SubscribeOn Thursday night, as MTM and I were watching Grey's Anatomy, Munchkin started to cough - hard - and then she started to gag, and we both ran upstairs because Munchkin has a long and sordid past that involves coughing and vomit. She didn't get sick, but she ended up in bed with me that night after MTM went to nurse Buddy.
She spent the better part of Friday on the couch watching Treehouse and whining about everything her little brother did, including looking at (and away from) her. That night, MTM went out to do some groceries after the kids were in bed. She had been gone maybe 30 minutes when I heard noises coming from Munchkin's room.
"What's wrong, sweetheart?" I asked, entering her room.
"I... want... Mommy!" she said, in between sobs.
"Mommy's out, but I'm here. It's OK. Do you need a cuddle?"
"I need Mommy," she said, still sobbing. "It hurts!"
"What hurts?"
"Everything."
I tried for five minutes: holding her, rubbing her back, getting her a drink of water, stroking her hair. None of it worked. I called MTM and suggested she come home ASAP.
I went back upstairs and told her that MTM was coming home soon. I also took her temperature. She had a fever.
"OK."
"Do you want me to wait with you."
"Yes, and I want the monkeys to leave."
"What?"
"The monkeys are bothering me."
"What monkeys?"
"The ones from Diego."
MTM came home, gave her some Advil for the fever, and a little Mommy TLC for the rest of it. While she was upstairs, Munchkin informed her that she hated her bedroom, and later instructed MTM to leave the room, but to not go too far, just into the hall. (Apparently, she said this angrily.)
That night, Munchkin was again in bed with me, when she suddenly woke me with a loud, "No!"
"Huh? What?"
"I don't want them to enter my contest!"
"OK. They won't."
"OK," she said, turning over and falling asleep.
I have seen my kids sick before. I am all too familiar with feeling helpless and frustrated. But I found Friday night particularly frightening as a father. It's one thing for your child to be sick and moan in bed with a cold or flu, or even to have a formal diagnosis from a doctor and need to be hospitalized, but for some reason those feverish dreams (or semi-conscious hallucinations) really freaked me out. She was so lucid, so aware of everything going on - she was coherent enough to stop herself from falling asleep once she knew MTM was en route, forcing herself to sit up and wipe her eyes - yet was honestly convinced there were monkeys in her room annoying her.
What stuff has really gotten to you as a parent, has totally rocked you to your core, even though you didn't expect it to? Also, is my kid the only one with the freaky fever dreams?
Munchkin's Contest will be open for entries until 11.59pm EST Friday, November 6, 2009. A huge thank you to everyone who has entered so far, with special acknowledgment to the super-keen Blogging Mama Andrea, smiles4u, and Leanne for having their entries in before the end of Halloween night. It made up for the fact that she only got to trick-or-treat at a few close houses on Saturday. Please keep sending in your costumes; she's really enjoying seeing all of them.
17 shared their side:
When Meenie was three, she got sick, very sick. Ad first, it started like a normal virus (and it was - she had coxsackie) and then it progressed to where she was vomiting and just very sick. My husband was working nights, so I was downstairs sleeping with two sick kids and one not so sick kid. I awoke around 3 am (I sleep lightly when they're sick, because you need to react quickly!) to what appeared to be Meenie having a seizure. Knowing kids when they have a high fever can get seizures and there is noting to do while they have the fever, I walked through the motions of protecting her. They continued, every time she'd fall asleep. They'd only last 30-60 seconds, but she'd wake up with a startle and scream. After a bit, I called my husband because I was starting to get worried. One of the paramedics was with him so we talked and decided I'd wait it out until morning and call her doctor. As long as she wasn't asleep, she was fine (key here being they weren't seizures, people don't usually have seizures if they are asleep). I called the doctor and they gave me an afternoon appointment (which I complained about, but it was actually for the best). By the time we got to the doctor's she was starting to struggle to walk. He sent us home, just saying it was the virus, she'd be better soon and give her some dramaine to stop the sickness. By the time we got home, she could hardly walk and loud noises were startling her. Thankfully, the doctor was on the phone telling us to come back to the ER right away, they were waiting for her. Turns out, he watched her struggle to walk out of the office, made a quick call to another pedi and tried to catch us in the parking lot but we were already gone. Meenie had encephalitis (and if we had an early morning appointment, the full neurological symptoms wouldn't have been present). The whole sickeness and how things presented freaked me out.
For the longest time, every time she got sick after that, I freaked out and had flashbacks.
And oh my kids have freaky fever dreams occasionally as well.
It is always so hard when the kids are sick. It's "cough 'til you puke" time at our house. Our littlest has it the worst and the older one seems to be getting better (too slowly for my liking).
My kid is STILL up twice a night coming in our room sleep talking. Last night it was about a shadow man in her room. She kills me. Really. I haven't slept in FIVE years.
The scariest part of my parenting career came when Charlotte fell backwards off a chair and landed on the tile. I was worried if I put her to bed as normal, she'd be one of "those" cases. After her leg started twitching, we called 911. Everything ended up alright, but still, scary.
Oliver runs very high fevers when he gets one. It's gone up to just below 107 before - those are very scary moments for me.
Those Pygmy Marmasets from Dieog are pretty dang scary looking. Human faces on mini monkies.
My daughter was afraid of a shadow that formed on her wall from her night light. She would cover it every night so it wouldn't shine.
But I don't think she's actually thought that something from her shows were in her room..
I hope that Munchkin feels better soon.
That would have freaked me out too. Chloe has talked and jibbered in her sleep before, sometimes when she has a fever and sometimes just for funsies but she's completely fast asleep when she does it and she laughs in her sleep sometimes too, big deep HAHAHAHA style belly laughs and she laughs nothing like that when she's awake opting for the girly giggles instead.
She did have a bad case of the shivers once when she had a fever after a vaccination and her doctor mistook it for a full blown convulsion, that scared the crap out of me.
No pics from this year sorry, she was at a Halloween party on Saturday evening with my mum, but because the kids unanimously decided that the best way to spend the evening was on a trampoline in the pissing rain and gale force winds, they all stripped off the customes and there isn't a photo to be had:(
I'd like to say that I've never had anything all that scary, but truthfully, it's just easy to say that sitting here with three healthy kids.
I had a moment when my oldest was about 12 months where she slipped on the bathroom floor and bonked her head (apartment at the time: concrete floors w linoleum). Her pupils looked different sizes, but I noted that I had never studied them before, so were they really? I called the 24 hour pediatrician line and someone called me back and after a conversation I was reassured enough to not run to the hospital, but not enough to not wake her up every hour all night.
When my son (3rd) was < a month old, he caught a fever & after hearing all the "run screaming if your infant gets a fever" I was concerned. We ended up in Childrens' and where I lost it was watching 2 docs & 2 nurses trying to get an IV into his head with him screaming (didn't work, they ended up re-trying his arm).
I'm glad the contest is open until Friday. Maybe I can figure out how to get my photos onto my laptop by then (main PC sproke). I've got a great one of a BAT.
The biggest freak out was three months after moving to Germany. I had to get to school asap because Thor was vomitting after hitting his head on the playground. We got turned down at the first hospital (because he was a child, apparently German hospitals don't treat vomitting children with head trauma's). He threw up in the back of the car with the school aide the whole way and we finally reached a second hospital and they admitted him for a concussion. He was delirious a lot of the time which scared me pretty bad but eventually he was fine (even though a week later he was admitted again - this time at ANOTHER hospital for dehydration. He takes after his father for hospitals.)
Sorry Munchkin was sick. I hope she's better soon.
Poor Munchkin! Liv acts the SAME way when she has a fever and it is really upsetting. She talks but makes no sense. It's like I can tell she isn't really fully conscious but she sounds like she is. Fortunately she doesn't get fevers very much, but she did have a slight one on Saturday night. She's been fighting a cold for a couple of weeks now. I hope Munchkin feels better soon!
Wow, that does sound frightening. I hope she is feeling better now. That feeling of helplessness is the worst I have ever experienced.
The whole staff infection last Halloween really bothered me.
Ben used to get RSV which is bad for preemies, which he was not. But it was bad enough where he'd end up in the ER for labored breathing. Poor guy.
I'm in the throes of some wicked fever now. I'm sick as hell and feverish, so yeah. Poor Munchkin. Tell her that her Internet Auntie says to feel better soon.
I hope she feels better soon. I think H1N1 must be in our schools ... my brother was sick the weekend before this past one (my mom kept him home from school all week) and MTM's friends who I baby-sit for (your friends too I'm assuming, but I'm trying to keep this all anonymous, haha), their daughter and the youngest baby were sick with fevers and such last week.
Our schools have high absences right now too.
I'd say it's here. My bro's fever was gone by Monday after he was sick the Saturday night, so I do hope that by today she's on the mend. Keep us posted. Let me know if you guys need anything.
When I was 12 or 13 I had such a bad fever I was sleep walking and thought I was on an airplane with the Sweet Valley Twins. (I had a lot of their books growing up) Talk about delirious.
My daughter had a febrile convulsion when she was really little.
Talk about scary...I think I felt my heart stop that night.
My kiddos have been sick before, but not quite that scary sick. I guess the scariest health situation for us was when we had to wait 2 weeks to bring Bear home from the NICU after she was born early.
I've got Halloween pictures, but no computer to load them onto at the moment. Am hoping to rectify that ASAP - don't want to miss Munchkin's contest!
I cannot plug in with any parent advice, but I have very strange dreams every time I have the flu or a stomach virus, and often they are recurring. That is, each time I nod off I'll have the same dream.
When I was sick as a kid I was visited by some of the cast of Fraggle Rock.
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