sicky times

sick kid ammunition

The last couple two weeks went something like this... Keelan gets a cough and runny nose, no problem normal cold stuff. Then he keeps us up late at night and is unable to go back to sleep, we spend hours rocking a conjested and crying baby in the rocking chair (memories of his infant days are flooding my mind). We begin to notice that he is running a little hot- but having recently returned a poor performing baby thermometer without bothering to bring a working one home we have no way to check it.  The night we finally pick up a new thermometer Keelan wakes up burning, we check his temperature... 104! We of course feel horrible and start the rounds of meds to bring down his temp. Thankfully, it comes down to 101 and continues to drop. He stops being interested in eating or drinking and gets really low energy, cranky and clingy. We decide to take him to the pediatrician who says it's just a virus and not to worry, just keep an eye on his temperature and encourage him to drink as much water as he can. The next day the diarrhea and horrible diaper rash begin... ack! After two days of this we bring him back to the doctor who said the virus moved down into his digestive system AND he has an ear infection... great. Feeling pretty wiped out after over a week of this we were relieved that he was getting some antibiotics (his first) and that this should be done with in 48 hours or so. It took until yesterday, Friday, for him to seem really back to normal, but boy are we grateful! We went to nature babies with a friend and Keelan played in the water at lake Whatcom and we all felt like normal, healthy humans again. 

Keelan has had colds and some stomach upset before, but never like this. I had moments when I felt like, "Wow, so this is what it feels like to be a parent..." holding a feverish out-of-it Keelan in my arms. I just can't imagine how difficult and intense it would be to have a child with a terminal illness. Two weeks of this and we felt wiped out emotionally and physically, I just can't imagine that being every day. I feel so lucky that we have a healthy child and I hope our second one is just as blessed.