Day 78

I worried about this last night as I suddenly started to have chills and feel feverish.  Could Simon get sick from breastfeeding if I was sick?  I had been feeding him all day already so probably already exposed him.  I found an answer that calmed me at Kellymom.com:

“The best thing you can do for your baby when you’re sick is to continue to breastfeed. When you have a contagious illness such as a cold, flu, or other mild virus, your baby was exposed to the illness before you even knew you were sick. Your milk will not transmit your illness to baby, but it does have antibodies in it that are specific to your illness (plus anything else you or baby have been exposed to) – they’ll help prevent baby from getting sick, or if he does get sick, he’ll probably not be as sick as you.”

The website has answers to a lot of different questions regarding breastfeeding and parenting.  It seems like everything is referenced using evidence-based medicine.  I’m glad to have found this resource as it is well organized so it is easier to find information.

I took some more vitamin C with zinc, a multivitamin, ibuprofen (for the aches and feverish feeling), had a warm bath, and drank plenty of hot honey tea and water.  It hurt to swallow.  Although this morning, I woke up and my throat felt so much better and the chills and feverish feeling were gone.  So I guess all those things worked to keep the cold at bay.  I’m still a little bit worried that my poor baby might get sick but we’ll be keeping a close watch on him.

Simon’s neck is getting really strong now.  He will put his head down when he’s finally tired out and will start to fuss so we know it’s probably time for him to take a nap.  We are trying to get him to work on strengthening his arm muscles.  A friend suggested that when we place him on his tummy and place his arms in the correct position then make him look up at us.  It seems to be working as now he’s starting to push up a bit on his arms. (Thanks Mike for the tip!)  He still seems to favor kicking his legs though.  Grandma Chung thinks he will be able to walk at 5 months.  Now wouldn’t that be amazing? (but doubtful…)

Oh, and the answer to yesterday’s questions, he slept 4 hours then 2 hours then 3 hours, that made through to 6:30am this morning.  So his duration of sleep is lengthening… but not consistently.