Catching Up

This has been yet another one of those busy weeks full of illnesses and work deadlines, capped by a phone glitch that left me without Internet access for two days (the horror!). My online journal has had to take a back seat to all the daily demands of being a stay-at-home, work-at-home mother. I have a few hastily jotted notes for each of the past four days, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to work them into full-fledged entries. A quick summary will have to suffice.

To begin with, Stephen had a lingering bout of diarrhea in the early part of the week. He was still suffering the ill-effects on Tuesday morning, the day that Stephanie was scheduled to take them out for the afternoon so that I could meet one of my friends for lunch. Regretfully, I canceled my lunch so that I could stay home with Stephen. My mother-in-law took Matthew out for lunch by himself, to Stephen's great annoyance.

By Wednesday Stephen was better, but on Wednesday night Daniel started coughing. We tried a cough pill that his doctor had prescribed when Daniel had a cough a few weeks ago; eventually his coughing subsided. When I picked him up at school the next day he was sick and out of sorts. The poor kid coughed nearly the whole time we were driving to pick up Tab. To distract him, I told him about the time he had croup when he was seven months old. The boys always like to hear tales of their babyhood.

"It was the night before our trip to Maine for Thanksgiving. I was taking a shower when suddenly Daddy rushed in carrying you. You were making a horrible noise."

Daniel was intrigued. "What kind of horrible noise?"

"Kind of like a barking cough. Like this--" I demonstrate a croupy cough. "Daddy had heard you barking like that up in your crib, so he ran upstairs, picked you up, and dashed downstairs to the bathroom. The best thing for croup is hot, steamy air. I got out of the shower and held you for awhile. The steam helped a little, but eventually the hot water ran out."

"How come?"

"The hot water heater only holds so much water, then it needs to heat up some more. You were still having trouble breathing, so we took you to the hospital. You were very good there, Dans," I remembered.

"I was?"

"Yes, you didn't cry even though it was all new and strange to you. Once you were breathing OK, we brought you home. You needed to sleep sitting up, so we brought the baby swing into our bedroom and you slept in that. We couldn't go to Maine the next day, but by Wednesday night you were better so we decided to go on Thanksgiving Day. Babci was mad...." I trailed off, realizing my mistake.

"Why was Babci mad, Mama?" Stephen and Matthew both wanted to know. Oh great. Now they're going to repeat this to her.

"Well, she didn't think we should travel if Daniel was sick. But he was all better by then. Anyway, that's the only time any one of you had to go to the hospital," silently adding but probably not the last.

The story had the desired effect of distracting Daniel from his coughing during the trip to Princeton. When we got him home tonight, I gave him another one of his cough pills and Tab turned on the humidifier in his bedroom. Before Daniel put on his pajama top, I rubbed Vicks vapor rub on his chest. Daniel grimaced at the smell, but I assured him that it would make him feel better. The smell of Vicks is comforting to me, probably because I remember my mother putting it on my chest when I was sick. It smells like motherly nurturing to me; maybe someday Daniel will feel the same way about it.

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