GRATEFUL WEDNESDAYS : Be Careful what you wish for…….

Today I am grateful for the health of   my children.

Our 2 year old daughter is so active  and we are hardly able to keep up with her. She seldom gets sick (one of the benefits of being on breast  milk for so long), and recently, I found myself wishing that she could pick up a bug, not anything too serious, just a little something to slow her down a bit.

Well, she got sick, and ha s been sick for the past week. Did we get any break? From having to keep vigil over a bad fever that at times did not seem to be responding to the conventional fever reducers and waking up odd hours at nights to administer her prescription drugs, we did not get a break. She was not eating and so she took this out on me ,as breastfeeding became her only source of food and probably what kept her alive, because she was not drinking either and would have been extremely dehydrated.

We also found that what she was diagnosed with initially, tonsillitis, was really not what the problem was, and so we found ourselves treating another problem. It broke my heart to see her so sick and had to rebuke myself for wishing illness on her. She is much better now, thank God, almost back to her normal self and as for me, so tired from this intense week but happy to see her smile and play again and vow to be careful what I wish for, next time I become tempted.

Even as I cuddle my daughter’s fever ridden body in my arms, I am comforted   knowing that she will get better. Some parents find themselves not being so fortunate at all, as they are told that their sick child will never get better and have just a matter of time to be with them. The parents of my son’s classmate who passed recently, I am sure got to the point where they knew their son would not be around for much longer. I just cannot even imagine that grief.

I am indeed grateful for the health of my children. 

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. - Romans 8 verse 37 (NIV)

I am just able to post since the start of the week, and what a week it has been. My husband and our daughter became ill on Sunday. My husband with the flu, and our daughter, what we thought was he flu, turned out to be gastroenteritis along with a bad cold.

She had a fever starting from Sunday afternoon and for all of Sunday night, I was up keeping vigil over the fever, which went high at times. We took her to the doctor on Monday using our son’s follow-up appointment for ear infection. By the time it was our turn, the baby had a high fever almost reaching 103 degrees. The nurse immediately sent me to the washroom to wash her down.

We were sent to the doctor soon and after she examined her, she, with a concerned look on her face, said to me, mommy, I do not like how she looks (she was having problems breathing and was giving off a grunting sound). She then said she would do a referral for her to go to the children’s hospital. I must have turned white like a ghost at that point because I was terrified thinking the worst.

When we got to the hospital, they examined her and began administering rehydration fluid right away, over a period of two hours. She cried so much because she is not used to drinking from a spoon plus this fluid taste really bad.

My husband began making calls as soon as we got to the hospital and by this time, some of our family members began showing up. I was so happy for the support because I was getting really fatigued from trying to feed the baby the rehydration fluids and have her crying so hard that now her throat is sore and hoarse.

About 8pm she was able to see the doctor and he confirmed that she was having gastroenteritis. I said to the doctor, I really think she has the flu too, but he insisted that it was gastro and did not give me any medication for any flu, he just told me to give her panadol for the fever. They also gave me some rehydration salts and told me to give her some after she has passed a stool. We were so happy to be on our way home.

We made it through the night with the fever in check, but later Tuesday morning, my husband was holding her and felt her struggling to breathe. He was frightened and I was too and so we instantly took her back to the hospital as we did not want to take any chances at her age, and also given the fact that her paediatrician said she did not like how she sounded.

She got to see a doctor almost immediately who told me that it was only a cold and they could not do anything about it, we just have to let it pass. I was not willing to just accept that and so I said to him, yes I understand that, but at her age, I am not comfortable with how she is breathing. He said he understood and sent me to the treatment room, to have them suction some of the mucus from her head. The doctor also told me to give her saline drops when she becomes stuffy. I was happy with that and left the hospital feeling much better.

Our son and niece loves the baby so much and would give her the world, with their germs and all and I have so fatigued trying to prevent them from touching her hands and face. I guess with even my best efforts, it’s just difficult. She is also a little children magnet and so there is the challenge even outside of the home. Some adults as well, who should know better, really do not.

She is doing better now, still stuffy at times and cranky but when we give her the saline drops, it really works. My husband is doing better too and yesterday I came down the flu as well. I guess my system is just worn from all that has happened over the last couple of days. It would be a good idea for us all to rent a section in the TB ward at the hospital, because our home has now become germs central.

The testing did not stop there, as at one point after all that, we really thought we would have ended up in the emergency room with our daughter again. I was terrified to say the least and at that point I felt losing our daughter so real, it pierced my heart. God gave me the resolve while at the hospital, to show some amount of calm and composure on the outside even though I was dying inside, but for the latter test, there was no composure at all, I was really worried. I could not lose my second little miracle just like that and thought would God do this to us. No, I somehow knew God would not have it that way at all, because she came directly from his heart. At my age I was not expecting to even become pregnant and have a perfectly healthy child and so I give all credit to my Almighty and all knowing God.

We remain grateful to God for his faithfulness and continue to give him thanks for the precious little miracles he has so graciously sent into our lives, when it seem we would not otherwise have been so blessed.

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MY POOR BABY - Wish I could take away the pain

Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.
Children born to a young man are like sharp arrows in a warrior’s hand
Psalm 127: 3 & 4

"HOPE MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE"

Theo has been home from nursery for the past couple of days, with what appears to be thrush on his tongue. He also has a mild fever and seem to be in a lot of pain and is very quiet and listless. He has not eaten for almost two days now.

He looks very drawn and I hate to see him like this. We were not able to get an appointment with his doctor the minute we found out, but thankfully we have one later today, so that he can be diagnosed and treated. I cannot wait, because he looks like he is wasting away, with eyes looking larger and larger in his little head.

Since he began nursery in January, he has had a cold, which turned into flu and so he was just at his doctor two weeks ago and just when we thought we could now breathe a little, there is something else. His doctor says that when they start nursery you must be prepared for them getting sick very often, but believe me, I never thought thrush would be a part of this.

Thrush apparently is a very common condition among babies and toddlers and is very painful, so I can imagine what he has been going through for the past couple of days. I am using the fact that when I give my tongue a good bite, eating is so painful for me, for a couple of days, to judge the extent of the pain that he might be in. There are times when we try to force him to eat, but after thinking about this, we give up, knowing that this must be so difficult and painful for him.

Everyone know how much I wanted a child, but honestly, I really was not prepared for them getting sick and so I am still trying to get used to this. For Theo, who is such an animated and lively child, you would never know that he has been home for the past couple of days, because the house is so quiet.

We try what we can with home remedies that we researched, to help him with the discomfort, until he sees his doctor, like wiping and massaging the tongue with a clean damp cloth and giving him pain medication, but this has been challenging, because he just refuses to open the mouth.
He refuses to have anything done to him at all and he has been this way from he was born. He was born fighting and resisting.

I ask that you send some love this way for our precious boy and wish him a speedy recovery, for his sake and his dear mom.

Thanks and catch you next time.

My Infertility Story – Our triumph

As promised, meet our miracle baby, Theodore Ronald Norris Price. You might be wondering why the many names and why are they so strong. Well, Theodore means ‘gift of God’. Ronald is my father’s name and Norris, my husband’s father’s name. Our families came together for us in so much support and prayers during the pregnancy and so we saw it fit to honor them by giving our son the names of the patriarchs. Whenever we think of our son’s names, it is definitely a reminder of this and so we will never forget.

When we took Theodore home from the maternity home, I laid him down in the playpen and remember feeling so terrified as I did not know what next to do. I was so scared I would break him or something and so I just quickly put him down. I thought all the experience of babysitting my neighbors' children and my niece and nephews would count for something. Thanks to my mother-in-law, she supported us in such an amazing way and I drew heavily on her experience, having raised four boys and so in no time I jumped right in and did what every mother does naturally, take care of her baby. I also knew I had to get it right quickly as the rest of the world was waiting to meet our miracle baby.

I remember a few days after I had taken him home, I had just breastfed him and felt so overcome with joy that I began to cry. I was crying first out of joy and then I was crying for all women who are yearning for this great privilege and those who will never have it. Yes, I was crying for all of you, my readers experiencing infertility, as no woman should have to be sentenced (outside of their will) to a life of never experiencing a pregnancy, and so is never able to feel the emotions involved in staring in the face of a satisfied child after he has been breastfed. Or experience the intimacy of just holding your child, a child that came from your loins, someone so intimately connected to you, for all eternity.

Our son is now twenty months old and he is way ahead of his age. He is so helpful. In the mornings, he climbs on the back of the sofa and open the windows. Mind you those windows are intricate to open, but he manages to do it. His father usually lift him up to the chain for the ceiling fans and with instructions from him, he would pull on each of them and turn them on. I have since banned him from opening them though as he broke one and we had to get an electrician to fix it. He even helps us to pack out groceries but we have to watch him as he helps himself to stuff, my tomatoes does not stand a chance, he bites into them through the packaging. So you see, he actually has chores already and looks forward to doing them, well at least for now because I know when he is older, like every child, he will not want to do his chores. We have started encouraging him already by applauding his efforts so we hope that will encourage him to continue to want to help out in his little way around the house. Bless his little heart.

He loves turning on and off the television and changing channels etc., one day he went to turn it on and realized that it was not coming on. To my astonishment, he turned and looked up at the ceiling fan. Electricity was in fact gone and I was so amazed to see how he was able to actually figure that out and walked away from the television.

He is so daring and full of life, sometimes I wonder if we are enough to keep him safe, but as my mother-in-law remarked when I told her he had fallen off the bed before I could reach him, “God keeps them safe, he raises up the floor to them when they fall.” I believe that very much and I take comfort in it.

His favorite television shows are, Hi-5 and Mister Maker on Discovery Kids and The Ellen Degeneress Show and the game show, Deal or no Deal on NBC. He likes the Ellen show because he likes to dance. For Deal or no Deal, he likes when the participants say, “No Deal” he actually imitates them and it is such a precious moment to watch.

He is also a good footballer. He kicks with such force and precision. We see the World Cup in his future.

At nights, when he wants to sleep, he finds me and pull me to cuddle with him until he falls asleep and any night I do not get to do it, I feel so cheated, so disappointed, as I actually look forward to it. One day I said to him, do you know how special you are? I was certainly not expecting what I heard next, he said, ‘mm mm.’ I was astonished to say the least, it was so dead on, that I thought he actually understood what I was saying.

Last April I took him to daycare because I was starting a job. The Friday evening of the first week of the job I went to pick him up as usual and the lady at the daycare told me he had a slight fever and we are to watch it. I did not take it for anything, I thought he was just teething. Later that evening, the fever intensified and so we gave him some children’s panadol. This took the fever down but we realized that as soon as the medication wore off, the fever came back. It continued like that for the rest of the weekend. This was truly a difficult weekend, this being our first encounter with him being sick. I tried to remain calm for my husband who was terrified but inside, I too was terrified. We took him to the doctor the Monday morning and he was diagnosed with tonsillitis. I was so taken aback, as I thought that tonsillitis only affected bigger children and adults. He received medication but the fever still continued and so I called the doctor and ask him if this fever should not be checking by now. He said it will run its course for three days after he began the medication. I was relieved but three days was really too long to see him sick. He was just too vibrant and full of life to just lie there so listless, so sick. I could not take it, I broke down because I missed him, I missed his vibrancy and I was just not accustomed to seeing him so sick. He got better by the end of the week and I was so happy to have my healthy baby boy again. I had to sacrifice my job to stay home with him though, but I am alright with that, my child that I pulled from God's firm grip, comes first.

He became sick again a couple months ago and I prayed that it did not turn out to be like the last one. God seem to have answered my prayers, as the fever went away on its own soon after. I was relieved. I ask God to keep him well but I know this is not really possible because children do touch dirty things and pick up all kinds of germs and so this is indeed part of the package.

It is such a joy to wake up in the mornings and hear him trying to wake up and having conversations with himself. Especially on weekends, it is really a special moment to put him in the bed with us in the mornings and have him entertain us. We do enjoy the blessings of those moments.

As I said in previous post, I wonder very often these days, if God ever intended for me to have children of my own, given the difficult time I had. That I will never know. One thing I know however, is that I am eternally grateful to him, whether I forced his hands or not and this is something I will never take for granted. I will do everything I can to be a mother who is always there for her children, one who listens, one who instills the appropriate discipline and still be their greatest cheerleader and most of all one who is ever grateful, so grateful for this opportunity.



Join me in my next post for the conclusion of my infertility story.