Up all night? It's a cold.

Putting together very obvious clues, slowly, made me wonder how I got this far as a mother. It was all so obvious and yet I was confused until this morning that Carolina has a cold.

She's felt warm to me for two days and was REALLY whiny yesterday. But it wasn't until she didn't sleep most of the night and banged her head against the crib mattress that I knew something was up. She sounded like she was having trouble breathing but not too badly. Finally this morning I took her temperature and it was shy of 102 degrees. Not a fever exactly but not well either.

Her nose has been very runny today and her appetite has decreased. I know it's teeth. This "cold" I've seen before.

Her last front, bottom canine tooth broke through two days ago and this might be the result of the last set of molars. She has the bottom two threatening to break through but still haven't.

I was at least prepared with her thermometer, vicks vapor rub, Tylenol and nose aspirator thingy.

We are going to Tia Gaby's for lunch after her nap. Ah, her nap that started with intense screaming when I put her in the bath to wash out the sand. I've no idea why she did but ismael could hear it three floors down and across the pool. Even with the ocean being "loud" today. Yup.

Still, though, she had a fun morning on the beach.

Tomorrow we leave the beach very early and head back. 8 hours in the car. Yup yup yup.

It's too cold for the park, but the need to get outside is strong

As my little Jedi has the force with her, which is to say she needs NEEDS to run outside, I've been getting her warmly dressed and taking her outside without the stroller. She basically takes off like a bat out of hell down the sidewalk.

I actually have to run/walk quickly to keep up, and need to be there before she hits the corner. She somehow doesn't have the desire to run into the street (phew) but she'll take the corner and keep going if I don't keep up. She also will take off her gloves and push back her hood when she starts to get either too warm or bored or tired. I can't tell which it is. I just know that when she either slows down and/or starts to fidget with her outfit, it's time to pick her up and walk home.

Of course, while she's in mid-steam she takes a moment to say "Hi" and/or "Bye" to whoever we're passing on the sidewalk. Usually it's just a lot of "Bye" but some people get a "Hi" also.

Earlier this week, there was a woman walking with a stroller and two grade school children towards us -- they were very well bundled up. Carolina points towards the woman and says, "Papa!" I said, "No, that's not Papa. Papa is at work at the office in Manhattan." She then says, "LoLa!" (which is how she says Abuela) and I laughed and said, "No, Abuela is in Vallarta with Abuelo and Gaby." She says "Lolo?" (for Abuelo) The woman has by now walked past us, and I say, "No Abuelo is in Vallarta, too. They are all in Mexico. It is very far away from here and warm." Carolina then yells, "LoLAAAAAAA!"

I laughed very much. I wasn't sure if it was out of desperation to see Abuela or that she understood they were far away, and so she needed to yell so they could hear her. Either way, it was funny.

Of course it was followed up by me scooping her up, because it was cold, and taking her home. That was greeted by a lot of screaming and crying, because of course she wanted to run more even though she had already started walking slowly and clearly tired. Anyway....

After yesterday's checkup where she got a flu shot AND TB shot, she was VERY uncomfortable and had a fever of nearly 104 last night. It was great that Aunt Jee came for a visit to give her a great distraction! Today is better but not nearly all better. Hopefully tomorrow is!

The first cold

Sunday, Carolina woke up with a fever of 103 degrees and all night long had a totally stuffy and runny nose. We went in to her cries for a few hours, every 30-60 minutes until about 3.30am Poor thing couldn't breathe! I never thought I'd be able to shove those bulb things up her nose to get out snot, but I did -- again and again. She hates it but it's got to be done. Anyway, after some Tyenol and a lukewarm bath (per her doctor) but no soaps... her fever went down to 98 and then back down to her normal 97-ish. We kept her pants off all day and she was able to nap a little. By about 4.30pm she was EXHAUSTED. So we did a quick dinner, quick bath and bottle then bed.

Anyway, during the day and mostly during eating she started to make this fish face. The last time she made faces anything like this was about 3-4 weeks before her bottom two teeth came in. We can see, definitely, both her upper front teeth and at least one others on the top. I'm certain there must be more the way she shoves things in the middle and back of her mouth. So I guess we'll be seeing more teeth shortly.

Also, she was tired and not her usual active self but she still crawled around and tried to climb up on things. She was just less aggressive about going back to places we said 'no' to. I swear, she'll be walking any day at this rate!

By today her top two teeth are poking through the gums, ever so slightly. I'm pretty sure this cold is more about teething than a real cold. She's pretty congested but it's only a stuffy nose, it hasn't (thankfully) moved into her chest. She's only this afternoon getting her interest in eating back. She downed 1/2 baby bowl of rice & carrots and then killed 5oz of formula before bed.

She's actually in bed now. She's totally awake but she's there. It's early even for her, but she was crying and rubbing her eyes. The only thing missing was hiccups and it was all her 'tells' she's ready for bed. But just like last night and the night before, I go in there with her bottle. She's relaxing and when I put her into the bed, she's UP!

I'm ready to roll, Mommy.

Good lord she's exhausting. The moment I expect to get a break, no way!

I was hoping to get a break to visit Sang yesterday but he's sick. Got a wicked cold from his brother who was sick last week.

I'm really sick of Queens most of the time, at least this part of it. It's like the subburbs of the city. It's architecturally boring, the 7 train trellis makes it noisy and dirty, there's plenty of ethnic food but there's a TON of crappy food. The supermarkets are overpriced, it's a righteous pain to get around the bus and subway with a stroller, and we're inside a lot of the time now.

I'm equally sick of having an apartment with a dark living room and dishes to clean ALL THE TIME. At least we have a newly refinished bathtub and newly painted walls. I still think the bathroom is icky but at least it looks less so. Really, my problem is not living near anyone to visit... except Sang... Who is actually a great friend to visit during the day since he still hasn't found a full-time job and is also at home. Of course, once he gets a job (and I hope he does soon) he, too, will be too busy for a daytime visit. Good thing Carolina likes Sang.

Once I get some more sleep and she's over this cold, I'm sure my anti-Queens rants will stop. But this week I'm really frustrated and stressed.

So I'm looking into other classes for Carolina. She should really be around other babies. It's just surprisingly hard to get playdates sometimes. Also, I'm at a loss for how to tire her out. There are "movement" classes but most of them are in Manhattan and the one that other moms recommend in Jackson Heights is on Saturdays, and she already has swim class on Saturday morning.

Once she's older, like 12-18 months, there are more classes. Actually for the 18-24 month set there are a ton of things to do, so I'm told.

End rant here.

Oh good lord. It's nearly 6.30pm and I haven't even begun to think about what to make for dinner. shite!