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Nov 25 2008

She's sick, I'm exhausted

Category: At Home


When Paul goes away, Lucie usually wakes up in the middle of the night and joins me in my bed. It's almost expected, and in order to get a good night's sleep (I don't fall back to sleep easily) I just let her go to bed on Paul's side. But this night was different. After coming back from a friend's house -- one of the many holiday home-shopping parties I've attended this season -- both kids got into their pajamas and beds with no fuss. In fact, Lucie promised to sleep in her own bed that night.

She came in at 2:30 a.m. complaining that her ear hurt. Since she had a cold, I was afraid it was the start of an ear infection. After giving her a dose of children's ibuprofen for the pain (she didn't have a fever) we tried to go back to bed. After a restless half an hour, I turned on the light and read, while Lucie watched Sesame Street. We finally went back to bed around 4:30 a.m.

Luckily Nathan woke me up at 7 a.m. I told him to get dressed, while I slipped on some sweats and washed my face. Forget makeup. I was exhausted and knew I'd be spending the day in bed with Lucie when we weren't at the doctor's office. I fixed Nathan breakfast and woke Lucie up. She was miserable and clearly in pain. As she cried that her ear hurt, I wrapped her up in her robe and took her out to the car. Strapped in, I covered her with a blanket.

By the time we saw the doctor at 11 a.m., Lucie had developed a fever and a sore throat. She screamed as the nurse practitioner looked into her ear and later cried when the doctor looked at her throat. My poor baby. We quickly got her an antibiotic prescription and took off for the supermarket pharmacy.

It's amazing how a nap and a couple of doses of medicine can do the trick. By that evening, she was almost back to normal, fighting with her brother, and asking for popsicles and mac and cheese for dinner.

Me? I worked that afternoon while she napped, trying to catch up on various assignments. By that evening, I was glad that both kids passed out before 9 p.m. because I was the one who needed to get some sleep.