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Tessa has a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad cold. Newborn with a bad cold = parents with no sleep. Like, almost none at all. I think in the past two days I have gotten five broken hours of sleep total. Yikes.

Here is what happens: It is 3:00 a.m. Baby begins to cry. Baby is picked up out of the crib by one of her exhausted parents, and then fed/changed/walked in circles as required to calm her down and get her back to sleep. (Bonus points to the parent if a blowout poopy diaper is discovered, such as the one that happened last night around 1:15 a.m. requiring a full outfit change and swaddle blanket replacement.) The parent continues to soothe baby until she is clearly deeply asleep, perhaps even snoring. Then the parent continues the soothing process for an additional ten minutes, just to be absolutely positive that baby is now sleeping soundly and can be returned to cradle with minimal risk. Parent lays baby very gently and slowly down into her cradle and makes sure she is comfy and warm. Parent lays back down in own bed; pillow feels blissful. Ahhhh, bed. Glorious bed.

Parent has bought himself or herself perhaps ten minutes before the crying begins again. Only now the baby is angry, because seriously, who gave you permission to put her down in the cradle, you evil parent? Quite obviously the baby will only tolerate sleeping in your arms, and not any stupid cradle. Or swing. Or bouncy seat. Or strategically-angled car seat propped on bedroom floor.

The fun scenario described above is made more interesting by occasional pathetic coughing, sneezing, and snorting from the newborn. Tessa is so congested that is she refusing to breastfeed. She does not want her little nose or cheeks touched or squished in any manner, and thus will only take bottles. This means I am spending even more quality time with my already close friend the Medela Symphony to make sure my sadly mediocre milk supply doesn't drop any further.

To sum up: newborn with a cold = bad bad bad.

The good news is that the baby is, snot nose and all, so adorable. I mean it. She's much more alert and looking around (somewhat suspiciously) at her surroundings, and I am waiting with baited breath for her first real smile. Please send us some good thoughts that this cold passes quickly and we can return to our regular, non-snotty, occasionally decent-sleeping baby ASAP.