Chaos Continued...

Reader-Mommy,

How has your week been?  That's fantastic! Let me tell you about mine...

It all began last Monday when my cousin (who is more like my sister) and her two kids, 3 and 1, flew in for an 8 day visit.  We had a wonderful two days of chasing kids around, wiping snotty noses, kissing whatever booboos resulted from three boys playing, and just being moms together.  The their visit was going as good as we had hoped, then Thursday came. 

That morning, my son had woken up with a bit of a cough, but nothing attention worthy.  We all went for a walk and the boys played at the park the same as the day before.  However, upon waking up from his nap, my son's little cough had turned into that dreaded bark that any parent who lives at higher altitudes with extreme temperatures as come to know.  He had croup.  Normally it can be handled by taking the infant outside in the cold then into a steamy hot room, usually a bathroom with a hot shower on.  Unfortunately, the temperature outside was not cold enough to play it's part in breaking the cycle, so his little throat continued to swell shut.  By the time my husband got home from picking up my cousin's husband who flew in to join us for the weekend, my son's temperature a risen to 103 and his cough was getting worse. Long story short, my husband took him into the ER at 3 a.m. where he stayed until 8:00 that morning (I had to stay home since I have a newborn who is still breast feeding).  

Over the course of the next 36 hours, 24 of them were spent in the the ER, ambulance, and pediatric intensive care unit.  My husband and I took turns staying with our son while juggling company and a breast feeding infant who we did not want to bring into the hospital for fear of her catching one of the illnesses that had brought any of the other hundreds of patience. Thankfully, my cousin and her husband were extremely understanding and even more helpful and were able to watch our baby while I was at the hospital and my husband went home to sleep.  

Before it was all over, we met every nurse, doctor  and respiratory specialist on this side of the Rockies, we freaked out both set of grandparents (or they just overreacted when they heard, I am still not sure which it was), we broke the cardinal rule of hosting, sorry Martha Stewart, and fed our company Roman noodles, and we successfully proved that a human being CAN survive on 4 hours of sleep in 4 days.  

Today I learned that no matter how much you reorganize, there is always way to much stuff!