Mommy Stripes

As a mom, there are certain moments when I feel like I really earn my "mommy stripes". This past week was pretty hard for the Watson family. I got sick over a week ago. I can honestly say that I haven't been that ill for years and years. I was deliriously sick. My throat was on fire and my glands were so swollen I could hardly swallow. Thankfully I got sick on a Saturday, so Nate was home to take care of the kids. But by Monday (which was ironically a day off school for the kids), I still felt awful. I called my mom and took the kids over to her house. Even as an adult, I still need my mom when I'm sick (:  I hate going to the doctor and I was hopeful that I would get better on my own, but my mom made me go to the doctor. And it turned out, I had a double ear infection and strep throat. I think I've had the ear infections for a while, because after a week of antibiotics, I feel better than I have in weeks.

It's little surprise that the day after I found out I had strep throat, Aylah came home from school complaining of her throat hurting. So the next day I took her to the doctor. Sure enough, she had strep too. Two days later, I took Ivan to the doctor and he had strep too. While I was there, I had the doctor look at Aylah's neck. The right side of her neck was insanely swollen. The doctor examined her and said she was concerned that she had an abscess. Now, what the doctor probably said was that I should take her to the hospital to get it looked at. But, in my frantic mommy state, what I heard was that my child was critically ill and had to go to the hospital immediately. So I hurried home to give Ivan his first dose of medicine. Aylah had fallen asleep in the car and I rushed Ivan inside. Before I could give him the medicine, he said, "Mommy, I have to go pee." When a two year old says that, you know there's no waiting. I quickly took him to the bathroom and after he was done, he got that look in his eyes. I'm sure every parent knows that look. The "I'm going to puke and there's no time to get me to the toilet" look. And he puked everywhere. In that moment, I knew I would be earning some serious mommy stripes that day.

After I had cleaned him up, changed his clothes and given him his medicine, I got him back in the van and headed to the hospital. It's about 25 minutes from our house, but I have serious anxiety about driving on the highway. I've never been a fan of driving, but the older I get, the more I freak out about it. The whole time I was praying, "Please let Aylah be ok, please keep me calm, please help our van not to breakdown." And thank you, Jesus, we made it. But I was so frazzled that I went into the first hospital parking garage I saw. Which was on the opposite end of the ER. Two sick kids, one mommy and an enormous distance to where we were supposed to be. I put Ivan in the stroller, but poor Aylah was in so much pain she could barely walk. She ended up getting a ride in a wheelchair and we made it to the ER. After several hours of being there, the doctors told me that she had a severe case of strep throat which was causing her glands to swell so much. And it also made her have a muscle spasm, so she couldn't move her neck.

It took almost a week of being on the antibiotic for Aylah to really feel better, but she's better now. I realized how lucky I am that my kids have never really been sick before. Good health is something that I often take for granted, but there is no better gift than having healthy children. I thank God every day that I have five healthy kids.

I earned some mommy stripes this past week for sure. They've caused me to worry, experience anxiety and exhaustion. But most importantly, they've allowed me to understand how scary it is to have a sick child, and how precious it is knowing your child is ok. I will wear these Mommy stripes with pride.