It's not possible to cough yourself into labour, right??

I jest. But seriously, it feels like I might just cough this kid out with this nasty chest cold!

Anyone who has ever been pregnant with a cold knows how bad it sucks. Particularly when it's one of the worst colds you've ever had and you're nearly 9 months pregnant. Total suckage.

My voice is pretty much gone, and what I do have (as kindly pointed out by my mom) sounds like a raspy Rocky from Bullwinkle. I cough all day and night and it's icky and phlegmy.

Thankfully, I don't have a fever and nothing (TMI ALERT) coming out my nose is lime green so it's probably just viral.

But in case anyone else finds themselves dealing with the cold from hell while pregnant and not able to take a heck of a lot for it, this is what I've been doing to try and help:

- Raise the head of your bed with books. This works best if you raise your partner's side too, otherwise you'll just roll towards them all night (and find yourself uncomfortably stopped by your giant belly which is no fun). But it does help the congestion and coughing fits, so highly recommended.

- Steam, steam, steam! I sound like my mom, but for congestion and a bad chest colds it totally helps. Boil some water in a pot (just a few inches so it doesn't take forever) and when it's done boiling, turn off the burner, move the pot to a cool burner, and stand over it with a towel over your head and breathe in the steam until it's gone. Repeat several times a day. At night, I take a nice hot shower (I only stay in a few minutes so as not to raise my temp too high), then get out and leave the shower going for a good 5 more minutes to inhale more steamy goodness.

- Benalin DM (cough suppressant syrup... Be warned it tastes AWFUL). My OB recommended this to use at night, but I am in my 3rd Trimester so always check with your own doctor first. I only take it at night and it helps keep the coughing down to a reasonable level so I can sleep.

- Vick's Vapour Rub. I'm just using this tonight for the first time after checking to see if it's okay and OMIGOD it is helping a lot. Highly recommended. Also, random observation: my cats love the smell of it and I had to physically remove them off of me because they were trying to lick it. Who knew?

- Cool Mist Humidifier. I actually don't know if this is helping at all, but we bought one for the baby so I figured I may as well give it a go.

- Lots of fluids and rest (obviously!). This is harder to achieve than you would think, because more fluids means even MORE peeing, which means you're up even more often. I basically sleep for 2 hours at a time due to the peeing and hacking and general misery. But that's actually par for the course in the third tri anyways (Mommy Bootcamp!!).

Here's hoping tonight is a better night!