The daughter is still very sick. Her fever went down a couple days ago, only to return with full vengeance. Even after filling up her body with drugs, it refused to budge. We were alternating between Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen, dunking her in the bath, putting iced water sponge cloths on her forehead.....and inspite of all this, it took us until 3-4am to finally break it. A rough night for sure...but hey, it's already behind us :)!
One ordeal was over...another one started in the morning. The kiddo was so fed up of taking all these medications orally, that she refused to take the antibiotic. We tried at home, we tried at her daycare, we tried at the doctor's office - no luck anywhere. We had to get the medication in otherwise the fever would return. So we went to the Emergency Room and got her an injection.
She is doing okay as of now....she needs injections for 3 more days to complete the antibiotic course, but thankfully, the fever has not returned. Her appetite was gone but is slowly coming back, and she seems perkier, which is always a good thing :)!
I learnt a lot in the last couple days, while going through this experience....
- We are lucky to have a very patient and empathetic pediatrician for our kids. If not for her, I would have been much more stressful and frustrated in dealing with this episode of illness. She listens, and works with us to provide a solution that we are comfortable with. She used her network to get us to the ER for the injection, and has been proactive in her treatment (so much better than reactive) all throughout.
- Doctor visits are never fun. But our kiddo adores her pediatrician. So its easy for us to convince her to go to her office. Today, I knew that her regular ped was out. While waiting in the room to be examined, the daughter was getting bored. I took a few of those wooden tongue depressors and started making letters and shapes with them. The kiddo loved it so much...she didnt want to leave even after we were done. It's important to be creative when it comes to entertaining a toddler - at the doctor's office or elsewhere!
- The thing in US is - if someone in your house is sick, people stay away from you. They don't visit...they check over the phone or email on your health. Some offer help.....but only a handful really mean it when they do. I find it so odd. My parents were commenting the other day - it's so different in India. People would come over to check on your health, and they dont worry a whole lot about getting infected and stuff. It probably makes sense to keep the kids away from a sick person, but an adult can certainly drop by for a few minutes to visit a sick child. I'm so grateful for our wonderful friend A for keeping our daughter company every evening since she fell sick. He got the infection from her (just like hubby and I) but it's just a common cold for us which we can get over with easily. In times of adversity, you know the true character and values of the people in your life!
- Another thing I recently experienced is - people use me when they have some bad news to share.....or are going through tough times. They know I'm nice, I listen, I empathize, I help. I go online and read about their issue and give them my 2 cents. I keep checking on them often. They get through the tough times....and then when something good happens, they disappear. They come back after weeks, or months, and then share the news. They say it was too personal to share before. WTF???? Totally pisses me off. I feel much more content helping strangers, or volunteering in hospitals, than helping some of these people I know. Seriously, I mean it.
- After the rough night that we had a couple of days ago, I was up in the morning playing with the baby. He always wakes up early, and I get a couple good hours of personal time with him before everyone wakes up in the house. I enjoy this time to the fullest...I feel he is already growing up way too fast. I had left the window shades open, hoping to see the sunrise. And what a wonderful sunrise I was greeted with that morning - it melted all my stress from the night before....it refreshed me, relaxed me, and instantly put me in a great mood to take on another challenging day.
The colors you see above lasted for less than 5 minutes....they were so beautiful! I tried to photograph them the previous morning as well, but before I could call my mum to hold the baby and grab my camera, the sun was up shining brightly....the oranges had turned to yellow, and I had missed my window of opportunity.
- It's been busy....but there are so many sweet moments that make me stop and smile. See this picture from today morning:
She came over and wanted to hold the baby. Look how she has placed her hands to secure him.....she was nervous coz he didn't quite fit in her lap.....and he was wiggly, but I am glad she made the effort!
- The day before the rough night (and before the fever came back), I went for an Autism walk to downtown Sacramento to support my mommy group friend whose daughter was diagnosed with Autism recently, at 18 months old. She's felt so lonely and depressed since her daughter's diagnosis....all other kids in our mommy group are thriving, whereas her daughter is behind on even the basic milestones - I feel for her a lot. A few of us from our mommy group went - and even though we've only known each other for a couple of years now, we can count on each other for anything (literally). I cherish this group of mine and I'm lucky to have found them at a time when I needed it the most!
Team Lucie Rocks!!!!
- Even when she is so sick, the daughter continues to provide much needed entertainment to all of us using her immense imagination and conversational skills (much to learn from her attitude for us adults). She not only has preferences on her outfits, but mine too. So the other day I asked her which pant I should wear after I was done with my shower....and she pointed to a pink one. While I was putting it on, she blurts out: "Mumma's bum is big big" - Thank you kiddo, so very much, for your candidness ;)!
She saw me pumping (expressing) breast milk one day...and since then, she's been fascinated by it. She's always asking me to pump.....she stands next to me and does massage to help more milk come out (it's so cute and funny to see her imitate me)....and once we are done, she immediately wants her naani to put the milk in the baby's green bottle (it's a glass bottle with a green sleeve) and feed him. The smart cookie that she is - she also asks me to pump and give him a bottle when she sees me nursing him (and she wants her turn with mommy right then), or when I tell her that he is hungry and mumma needs to feed him (and she does not want to let mumma go away from her).
She loves saying automatic and pajama/majama (rhyming words in english/gujju) these days. Also, she loves saying "checkup" for "ketchup" and "chicken" for "kitchen". She uses the word "Aah-mazing" liberally which cracks us up all the time.
So yeah...we are all recovering from this bout of illness....hubby has been home all week....it's been fun taking care of each other. And, as usual, these two kiddos rule my life for now......and I let them :)!
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