RSV and Other Bugs

Yikes! Baby Stella already picked up her first virus.  Or should I say it was probably sprayed straight up her nose.  I have to admit that I thought the breast milk would protect her from all bugs, at least for awhile.  I guess not, could be that she isn't exclusively breastfed. 

At first I was concerned that she had whooping cough.  I am a bit nervous about all of the outbreaks that have been going on, including Jac's school.  I had Jeff get a booster shot so that Stella would be somewhat cocooned by her immediate family - all of us being vaccinated.  Then I found out that similar to chicken pox you can still get whooping cough even with the vaccine, it just is a lighter case.  Well, that doesn't really help Stella! 

We did find out that she does not have whooping cough, but in the process we tested for RSV and she does have that.  RSV is basically a bad cold that settles in your lungs.  It is very normal in infants, but when younger than 2 months there are concerns.  Stella seems to be doing very well with it.  She is pretty much over the snotty nose, but does still have some chest congestion.  She ran a low grade fever for two days, thank goodness it never went into the danger range.  An infant has difficulty fighting infection, so we watch for a high fever that would signify that.  So far so good.

The sad part is that she coughs so hard that she will throw up.  She has done that a half a dozen times, mostly in the middle of the night when she hasn't coughed for awhile.  It is disturbing because she hasn't been eating as well with the virus.  So then when she throws up what she just ate, it is a bit freaky.

The good news is she was 10lbs 1oz at five weeks when we were at the doctor and had grown an inch since birth.  Right on track for a Carey kid!  We have her six week checkup on Wednesday and I am pretty sure she gained weight, although definitely not as fast as the last week.