Sometimes being a parent sucks

While I had planned on doing a lot of reading over the last week or so, I truthfully didn’t get much done at all. I spent a majority of my free time, doing laundry, changing diapers and trying to comfort my sick little baby. I have three children and while they have all been sick at any given time, neither of the other boys has EVER been as sick as the baby was this week. Between the vomiting, diarrhea, trips to the emergency room for IV fluids, and about a million diaper changes I was probably as scared as I have ever been for one of my children. He just didn’t seem to be getting any better at all. Thankfully it the illness seems to be behind him at this point.
I have a newfound respect and appreciation for people who have a chronically or catastrophically ill child. I cannot imagine having to endure that permanently. The powerless feelings of not being able to help or in some cases even comfort the little guy are terribly painful. The thoughts, however brief, that we might lose him aged me ten years. Having to live with that feeling full time would be crippling to me. I can’t imagine how parents survive it.

Some lowlights of the last week:

I had to hold my little guy down while they gave him an IV. Since he is a bit of a chubby baby they had trouble finding a vein. So, they had to stick him three times. One of the times they jiggled the needle around inside him a bit to try and get the vein. He screamed. He screamed a lot. It wasn’t pleasant.

That of course, came in a close second to having to pin him down while they gave him a catheter to get a clean urine sample. Now, I held him for his circumcision, but this was something completely different. I can’t imagine something more unpleasant. He just cried and cried. Thankfully it was brief, but if I never see the inside of an emergency room with one of my children again I will be OK with it.

Overall it was probably one of the worst experiences of my life and I am drained just thinking about. I will tell you this though, coming home last night and seeing him smiling and giggling while splashing in the bathtub was one of the more uplifting experiences I have had in a long time.