Guys Don't Really Understand

Maybe you haven’t noticed, but posting has been “light” this week. That’s because our house isn’t sleeping all that much. Little man has a cold, and at three months old, there’s just not much that you can do to help them breathe better. Especially while eating…


So in case you’re behind, I thought that I’d recap the “score” like a football game since I live in Texas, and let’s face it – Texans live, sleep, eat and breathe football during this time of year…

Jaxon – 1,364,852   versus   Brent/Sandy – 14

Yeah, it’s pathetic, I know. We’re trying…we’re really trying…but nothing is working. Humidifier? Got it – but it’s not very effective since his “room” isn’t really a room. Vicks Baby Rub – been there and done that…makes it worse. Vicks plug-in to breathe better night-lite…works great…on us! Doesn’t seem to help him any. Sleeping upright or elevated? Check. Booger-sucker-thingy? Got two or three of them in action. You name it, we’re trying it…and still, there’s not much sleep to be had in our household.

But last night we decided that we would “divide and conquer” so to speak. I don’t like not sleeping with Brent, but at this point we are both running on fumes and need some sleep. So when Jax started up last night around 11:30pm, he and I vacated the bedroom so that Brent could get some sleep. Then Brent set his alarm for 3am to swap with me. We both got at least 3 hours of sleep…and that might be a record for both of us this week…

Around 1:30am this morning, I noticed that some of the congestion was actually coming out in the booger-sucker-thingy this time (what a relief!) and that it was green. That was somewhat alarming, as that means you’ve got an infection for an adult. So you know that I called the doctor’s office first thing this morning to check and make sure that I didn’t need to bring him in. They assured me that without fever or wheezing, there was really no need for alarm…even if I was worried about that infection settling in his little ears over the weekend…and we all know how much fun ear infections in infants are! Apparently it’s normal for babies’ snot to be green…according to the nurse anyway.

I was relieved and went about my morning. But guys? They just don’t really get it, or understand it all, I think. Case in point: I met Brent for a “lunch date” today (Day 6 of our Intimacy Challenge called for a date, IMO) and this was sort of how our conversation went:
Me: So I called the doctor’s office and they assured me that we’re doing all that we can, but there’s really nothing that they can do.

Brent: Does that mean that they don’t want to see him?

Me: Yes, that’s what that means. She said that we were doing everything already and without fever or wheezing there really wasn’t anything else to worry about.

Brent: But did you tell her about the green snot?

Me: (with some impatience entering my voice) Yes, honey. I did. She still said it was ok. I went on to explain why green snot is ok with infants…but won’t bore you all with the details.

Brent: Sooo…there’s not any medicine that they want to give him?

Me: Well…she did say that we could give him cold medicine, but he’s really too young. She said that in infants, the medicine doesn’t really provide the good benefits that it does in older people and the side effects are drastically increased in infants, which makes it unadvisable to give to them.

I was pretty sure that this should have been the end of the discussion, don’t you think? Apparently not…

Brent: Well, what are the side effects?

Me: (certain that I’d heard wrong) Huh?

Brent: Did you ask what the side effects are?

Me: Why would I ask what the side effects are? She said that they were risky and drastically worse than when given to adults…(really not seeing the point)

Brent: Yeah, but the major side effect of cold medicine is falling asleep. (Pauses expectantly) Isn’t that what we want?

Me: Babe!

Brent: I mean, if he sleeps for two days straight, wouldn’t that be a nice change of pace???

I started to stop talking at this point…

Brent: So I would have asked what the side effects are. Because if sleeping is the only thing, then I’m all for giving him the medicine.

Me: What if another side effect is anal leakage?

Brent: He’s already got anal leakage…that’s why he wears diapers!

I just looked at him – too shocked to continue.

Brent: Think about it, Sandy. Our parents gave us all kinds of crap back before someone told them that they weren’t supposed to. And we turned out ok. I know that my Dad used to dose me up with Nyquil. And I’m sure that I slept better for it. Don’t you think that would help?

Me: (trying to steer the conversation back into control) Well, no I don’t think that would be ok. She did mention that we could use Saline drops on him and that might help us get more of his congestion actually out when we booger-sucker him.

Brent: What are Saline drops?

Me: I think it’s like salt water. Helps dry out the congestion and loosen up the crusty boogers to come out.

Brent: Does it go in their eyes???

Me: No, babe. It goes up their nose.

Brent: Oh he’s gonna LOVE that. (Sarcastic is his middle name…) Wait a minute…you’re telling me that we can’t give him any medication, because it might have bad side effects, but that it’s ok to squirt salt water up his nose???

I knew that I should have stopped the conversation earlier. Don’t worry. We will NOT be administering any type of cold medicine to Jax this weekend, no matter how tired we get. I promise.

I hope that you have a good weekend…I’m going to try to get the new design for this blog finished up this weekend. I’m SO close…don’t worry, I’ll let you know when it’s all ready so that you can click out of your Reader and actually see it!

Oh, and if you’ve got any further suggestions for us to try with Jax’s cold…we’d REALLY LOVE to hear from you!!!