ya make me wanna.... croup?

"Look, we're both afraid we're going to kill the baby. That's a given... Monday through Friday, I try not to kill him, Saturday and Sunday you try not to kill him."

~Miranda, Sex and the City, Season 5

Usually, from 6am - 4pm (give or take a few minutes) on weekdays, my job is to do my best not to kill our baby. This week, however, I needed some backup to care for our little bundle. Natalie woke us up at around 2am on Tuesday morning with the sounds of a barking cough. Immediately, my panicked brain started imagining all kinds of terrible scenarios about our daughter's health, and Mike had to do his best to calm me down as well as soothe miss Natifuss. He decided it was best to join me at home for a day so we could tag team the "don't kill the baby" stuff and keep each other sane through what we thought was Natalie's first cold. Here's poor Mikey, on the phone with the doctor's office, holding our sick little girl:

We were told to wait it out at home with our sick little budgie, who spent the day reverting back to her first week's schedule of narcolepsy punctuated with bi-hourly eating spurts. Finally we couldn't take it anymore and insisted that Natalie needed to see a doctor. On the way in to the pediatrician's office, our babe seemed less sick and we laughed at what paranoid parents we were, sure that the doc would be making fun of our overreaction. Turns out, that little "cold" is actually croup... ugh. As a result, we've spent this past week with Natalie alternating hovering over a cold air vaporizer and snuggling in a steamy bathroom to try to help her through her coughing spells.

She is pretty much back to her normal self now, which is something I always heard parents of sick babies say and never really understood. "You know you're talking about a baby, right? Like, a crying blob with no discernible personality..." I always wanted to remind them. Turns out, there is a BIG difference between a sick baby and a healthy baby; there is nothing sadder than a sick baby--I will take Natalie's usual fussy afternoons and grouchy moments any day over seeing her feel so crummy. Here's our girl, feeling much better after a steam bath and some tickling:


Now that Natalie's feeling better, we are set to enjoy the weekend! Today we'll be cooking out on our new deck in the sunshine with my parents (pictures to follow), skyping with Natalie's Gma and Gpa McCormack, and tomorrow I plan on working outside in the yard while Mike does his usual weekend "don't kill the baby" shift. Oh, it's so nice to be back to normal!