Rough Night

My little John had a fever last night. I wasn’t home to administer the necessary fever busting tylenol at bedtime, but I don’t think it would have made much of a difference. At 1 in the morning, something woke me up. It was John complaining that there was no toilet paper in the kids’ bathroom. He was groggy and out of it, and so was I. I took him into our bathroom, where there is lots of toilet paper. I felt his face and it was VERY hot.

I told him to wait in the hall while I went downstairs to get some medicine for him. I made it about three steps. I don’t know if I had gotten up too fast, or if I was sick, too, or what my problem was, but I found myself laying down on the floor in the hall, trying to gather the strength to go downstairs and get him some medicine. There he is sitting on the floor, looking at mommy, who’s laying on the floor, and he feels yucky, I feel yucky, we all feel yucky. I scooted down the stairs, as I didn’t trust myself to walk down standing. I grabbed him some medicine and a drink of water, and somehow made it back up the stairs.

There we sat, while he drank his medicine and some water. Finally, he said he was tired and we went into his room to get him back into bed. I literally crawled on all fours down the hall and into his room. He told me he didn’t want to have a nightmare, so I stayed by him. I sat on the floor next to his bed and smoothed his hair lightly and said a prayer that his fever would come down. There we stayed for a few minutes until his breathing evened out and I could tell he was asleep.

As I moved from sitting to all fours to try to get up, I realized I had been sitting on a small monster truck. Hmm. I thought something felt funny. I managed to stand up and make it back to my own bed, where I collapsed and fell back asleep.

I don’t know how long it was until he was there again. He was thirsty, and could he sleep in my bed with me? Sure, I said, and moved over. I would almost rather have my kids close when they are sick, so I know if their fever breaks or gets worse, and I can hear their breathing. It doesn’t mean I can really sleep with a child in my bed. Our moving around woke Ryan up for a minute, and I asked him to get me the pillow that was on the floor on his side, since John had taken over my pillow. I think I went back to sleep eventually, until John was moving around beside me. “Can I sleep in the middle?” he asked. “Sure.” I moved out of the way, so he could move over to the middle, disrupting both of his parents with his squirming.

Eventually, we all must have gone to sleep. I woke up when the other kids started to get up and turn on lights. John also woke up and wanted more water. Still feverish.

So, here we are. He’s still got a fever, and I’m wasted. I don’t know what was up with me in the middle of the night. Sometimes middle of the night wake-ups do that to me. I get cold sweats and feel like I may throw up or collapse. Does that ever happen to you, or is it a weird anomaly found only in me?

I found an ibuprofen in a different flavor that John will take without complaining, and he’s had some breakfast. He’ll spend a lot of time on the couch today, I’m sure. He’s got his friends, the wonderpets, to entertain him right now. And I may just crawl back upstairs and into bed. It was a rough night.