On Sickness and Babies

Well, as we head into another winter, so too, do we head into another round of sickness. While I am grateful we no longer live in the truly freezing climate of New Zealand, we haven't become totally exempt from the colds and flu's that are sure to do the rounds at this time of year.

We have all been down and out over the last week or so. But now, it is Samara's turn. Poor thing. She really does suffer when she gets a cold. In the darkeness of night, she suffers the most. And then she only has us to turn to.

So it was, that at 1.30am this morning, I decided that she had had enough. She had noisy breathing ever since she went to bed, but by 1.30 she was really struggling. Her wee chest was really heaving, and her breathing was erratic. So I woke Michael, and we took her up to Redcliffe Hospital.

First we had to brave the inquisition at the door. Had anyone had the sniffles? Well, Yes. That's why we're here! Had we been overseas? Not that recently. Had we visited anyone who had been overseas? No. (Whoops, we remembered later that friends we had visited had just returned from Thailand!) Anyway, we were let in, went through all the motions, and were seen pretty quickly. Thankfully, after several hours, and some suctioning, we were allowed to bring her home, on the proviso that we take her back if she gets worse.

Today she is a lot sicker than yesterday, so really, I won't rest well tonight, as I am expecting to have to go back up there. Hopefully that won't happen, but listening to her breathing now - I'm not going to get my hopes up too much just yet! The hospital are especially concerned because of her laryngomalacia, as this means she could go downhill a lot faster than other babies would. But given our past experience with respiratory illnesses, they felt that they could trust us to act quickly if the need arose. Also, we are only 1.5km from the hospital which was a big factor.

As for me, I am going to finish up a couple of jobs on the net, then I am going to have a sleep! I didn't get to sleep til about 6, and Samara woke at 8. I need to be fresh in case we have to go back tonight!