Wednesday, November 18, 2009

What a day...and night.

Well Alex is sick just in time for his birthday. Poor baby. He was a little whiney earlier this week but otherwise no symptoms. The hoarse voice (which is completely pitiful on someone who can't talk yet) came on yesterday evening, the cough (even more pitiful than the hoarse-ness) today and a low grade fever this evening. So now I get to call first thing tomorrow to try to get him in tomorrow. We were just there and he was fine. It was such a nice weekend though, we played outside which he thoroughly enjoyed and he did wear a jacket but I think it was probably too much for him. This fall weather is tricky - feels great but there's an underlying cold to it.

In the past when he's been hoarse like this, he's had an ear infection. In fact, all but one of his ear infections were diagnosed after he woke up hoarse with a low grade fever and we took him to the doctor. The other one was diagnosed at one of his well baby checks – that one apparently was mild and likely had just started. Had he not been hoarse the other times, we may not have even known that he was sick because he still smiles & laughs and gives those super sweet looks. He’s still happy as a little lark or seems to be – just a little more clingy than normal. He did have a little fluid in 1 ear last Friday but looked clear, not cloudy so no meds needed. However, since I’m not the doctor, I’ll reserve final diagnosis to her. Who knows, it could be something else – even a regular cold. We’ll see.

I mentioned he still acts happy as a lark when sick…tonight was case in point. I’m reading the mail and Ethan and Alex were playing by the couch. All of a sudden Ethan starts cracking up laughing rolling on the floor. I look over and Alex has pulled a pillow case off one of the pillows and is covering his face and slowly removing it to grin at Ethan. Totally playing peak-a-boo with his brother with a paci in his mouth, a slightly snotty nose and a temp of 100. He kept the paci in cause without it, he’d cough and he doesn’t enjoy coughing (nor do I so I don’t blame him).

About 30 minutes later when that game grew boring, I gave in and let both boys head to bed early (only 7:30). Ethan says to me, “Mama, I’m tired. I’m dust really tired, Mama.” I looked over at Alex and he had taken that pillow (sans the case he removed) and laid his head on that and pulled the blanket he prefers over to him. He doesn’t like to be covered up when he sleeps but he wanted to feel the blanket anyway. It was too cute and since he was miserable and I was exhausted, too, I caved and let them go to bed. This likely means they will wake up a little early but that just means their Daddy doesn’t get to sleep in since I have to work so have to get up anyway.

When all three go to bed and 10 minutes later, Ethan comes in and whines (OK, it was a very sweet whine, but a whine nonetheless) “Mama, I wanna sleep in you bed with you.” I said, “no, honey, you need to sleep in your bed.” E: “But Mama I don’t want to sleep in my bed.” Me: “Honey, you have to. You sleep in your bed; Alex sleeps in his bed; Mama & Daddy sleep in our bed.”…the lip starts to quiver, the pout is deeper than any I’ve seen and it really starts to break my heart. I can even see a tear start to form in his eye as he says, “But Mama I’m scared.” Me: “Come up here” (he climbs up and I cuddle him a bit and dry his eye and ask, “What are you scared of?” E: “I’m scared of…of…of ghostez.” Me (somewhat incredulous as just 2 weeks ago he loved ghosts and wanted t see every Halloween decoration imaginable and hoped they were ghosts): “Ghosts? You’re scared of ghosts?” E: “Uh-huh.” Me: “Honey, ghosts can’t hurt you. Ghosts are friends of God. They are nice and they help people” (trying to relate ghosts to angels which he doesn’t fully understand yet anyway). “You know God and he’s nice, right?” E: “Uh-huh.” Me: “Well ghosts are friends of God. They won’t hurt you at all.” E (voice shaking and lip still quivering): “OK.” Me: “But honey, there aren’t any ghosts in the house anyway. They aren’t in our house at all.” E (pointing to the window): “They dust stay out there. They don’t come in here at all.” Me: “That’s right. OK? So there’s nothing to be afraid of at all. Mama is right here and nothing is in your room to be afraid of, OK?” E: “But I still don’t want to sleep in my bed, I want to sleep in you bed. I’m scared.” Me: “Honey there is nothing to be afraid of. There’s nothing in your room to be afraid of.” E: “Owix is in there.” Me: “Are you afraid of Alex?” E: “Yes.” Me: “Why are you afraid of Alex.” E: “Cause he might get out of bed and get me.” Me (chuckling a bit): “Honey, Alex loves you and wouldn’t ‘get’ you and he can’t get out of his bed anyway. You need to go to bed. The light is on in the hall so you’ll have light in your room. OK?” He reluctantly got down saying ok and I felt like the worst mother in the world for making him do it. I should have caved and don’t really know why I didn’t because he’s never looked more pitiful but I didn’t and he went to sleep shortly thereafter. He’s never been like this at all and I wonder if he saw something that scared him. Maybe someone was watching a scary movie and he saw part of it and got scared (yes, we all know that wasn’t me as even Scooby do scares me). Hey, it could even be Scooby since he does enjoy that usually. Maybe he’s just hit the age where he understands it better and it’s scaring him. Maybe he overheard someone say something about ghosts. Who knows? All I know is that if it happens again tomorrow night, he’s sleeping with me.

So tomorrow should prove interesting. We’ll find out whether Alex does indeed have his 5th ear infection before age 1 and whether my description of ghosts was sufficient to rid Ethan of his fear. Look out Thursday, here we come!

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