Croup and a Clean House

Eli has had croup since Saturday evening, and I took him to the doctor on Sunday morning to make sure everything was okay with his breathing. It was fine, but the doctor prescribed a steroid to help ease the croup symptoms for the next couple of days. This was a blessing and a curse – he had a lot less of the typical croup coughing (the barking, wheezing kind of cough), but it made him jittery, agitated, and he did not sleep well on Sunday night, day 1 of the drug.

This translated into very little sleep for me, and by Monday afternoon I was completely wiped out, with no hope that Eli would nap (he apparently has toddler superpowers and doesn’t nap even while sick – who does that???). A wise friend suggested that I bring him up to my bed with me, put a movie on the portable DVD player, and nap next to him while he watched the show. Genius! It wasn’t perfect, as Eli occasionally bounced on the bed or accidentally pulled the DVD player’s plug out from squirming around, but I got some rest and felt like I could function for the rest of the day (Charlie was napping at the same time).

I was praying that Eli would sleep through the night last night. And he did, thank goodness – I got eight hours of sleep! Amazing how good that feels. Today, Eli seemed less agitated, but was pretty hyper, which I think is also related to the steroid still in his system.

“Mom, it’s time for exercise!!” he said many times, running back and forth from the living room, through the office hall and back to the family room’s glass screen door. At one point I decided to join him; after all, I needed to burn off all of  the stress calories I’d consumed over the last few days when my kids were making me crazy, both screaming/crying at once since crying seems to be contagious between the boys… (peanut m&ms and some homemade treats were my coping measures from the last few days – ugh, so not healthy!! I swear I don’t eat like this all the time). Eli and I raced back and forth together, with Charlie sitting in the middle of the raceway, laughing at the craziness.

My dad came down this afternoon to give me a break while my mom was teaching piano lessons near us, so I ran around for a few hours, blissfully getting 10 errands done that would have taken me at least a week if I was toting my kids around. Thank you dad!! I was starting to feel trapped at home with the sick kids, so it was good to get things done and be out of the house.

Tonight Ben hosted his book group at our house, so we tucked the kids into bed pretty early and ran around the house, cleaning up, sweeping, putting toys away and getting the main floor in order. It’s always nice to have an excuse to make things tidy and clean.

Once the guys arrived, I left to exercise at the gym. It was later in the evening, so the gym wasn’t crowded and I got a good workout in, finishing with stretching on the mats and taking deep breaths. I left feeling renewed and ready to face hopefully a better day tomorrow.

On my drive home, I passed the hospital and thought about my friend Stephanie, whose sister in Atlanta is in the ICU after a pregnancy gone majorly awry (I’m talking in vague terms, but it’s really serious). Rachael’s body went into toxic shock and her kidneys are failing, she is breathing with a respirator, and tonight I learned that a doctor punctured one of her lungs while trying to change her many tubes out because they can’t figure out what is causing her fever, so they’re hoping new, clean tubing will help. Seriously??

Because of everything going on, Rachael has been in a medically induced coma since last week. My heart hurts for Stephanie and her family, for Rachael’s daughters that are 2 and 3 years old, for her husband… each time that I have talked to Stephanie in the last week, I’ve had instant tears when she first starts talking and I could feel the weight of her exhaustion and the emotional roller coaster it has been through the phone. My thoughts and prayers are with her family. It is such a sad, horrible, difficult thing they are all going through.

So after that sad note, I’m going to change the tone a little with a few pictures. First, of Charlie who is happy to not be hurting from his ear infection anymore.

 

In fact, he’s so happy that he constantly does yoga poses, like downward dog.

And below are friends who tried to cheer me up yesterday when my kids were being so difficult. Rachael (different girl than the Rachael mentioned above) was in town over the weekend, visiting from Cleveland, so we had fun catching up. She and Khania came over to share lunch with me on my very long, miserable day. Eli was pretty awful all day long (which meant Charlie would cry about half the time too), so this was a bright spot, and meant a lot considering Rachael had a flight to catch that afternoon and didn’t have much time. We put my camera on the self timer and took this funny shot. I don’t think you can tell how exhausted I was, but I could barely keep my eyes open, I was so tired. But their coming over last minute forced me to clean things up a little, which always brightens your mood too.

And here’s a shot from yesterday when I got desperate for some peace and put Barney on for the kids to watch. Poor Eli. I hope he wakes up tomorrow feeling normal again. You know I’m desperate when I’m willing to have Barney going in the background…