Saturday, February 14, 2009

Nursemaid

I am a Mother. I am not a Nurse, nor am I a Maid. But sometimes the job description of Mother requires both of me. Especially this week.

First Kai got sick. He complained of being cold, generally whined about everything possible, and the most suspicious part was when he had a nap all by himself for an hour! That evening, he had a fever, and the next day he missed school and laid in the chair all day, curled in a blanket in his jammies, watching Teletoon when he wasn't snoozing. Poor boy. When he's sick, he is just a little boy. I want to pull his skinny boy self, lanky legs and all, into my lap. And not just because he won't protest to all of Mommy's kissing and snuggling!

That night, this flu befell the other children. Abi complained of a headache and sore throat and went to bed with a fever. What surprised me were the younger two. It's so hard to know for sure what's wrong when they can't speak for themselves (well, not fully yet) Bryn alerted me to his flu when I came to him at midnight to his soft cries. I wasn't too sure what was wrong. A bad dream? Of course, he wouldn't (or couldn't) tell me. I was about to get him to lie down again when I realized his pillow was wet, and I noticed something on it. When I brought over a night light, sure enough, my fears were proven. "Oh, Bryn, did you throw up?" Poor little guy. So here I am, cleaning up his bed, replacing his pillow, changing him and his covers…meanwhile he's starting to become more alert. He's my kissy boy (who can forget him kissing his reflection?) and giggled when I changed his barfy shirt, exposing his belly button. Then he clung to my neck, landing a loud smackeral of a kiss on my cheek. *sigh* So sweet. Despite the runny nose!

At 1:30am, Abi wakes up crying from her headache. More Motrin for her. At least she takes it, Kai will gag and puke from medication, and Bryn will spit it all out. *roll eyes* At 3am, Kai is drenched in sweat. Just soaked his pillow and pjs. At 5:30am, Rhys is hacking away with a cough bigger than himself. Needless to say, all the kids stayed home from school on Friday, and we all laid around in jammies or various stages of dress (such as natural as the day I borned then, or with a pull up, air drying after a good long bath) curled up in blankets. At one time, we all lay on the floor and played "Baby Kitties" –--one day I showed the kids how kittens like to lay on top of eachother when napping. So every now and then, we'll pretend we're cats and they'll climb all over me. Never have they taken it further and napped though! Darn! — As I lay on a blanket on the floor (we really need to get a couch!) Bryn lay beside me, Abi was on my other side with her head on my back, and Kai lay across my legs so that his head lay on one leg and his legs rested across my other. (where's a photog when you need one?) I don't know how much time passed, but when I finally acknowledged the unhappy baby and Bryn started to stir, Abi announced to me, "Mom, you snore!"

Hopefully this won't last much longer. Kai seems a bit better, but he's still having issues breathing. But Poor Baby Honey is so hot. I'm watching over him and checking his temp though. I don't know what is considered "too high" but so far he's alert and seems safe. It's hard not to get paranoid though. He coughs and chokes on phlegm and he can't sleep well because he generally isn't feeling well. Plus, on top of it, he's trying to chomp on everything he can since he's teething.

I've read this one comment about how if Evolution was real, how come Mom's still only have two hands? I second the querie! It's tough having all your children sick at once because they all want to be held by Mama. I only have one lap and two arms and only two sides to me. If only I were an octupus. I obviously must say that too much because this evening, when I asked Kai why he couldn't pick up something and needed my help, he said, "I only had one hand." (the other was in use) "I'm not an octopus, you know!" So cute. So smart. So sassy!

I'm so bummed we had to cancel our Valentine's Day Party for Abi and her friends. I was really looking forwards to that. Yes, really. I was. All 10 girls running around, being giddy and silly, in my house! You know your child isn't feeling well when she just says, "Ok" when you tell her the news of cancellation. I had so many fun plans for the day. Not just for the party, but for decorating and more gifts for the kids, but everything fell through. I had no time to do my shopping and none of us were up to anything else. *sigh* But I suppose families can celebrate "Love Day" any time they want, can't they? That's the fun part of being in a family!

I hope your day and weekend is turning out grand. Did you do anything to celebrate Valentine's Day? Is it a special time for you? Or do you typically shrug it off? I want to hear all the good and the bad!

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