The last couple of weeks have been quite strenuous for us. When I collected the Munchkin from Kita one Thursday, I heard a little girl in her classroom cough quite badly. I felt reasonably sure then that we would be graced with the appearance of a cold sometime soon.

The Munchkin was restless throughout the following night, but seemed otherwise ok. On Friday then, her condition deteriorated after I picked her up from Kita. Her temperature rose up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and I was unable to lower it for any length of time. She also developed a terrible cough and became increasingly lethargic. When she seemed to have trouble breathing and her overall condition worsened, the Laddie and I took her to the Emergency Room.

Turns out our baby was suffering from acute spasmodic laryngitis (spasmodic croup) and obstructive bronchitis, so her breathing pathways were basically blocked both ways. The doctor explained to us just how dangerous spasmodic croup can get and gave us a room on the pediatric ward of the hospital. We (the Munchkin and I) stayed there for four very restless and exhausting days. The Lad came to be with us every day from about 7:30 am and left when it was time for our little girl to sleep. Our nights at the hospital were filled with frequent visits by nurses and one alarm or other going off approximately every ten minutes or so, startling awake both the Munchkin and myself.

At some point during our hospital stay, the Lad voiced what I had been thinking about all the time, too: We have never been this scared for our daughter. I felt utterly helpless and useless, seeing my baby hooked up to the monitors, getting poked with needles, taking cortisone, inhaling every few hours. My poorest child. I took comfort in the fact that I was very close to her all through this time. The Munchkin spent the first night at the hospital sleeping on my belly. For the remaining three days, she snuggled up very close beside me at night – thankfully they had pushed two beds together for us, so our sleeping situation was similar to what we’re used to.

We arrived back home last Monday and the Munchkin spent the remainder of the week with me. Yesterday was her first day back at Kita and she seems to have missed that part of her routine a lot. Leaving the classroom on Monday, I read that scarlet fever is an issue at Kita right now, too. I guess I should get used to that kind of thing.

In other news, the Lad celebrated his 27th birthday on October 8th. Due to our stay at the hospital and the resulting stress and chaos, I was unable to make his special day truly special for him. We did spend the day together, but things were just really unorganized, messed up and generally lacking. By October 7th, a feverish cold had knocked me out, too, so I was basically rendered useless once more. I feel absolutely terrible about how this year’s birthday went for the Lad – I hope I will be able to make it up to him somehow.

Our Munchkin is asleep, the Lad and I will snuggle up now, have some homemade chicken soup, watch a movie and hope the next illness isn’t looming on the horizon just yet.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 9:48 pm and is filed under Baby Pill. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.