Gratitude Friday...

Hey, guess what?  

We've been sick at our house.  

A. Gain.

I thought I might cry in the doctor's office almost begging her to give the coughing up a lung toddler some sort of drug to MAKE IT STOP.  

But dang it all, if she wasn't one of those responsible do no harm doctors who just refused to prescribe an antibiotic for a virus.

Whatever. 

Had I gotten an appointment for, oh, about two hours later, she would have seen two kiddos with fevers who coughed enough to throw up all over me, themselves and the closest piece of furniture I had just cleaned from the previous vomiting episode. 

Don't you just feel so sorry for the doctor?

We think...THINK...it might be (have been) RSV.  

Rhys basically moaned the entire way through his nap Wednesday.  Never really rested.  When I picked him up, he was burning up.  Little cheeks flushed.  Broke my heart.  

Babies are funny.  They don't feel well but they forget that and still want to play.  Rhys would rest in my lap for a couple of minutes and then plumb forget he was sick and try to sit up to play.  Which would remind him, hey, wait, my whole stinkin' body hurts.  Then the crying.

So I spent 2 until 5:45 pm walking him around the house.  My arm actually feel asleep at one point.  Not sure if you're aware, but 18 pounds is heavy.  

I gave him some Tylenol but it never touched the fever.  Chris came home and gave him Motrin which did finally make a difference.  He actually took his temperature and it was 102.8.  We promptly striped him down to his diaper and started wiping him with a cold wash cloth.

In the meantime, Pumpkin was curled up in her blue chair getting hotter by the minute.  

Unbeknownst to us.

The hardest part of having two sick kids is not being able to snuggle them both at the same time.  Bless her heart, Aubrey Kate really got left alone most of the afternoon.  She was watching her shows because keeping her calm in the chair helped the coughing stay under control.  Which left me with far less mess to clean up.

And really, it's all about me.  

Always.

And since she was calm and quiet, her fever arrived and I knew approximately zippo about it.  

Awesome.  

Meanwhile, the Motrin worked quickly and for a blissful 20 minutes, Rhys slept peacefully on my chest.  Then he really was ready to play and he was precious.  

While in the chair, this happened...

Doesn't the sweetness of that picture just melt your heart?  

Chris got her up to put her into bed and realized, holy Moses, she's burning up.  

And...cue more crying.

After much gnashing of teeth and flailing of arms, Aubrey Kate did decide to take the Tylenol on her own and then, made us super proud by taking the cough syrup too.

Don't worry.  It's an all natural can completely pronounce all the ingredients cough syrup.  

Pumpkin finally fell back asleep after about two hours of coughing.  

Rhys, of course, woke up about that time.  Burning up again and hungry.  We gave him Tylenol and a small bottle he promptly coughed and threw up half of.  Because both of us were in clean clothes and that just can't happen.

He woke up again around midnight.  Screaming.  But Chris went in and simply snuggled him for a few minutes.  He wasn't hot so Chris skipped the Motrin.  Next wake time was 4:30 am but by the time I went to the restroom and came back to check the monitor, he was asleep again.

Both kids woke up yesterday without fevers.  Coughing still but without fever is a significant improvement.  Neither has had a good appetite and what little Rhys did eat, he coughed back up about half of.  

Now we're suffering through the Sickness Hangover.  Kinda like the Grandparent Hangover only this one is pretty much solely about the television.  Two solid days of trying to keep the toddler calm with TV worked.  And now it doesn't.  

Also, I am very over Snow White.  For real.  She met her Prince for 30 seconds.  They sang one line of a song together and somehow, they were eternally in love.

What what?

Okay, so of course, y'all realize I am ridiculously grateful the sickness-possibly-RSV has come and gone in our house.  It's left behind some snottiness, a lingering cough and a Sickness Hangover but my kiddos are here.  That's really all that matters.

And y'all also realize, there was some serious praying over those kids.  RSV in an almost three year old is basically a cold with a fever.  RSV in a seven month old can be much more serious.  Holding Rhys at 10 pm while I waited for his fever to go down, his breathing had just the slightest twinge of wheezing.  I thought about all the babies who end up in the hospital fighting this virus.  Thought about all those mothers keeping vigil next to a crib in ICU.  

And begged not to be one.  

I had to make a choice.  Choose to trust God with my son and put him down in his crib when every part of my body wanted to hold him all night long.  Just to make sure he kept right on breathing.  I prayed, Lord, you got this?  You're holding him, right?  You'll give me the strength to put him down, right?  You'll calm my spirit, okay?  Cause I'm not sleeping without Your peace.  

Like all the other times in my life when I seek the fruits of the Spirit specifically, wholeheartedly and faithfully, the Spirit gave me His peace.  And I slept pretty soundly.  

In the morning, I was grateful to hear the coughing waking me up.  Sweet, sweet sounds of coughing.  From both kiddos.  Thank you, Lord, for one more day together as a miraculous family of four.