Mothering My Babies When They are Sick

The hardest part of mothering for me has always been having my kids be really ill and not knowing exactly why or knowing why, but not being able to remedy it right away. It's especially tough before they can speak and tell you what ails them. My heart breaks for my littles when they're in any kind of pain.

I am grateful that both S and K haven't had much illness in their young lives. When they do come down with something, it's very mild and gone soon.

Last night S awoke and immediately started crying. We co-sleep, so I scooted him over to me and tried to nurse him. He usually latches on and then falls right back to sleep. This time he didn't want to latch at all, so I knew something was up. I checked his diaper an then tried walking him around to soothe him, but he was still crying a low whiney kind of cry. He kept his eyes shut and I could tell he was in pain.

I took him downstairs, because K also sleeps with us and I didn't want her to wake. Before we got downstairs I was thinking a stomache ache or sore throat. As we walked around, he kept pulling his legs up into me and clenching his eyes tight. That made me lean more toward stomach ache. His cries got louder as he got more frustrated. His nose was running because of all the crying and he still wouldn't open his eyes. Mr. Crafty gave him a dose of Colic Calm. In the past, the Colic Calm has made a huge difference by minute 10 or 15. 20 minutes had gone by and he seemed better, but I didn't know if he was just tired out from all the struggling and crying. At this point, we undressed him and checked all over his body for bug bites or rash or anything that looked off. He looked like his usual beautiful self.

He started crying and struggling pretty hard again. We gave him another dose of Colic Calm. In the next 20 minutes, he opened his eyes and started talking a bit. 10 minutes after that, he was happily screeching and babbling as usual. He released a little bit of a gas and soon wanted to nurse. He nursed to sleep and was fine the rest of the night.

I'm so grateful it was just really gnarly tummy issues, but it reminded me of how helpless you can feel as a parent sometimes.
It also reminded me of how grateful I am to have a partner there in the trenches with the kids. Sometimes things are tough with the 2 of us. I imagine it would be that much harder dealing with it all on my own.