"Pretty good, I just have a little cold."

For the past week, the title of this post was my answer to the previously-mentioned question, "How are you feeling?"  And, aside from the sore throat, sniffling and coughing, I did feel pretty good.  I was actually kind of amazed at how good I felt.  See, in May, during my first trimester, I got three or four colds in a row.  My colds always run the same course: sore throat, runny nose/stuffy head, coughing/itchy throat.  In May, each time the itchy throat started to fade, it would turn into a sore throat and we'd start all over.  So, I had waves of a cold for about six weeks straight.  I'm guessing it was a combination of weather changing and my compromised immune system.

Having a six-week cold that you can't take medication for is no fun; what made it even worse was the first trimester complaints that accompanied it - the exhaustion, nausea, and lack of appetite.  I was in a complete yucky haze.  So, just having just regular cold symptoms was not that bad!

Some people have asked me if it's worse being sick when your pregnant.  Other than that first trimester crap I had, no, not really.  I didn't feel any sicker this past week than I have with any other cold.  The thing that makes it harder is that I can't load up on cold medication to get me through the day.  According to the advice of my midwives (this is not my medical advice, please consult your physician!), with a few exceptions, I can take almost any single-symptom medication.  So, obviously, I shouldn't take my favorite Aleve Cold and Sinus with cough syrup (which might be a questionable combination under normal circumstances). And, of course, I shouldn't take more than one single-symptom medication at a time.  So, I have to decide which is worse at any part of the day - the sinus pressure and stuffiness, or the coughing?  Do I want an expectorant or a suppressant?  Is it less than four hours until bedtime?  If yes, then I probably want to wait until bedtime so I can sleep okay.  Which I guess is another challenge to being pregnant when sick - I don't get as good of sleep as I usually do.

Luckily, this hasn't been to terrible of a cold - I've actually foregone the meds a lot, deciding to only take them if I really couldn't sleep or function.  Although they say it's technically "safe" to take certain ones, I can't imagine it's the best thing, especially if you can avoid them.  I'm feeling more or less better now, though, so I'll have to find a new answer for next week. :-)