Baby's First Cold

Last Sunday, Dylan started to snort quite often after we arrived home from church. At first we thought it sounded kind of cute, until it occurred to us that he was getting sick. The rest of the day his snorts, coughs and sneezes became more and more frequent. Our little guy was becoming sick for the first time.

As first time parents, we did what we always do when we have a parenting question: Google it. This time our search was, ‘what to do baby has a cold.’ The best search result told us to call the doctor immediately and get an appointment for Monday morning because he was under four months old. Other results told us to get a humidifier and saline drops for his clogged nose.

Dana went out to our friends Kevin and Gara’s house, who were having a Jaguar party for their game against the Indianapolis Colts. Other new mothers at the party stood in astonishment when Dana told them that her sick baby was being taken care of by her husband. Why is that? We hear mother after mother tell Dana how they can’t believe I can stay home with Dylan for more than two hours, let alone a sick baby. They tell her that they could never leave their children home with their husbands for any period of time. Come on new Dads! It’s not that difficult and, trust me, I am not the most qualified Dad in the world.

Dylan had a full on cold by Monday. I stayed home with him and worked from home during the day. We went to the doctor’s office in the afternoon. Boy did he put on a show for the nurses. Sick or not, he was all smiles as they all fawned over him. That’s my boy!

While the doctor was seeing Dylan, I showed my inexperience as a father. You know how we say, ‘there is no such thing as a stupid question.’ Well, I really pushed the envelope when I asked the doctor how to use the ‘nose sucker,’ referred to as a nasal aspirator by most educated people. You know you are asking a dumb question when you have to preface before you ask, “Now, you know I have an advanced degree, but….”
Squeeze in, put in nostril, un-squeeze so it’s sucks the snot out. Someone is getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year to tell this to people like me.

Monday afternoon, after the doctor’s visit, was the peak of Dylan’s cold. He cried so much that he was hoarse the next morning. Meanwhile, I was trying to bang out some work from the laptop at the dining room table. Each wail pulled at my heart. By the time Dana came home around 6, I was fried. I was out the door to start our new Financial Peace University class. I couldn’t get out of the house fast enough.

Since then, Dylan is just about back to 100% (as of Friday morning.) Dana and I have our first child sickness under our belts (except now both of us are sick). We can only hope that our questions (and Google searches) get more intelligent with experience.