Our girls have been sick all week and it's been pretty miserable for everyone. The worst, though, was Thursday night. I wanted to share that experience and some of my thoughts with it.
The kids had been sick all day Tuesday, but seemed to be doing a lot better Wednesday. We even went to a family birthday party and they were just fine. Thursday morning, Parker was doing worse, showing signs of a cold. After her nap, she was sounding raspy and like she was having a hard time breathing.
Back story: Parker's two year old cousin has been struggling with asthma for the past year. He's had to be taken in to the emergency room once, the hospital overnight once, has been on oxygen and all sorts of other medication to ensure he can breath, and hasn't had dairy in case a dairy allergy was affecting his lungs. Every time he is sick, his mother has to deal with the stress and worry in case the sickness triggers an asthma attack.
Naturally, after all that with Thomas, I was worried about Parker's breathing. I called my sister-in-law and she brought the finger thing that she uses to test Thomas' oxygen level. She also looked and listened to Parker's breathing. To her, it did look like Parker's breathing was tight, but that it didn't sound like allergy and it wasn't bad. When we tested her oxygen levels, they were perfect.
We put Parker down to bed early. Around nine ish (I think) and we checked her on the monitor that we have. Then we turned the monitor off (expecting the kids to just sleep until morning). Around 9:45, we were going to start getting ready for bed and I felt I needed to check the monitor. I turned it on and Parker was awake, crying and obviously struggling to breath.
I went and got her and we were trying to calm her down, but we couldn't and the more worked up she got, the worse her breathing got. It was so scary. I finally got her to nurse and she calmed down. While I was doing that, Ben had called his parents, who came over. They brought some oils and gave Parker a blessing.
I rocked Parker to sleep while Ben borrowed some onions and a humidifier and got it all set up in Parker's room. Then we put her down and I slept with the monitor on right next to me. Thankfully she slept the rest of the night, though she wasn't doing that much better. Another night helped and Saturday morning she was breathing better, though by this time, Ashtyn had her cough and was doing worse again. This morning, they were both doing better (though not recovered) and of course, Ben and I are feeling sick now.
Even with the long week and the long days of caring for our sick babies, I have kept a spirit of gratitude in my heart. When Parker was having trouble breathing, I caught a glimpse of the scary world of being able to do nothing for your children. I had only moments of the stress, the fear, the anxiety and I felt it all from our home. I didn't have to take her to a hospital or worry afterwards about lingering problems or the problem coming back. It brought to my mind extreme gratitude that our girls having always been healthy. My pregnancies never had complications, their births went smoothly, that they've never needed to be hospitalized or faced a serious illness. It also gave me great respect, empathy, and love for pioneer women who faced these sorts of illnesses with their kids in the wilderness without access to doctors.
I am so thankful for the blessings in my life.
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