier and he even stopped crying. We still went to the pediatrician's, and he said that even though it was scarey, Joey was fine and can get runny noses without the presence of a cold. Because he's a baby, and can't blow his own nose, the mucus accumulates which is why it's important for us to flush out his nasal passageways with saline drops when he sounds congested.
So we officially freaked out over nothing, typical first time parents. I'd still rather be safe than sorry.
I love this picture. I did not place Joey's hands at all, this was the way he positioned them. Not that he's got much of any control over his movements, or knows what his posture looks like, but it amuses me nonetheless. He doesn't always manage to keep his eyes open while he's nursing, as if he needs all his energy just to eat. About 90% of the time he falls asleep before he's actually full, which means once he finally wakes up, he's still hungry and ready to go some more. Normally that's not a problem, it's just annoying at night when I would like to get back to sleep. Usually he doesn't stay asleep very long if he's still hungry, 10 minutes tops, and if he goes longer than that, I know I can put him back in his bassinet and get another couple hours of sleep.
I had pulled some milk out of the freezer and put it in the cooler to take to my parents' because I intended on enjoying some Strongbow. Turns out, since Joey slept the whole time we were there, including the two-hour waiting period of the alcohol coming out of my system/milk, we didn't actually end up needing it there. Once milk has been frozen and thawed, it can't go back in the freezer, making it a use-it-or-lose-it situation. So, we pulled out the Breastflow bottles (by First Years) and Dan got to feed Joey. This was only the third time he's gotten to feed Joey, and this time went much better than the last time he fed Joey with this bottle. We're not sure if the difference was because Joey was hungrier or if he was more awake or just more practiced, but no matter what the reason, we're happy that this feeding went well. We've nursed since the bottle and had no (more than usual) latch issues.
