Finger in the nose

Baby Finn gave us all a bit of a scare over the weekend. It all started with a mild case of the flu so I handled it like I usually do – with a tried and tested formula of fluids, rest and extra doses of tender loving care. Good ol’ TLC, that always works.

Then late Friday evening, he woke up for his night feed and as I picked him up from the cot, I saw a spot of blood coming out from his tiny baby nose. It was totally a slow-mo, cue ominous score in the background kind of moment. Ever so slowly, the trail of blood made its way down towards his tiny baby lips. Having never seen any of my babies bleed from the nose, I did the only thing I could think of, which was to absolutely freak the hell out. I held him and ran out to the husband like BLOOD!! NOSE!!! HELPPP!!! OMGOMGCALLTHEAMBULANCE!!!

A fair bit of panic and half a blood-soaked piece of tissue later, we managed to get the bleeding under control. Baby Finn, though, was strangely calm and he fell right back asleep after his feed.

Saturday morning, we brought him to the nearby clinic for a consult. The doctor seemed unperturbed by the whole nosebleed episode. “It’s due to the thinning of the blood vessels, it happens to some babies, nothing to worry about,” he said. He gave Finn some antibiotics, taught us how to stop the nosebleeds and sent us on our way.

The nosebleeds continued intermittently throughout the rest of Saturday and by then, we were getting quite good at the nose pinching technique.

At 4am on Sunday, baby Finn woke up crying and when I picked him out, I almost fainted because there’s nothing quite like waking up at 4am to what was basically a homicidal crime scene. There was a pool of blood (like the size of a dinner plate) on the sheets and Finn’s face was covered in blood. Like blood everywhere, his cheeks, his eyebrows, his lips, his nose and even his hair. My poor baby looked like he had just spent 15 rounds in the ring getting face-punched by Sugar Ray Robinson.

We brought him in to KK Hospital, where the doctor identified it to be a case of bronchiolitis + a somewhat sensitive nose. Finn was such a little gentleman the entire time, waving at doctors and smiling as they did all their tests. He even sat for his x-ray on the big scary machine like a champ. Right up to the point where he had to be on the nebulizer.

Sigh, nebulizer time – the most traumatic experience for any parent. We had to hold him down in a stranglehold for all of 300 seconds while he pleaded and pleaded and pleaded for us to stop with his tear-filled eyes. *heartbreak*

Thankfully, that seems to be the last of it and he’s back home recovering nicely. There’ll be extra huggles and snuggles these couple of days, doctor’s orders.