Sunday, May 11, 2008

What mothers do

What a first Mother's Day so far. We spent the night in the ER with Kelly. Diagnosis? Ear infection.

I'm still barely removed from the terror of the whole thing (Kelly never cries, so to hear her wailing is just awful, and that whole hospital driving through silent streets at 2:30 am is surreal)

Kelly does seem better today.Waking up was hard for her, but she is asleep now. I have her in her bouncy chair so she can sit up a bit and maybe help the ear drain. We also have numbing drops for the ears, baby Tylenol, and are keeping her hydrated with both water and formula. I think we could start our own baby pharmacy with all the things we now have at hand.

Of course, I could think of nothing but Linda's story and was pretty much slamming the ER docs up against the wall pleading TELL ME IT'S NOT MENINGITIS PLEASE PLEASE TELL ME. Sometimes there is such a thing as knowing too much in this world. Sometimes I am not sure I am strong enough for it.

6 comments:

Adrienne said...

We have also spent plenty of evenings in the E.R. with our 12-year-old, and thankfully it always seemed to be an ear infection (ear tubes finally saved us from those frequent midnight trips with 104 fevers and blood-curdling screams of pain!). Welcome to motherhood, where the worrying never ends, and it never does seem to get any easier. You (and Miss Kelly) will be just fine! Glad to hear she's feeling better!

Mark said...

This all sounds so familiar. Petrifying, isn't it? I guess you don't really know what it means to be a parent until you've been stupified with fear over the welfare of your child. That's real terror. Skydiving and bunjee jumping don't even come close. Good luck to you.

Mike said...

Those late night trips are fun; especially with the first child. We were better the second time around, but it is always a little scary. Good luck. It does get easier.

Hootyboosmom said...

Those 2:30 a.m. ER runs are the worst aren't they??!! It's so hard when they are so little and you don't know what's wrong. So glad it's just an ear infection (although I know things like that are never "just")!
Hope she's feeling better soon! I do hope you have a Happy Mother's Day! Hold her close, thank God she's okay, and enjoy her for the gift she is!
~Tanya

Anonymous said...

My mom's first mother's day was also spent at the doctor's office. Dad was bouncing me on his knee when I fell forward and split my head open on the coffee table.

Anonymous said...

A hospital out by itself for a spin at any time is irresponsible, but at 2:30am? It must have been drinking earlier.