The past couple of weeks have been crazy busy. But, not in a good productive kind of way. My days have been occupied by nursing my girls back to health and then myself back to health. It all started with Alyssa. Last week sometime she started complaining that her throat hurt and then she started getting all stuffed up and coughing. Her throat started to get worse, so I took her into the Pediatrician and they tested for strep throat. At first they told me, no it wasn't strep. Then about 4 days later, she called us again and said that her culture did grow into strep and so she needed to be on antibiotics ASAP. So we did. She has gotten a lot better and it on the mend. After a few days of Alyssa being sick, I started to feel tired, sore throat, coughing, stuffed up, and a little fever. I was going down fast and there wasn't any time for me to rest. On top of that, I lost my voice, and that is just down right frustrating!
I'm feeling a lot better now, but a couple of days ago Bella started to feel warm and have some stuffiness and runny nose. The the night before last, she woke up with these croup sounding coughs. I know what croup sounds like in an infant, from back when I was babysitting my nephew, Ethan. He was just about that same age as Bella is now when he got the croup. My family went out of town for the night and I was at my parents' house staying with Ethan. Everything was fine, and then boom! He was deathly sick! It was so scary...granted I wasn't quite 18 years old yet, but he was a sick little baby. He was throwing up all that he drank, and before I could clean up one throw up mess, I'd turn around and he was throwing up again. He was running a bad fever and was lethargic. I remember putting him in a luke warm bath to cool him down and clean him up. Then trying to get him to drink some water and walking around the house holding him until he finally fell asleep. I remember having to get up early to travel for an away basketball game then next day and being so tired, but I couldn't sleep even when he was asleep on me because I was so worried about him not breathing well.
This was my one experience with croup in children, so you can imagine my craziness when I started to see it coming on in my little Bella. I ran her into our bedroom shouting at Robert to get up, get up, the baby sick! You have to shout if you want him to get up after he has fallen dead asleep. He is a sound sleeper!
I cleaned all the goop out of Bella's eyes and suctioned her nose, then gave her some medicine. After Rob was awake and alert enough, and Bella and I had calmed down a little, Rob gave Bella a father's blessing. It was a blessing of health and that she would be able to sleep better and breath better. I sat up in the recliner for a couple more hours while she finally fell asleep on my chest by the humidifier. Once she sounded like she was breathing better, I felt okay enough to lay her in her crib and go to sleep for awhile.
Needless to say, it has been a long week this week with being up with Bella most of the nights and trying to keep up with Alyssa and everything else during the days. But it is kind of funny how mothers are able to just keep going and going even when they don't have a lot of energy or health themselves. This last couple of weeks has reminded me of Alyssa's first 9 months of life. They were A LOT different from Bella's first 9 months. Alyssa was so difficult and never would sleep, and I still worked full time out of the house, Rob was working full time and went to school full time in the evenings and weekends. It was a really hard time for us. Even though we loved Alyssa so much from day one, it was harder to enjoy her at first because of how stressful it was.
With Bella being so miserable and feeling so badly this week, I have counted my blessings again for this sweet child in our life. She is such a sweet, calm, and happy baby. She has brought such joy to our family.
Alyssa is feeling a lot better now and is back to her go, go, go attitude. Which I wouldn't have her any other way. When she isn't high energy and spunky, I start to wonder what is wrong with her. Even though she tends to be my patience tester child, she bring such life to our family and home that no other could replace.
Bella isn't quite healthy yet, but is on the mend. She doesn't sound like an old man when she coughs as much now and can breath a little easier. So I know she is getting a little better. I look forward to seeing her happy smiling face again soon!
After everyone is healthy and back to normal again, I will be in real need for some rest and relaxation time. A nice long nap sounds good about right now.
