vitamin C

We are caught in this in-between, where it's not warm like summer anymore or colder yet like fall. It's nearly each at different times of day, and it's hard to decide how to dress, or dress my child. His new, poofy winter coat is waiting, and for now we're in short sleeves under hoodies.

I like this in-between.

Liam's cold is finally leaving. We- well, he- has really been lucky, as he's never really been sick sick. For full disclosure, this is what we've dealt with since his birth almost sixteen months ago:
* the bruising on his head from the vacuum that helped set him free from my vagina (that sounds way more crude than I want it to but that's just what happened), making breastfeeding difficult for a while
* gas pain as a newborn that warranted medication
* an umbilical hernia that looked CRAZY for a while, then suddenly healed up on its own, well before the deadline by a couple years where you have to start worrying about it
* a brief eye infection that was cleared up quickly with antibiotics
* a couple fevers that disappeared by morning
* an overnight bout of not being able to keep anything down, when he was still on just breastmilk
* that night he projectile-vomited three times after eating macaroni and cheese for the first time (that sound and smell is burned into my memory)
* strabismus

So when he got a cold last week, it was rough. He handled it well, though. Nights were hard for a few days, as the rattle in his nose made it hard for him to get, stay and return to sleep. His nose was constantly dripping and every sneeze was messy. He was a little loopy and goofy and cuddly and generally good-natured. He handled it better than I did, because did you see that list up there? My kid has an immune system of steel. (Almost. I mean, he did just have a cold.)

It's just hard to watch him struggle, and it's hard to hold him down to suck junk out of his nose with a nasal aspirator. Although there were times when he just stood there, ever so patiently, and tipped his face up so I could spray saline up his nose and then suck everything out with a rubber bulb. Oh, bless that child's heart.

He's on the up and up though, enough so that we were able to take a walk again last night, and enough that he was able to spend the afternoon out with my parents. He's going to be completely ok soon, and strangely, it seems I am too even though my face was sneezed on at least three times and I was unable to avoid a lot of other ways of spreading germs. I'm his mom. There's only so much disinfecting I can do on myself while making sure everything else was running smoothly.

I do realize I have probably just jinxed myself.