As a new mom, my life is full of firsts.  Yesterday was the first time Baby Champuru has fallen ill.  I knew this “first” was inevitable, but I was certainly not looking forward to it and would have gladly postponed it until she was, say, eighteen years old or so. Unfortunately, not everything goes as planned and at the tender age of three months, baby has caught a virus.

Symptoms include congestion, wet cough, runny nose, and sneezing.  Thankfully, no fever.  She also started having a bit of loose stools today.  Not awful, but not normal.  We were able to get her in to see the pediatrician this morning. He concluded that baby has a viral infection and thus prescribed liquid Albuterol for her to take “as needed” for her cough and wheezing. All we can do is treat the symptoms as we wait for the virus to run its course, which he expects will be about 7-10 days.  I’m sure it will be the longest 7-10 days of my life.

The doctor recommended having her sleep with her head elevated to help with the congestion.  He suggested having her sleep in her infant carrier.  Unforutnately, baby is rather picky about where she will fall asleep.  We tried the infant seat to no avail and knew that the carrier would yield the same results.  She doesn’t like being strapped in and both of those options would require us to do so to prevent her from falling out of the seat.  She’s getting quite good at using her legs to bridge and scoot, so we’re being even more careful about where we put her down to sleep.

Then Hubby remembered how comfortable she seems to be in her stroller and decided to give it a try.  She took to it immediately and fell asleep peacefully, her head slightly elevated as recommended by the doctor.  I still don’t feel entirely comfortable having her sleep anywhere except in her crib or co-sleeper, but hopefully this will be a safe option that also helps speed her recovery by easing her congestion so that this “first” cold can be over sooner rather than later.

Since my last entry, we’ve had excitement, but not the good kind.  The day after Christmas, another storm passed over the islands, this time bringing thunder and lightning along with torrents of rain.  Just after dinner, the lights starting flickering and I knew that meant a power outage was most likely coming soon.  I shut down my computer (although it’s on a UPS) and washed the dishes, finishing just before the electricity went out at 6:45 pm.

We were prepared with emergency lights/flashlights, purchased recently from Costco, which switched on as soon as we lost power.  Hubby turned on the radio and we listened to KSSK for the latest news on the island-wide blackout.  It took Hawaiian Electric 15 hours to restore power to my home at around 9:30 am on Saturday. Lucky for me, most of that time was spent sleeping.  According to the KITV website, there are still some unfortunate residents without power today.

My cable and internet did not fare as well, however.  Apparently, the power outage wreaked havoc for Oceanic Time Warner as well.  My digital cable TV service wasn’t restored until today (Sunday) at around 4 pm.  I’m not entirely sure when my Internet came back because I had problems with my wireless router, which resulted in me having to do some troubleshooting while baby was napping.  I ended up restoring it to factory settings and go through the configuration process again, which luckily did the trick. 

Electronic issues aside, I was also tending to a sick baby today.  Apparently, she caught Daddy’s cold, as she’s developed a phlegmy cough and a runny nose.  Thankfully, she didn’t have a fever.  I had to use the nasal aspirator on Baby Champuru a few times today, much to her dismay.  I’m sure I’d hate it, too, as it probably feels like your brain being sucked out through your nostrils.  I’ll be calling the doctor’s office first thing tomorrow morning, begging them to squeeze her in for an appointment.

I’m hoping for a less “exciting” new year’s holiday.