tired and thankful

what a loooong day .... I think it started over the weekend as one long day led to another and I never seemed to catch up on sleep. Then Sunday night after the exhaustion had built up and cumulated in one last hurrah at a friend's birthday party, we all came home and crashed. The boys were in bed by 7 and the adults were soon to follow by 8.

However, the promise of a long, good night's sleep soon faded when Ben started coughing again. It was waking him up in tears and he was crying for us. It was breaking my heart so I decided that he should sleep with me all night so I could prop him up in my arms. Of course, Charley was lonely by himself so he got permission to climb in bed on daddy's side. So we all finished the movie "No Reservations" at around 8:30 and went to bed. (cute movie by the way) I woke up at 10 and decided that since Ben hadn't been coughing, maybe he would do alright in his bed. So I took both boys back to their own beds. I'm not sure how much later it was, maybe 11, Ben woke up coughing and crying for us again. Ok, good night's sleep out the window. :) Sometime later, Charley woke up and realized he was all alone again (I'm not sure how, since it's really dark in their room, maybe he just remembered that he started out in our bed and wanted to come back, who knows) so he came back in around midnight. ugh, however, this is part of the reason we sprung for a King size bed and it was kind of fun.

The rest of the night was filled with Ben squirming, tossing and turning towards me and almost pushing me off the edge of the pillow and the bed. I didn't want to move him around too much when he did this b/c at least he wasn't coughing and at least he was getting some much needed sleep. But, I finally had to move him a few times just so I could get comfortable. My arms were so stiff and I was in and out of sleep the whole night. I remember my dream however, so I know I slept some.

This morning was difficult though and since I'm not a morning person anyway .... well, it wasn't pretty. I decided it was time that we go back to the Dr. Ben was tugging at his ears again (even though we had just finished our Amoxicillian for an ear infection (his first ever) a few days earlier) and his cough sounded awful. Charley had been coughing also and upon hearing all sorts of stories of illness and nebulizers etc at church the previous morning, I had heard enough and decided to act sooner than later. It's odd though, b/c they don't seem sick, just recovering, who knows.

Anyway, I'm posting this whole thing, just to say how grateful and thankful I am that God, in His providence, allowed me to get two back to back appointments with the same doctor for the boys, early this morning. Not only that, but it was during a time that Will just happened to have off between his own doctors appointments for general check-ups, so he was able to come over and help me with the boys (in one tiny room) while they were being seen.

The final verdict, Charley is fine and was prescribed Sudafed and Robitussin DM for congestion and coughing which I already had been, and will continue to administer on as "as needed" basis. Ben still has a yucky ear infection and was prescribed a stronger antibiotic to fight it. This might concern me if he had taken many antibiotics before, but since this is his first time to ever take one, I don't think there's a big chance of him developing an immunity to it, I just think that's how bad the infection is (even though we caught it pretty early). Plus, it's not like I have a choice, if you let things like ear infections go, it could affect their hearing permanently. Also,

Ben was prescribed Robitussin which I wouldn't have given him before b/c there are no cough syrups with dosages for kids under 2 anymore, but I got the correct dosage from the doc (1/2 t every 8 hours) and it doesn't have the ingredient, Dextramethorphin, which helps but is too strong for a child under 2. All of this, I wouldn't have known if I hadn't gone ahead and taken him in. And since the humidifier and juice w/ lemon weren't working as home remedies, I really needed something for the poor kid. I was about to try herbal stuff like echinacea and licorice and there's no herbal place around here (I don't think) and try to figure out how to get that into him to stop the cough, who knows if it would have worked or not, or how I was supposed to give it to him. (grind it up and put it in his juice I guess?).

Anyway, he's still coughing a little, but it doesn't sound as constant or as bad as last night, so I hope I'm in store for a good night's sleep, if I can finally get into bed. :) At least his lungs are clear so no nebulizers for us yet thankfully, and he's still laughing and playing and acting like his usual cheerful self. so cute!