Seals in the Night

Some of you may know this feeling, others may not. You're lying in bed at night, tired. You know you should be asleep but your thoughts are wandering from the many blessings you have in your life to the many challenges or difficulties you may be facing. You look at the clock and realized you really do need to get some sleep. There are children to get off to school in the morning. You hear the youngest crying. You crawl out of your nice warm bed and stumble throung the dark, cold house to the side of your little one. You pull him up in your lap and hold him close. He coughs and you hear that sound. . . the first time I remember that sound, I was a child. My parents took the family to the Oregon coast. This is a vacation I later recreated with my own family and children but for some reason I remember the trip as a child most. We went to this small aquarium and just inside the door and to the left was a small (for this animal) enclosure of about 3 seals. For a small amount of money you could buy some fish to feed them. It was so exciting for a girl from a small farm town in Idaho.

But last night I was far from this vacation and that bark is anything but a seal. Someone would think by now I would be a seasoned mom and know what to do and not be worried. When Ethyn was a baby I was more like that. Get the humidifier, give them Robitussin and don't worry, they'll get over it eventually. Now I always get worried. After countless rounds of pneumonia, I never know how bad it will get. It was only 6 weeks ago that he got over the last bout with pneumonia. I used to think that the older I get, as a mother, the less I would worry. Not true, I get more worried. With 3 kids it seems 1 of my children is always sick.

When my children are sick, I do the best I can to keep my children home. I don't want other moms to go through this just because I wanted to go out. If I am out and I hear other children coughing, I will gather my children and go home. I really don't like the way that sounds or how rude it comes and I don't really mean to. I know there are germs and infections out there and we can't save ourselves from every one of them, I'm not a germophob, and I don't go crazy disinfecting everthing my family comes in contact with. I am just one tired mom who would love to go through 2 months without a sick child.