Truly, no two days are alike when you're a parent. How many times have I smugly thought, "we're finally developing a pattern", no sooner to discover that it's changed again? Too many to count. Yesterday and today have afforded some entirely new experiences to me as a mother. Judah, once again, came down with a bad fever. I gave him some children's medication that's worked in the past, but it didn't even make a dent on the alarmingly high numbers that the thermometer spat out at me. We put him to bed, hoping that a good sleep was all he needed. Not three hours later, he was awake and beside himself . His fever had spiked. He wailed in the most frightening tones and clung to whoever was closest. We tried to give him a cool-ish bath, but that only brought more screams of terror. I called my parents for advice and prayer. Mom understood my blubberings and talked calmly while Joey managed to get Judah calmed down enough for the bath to start to soothe him. Next, we placed him in front of the TV while I stroked his hair, dabbed at his forehead and neck with a cool cloth, and got him to drink as much juice as possible. We also fed him some dried prunes to help his, ahem, crowded system to move along. When he was thoroughly soothed, we put him back to bed and anticipated a long night ahead.
The night was alarmingly quiet. Joey left to cook for a rental group early in the morning, and I sat up and waited for Judah to wake up. He was up around 8 AM, and just as fevered as before. I set his breakfast before him and he stared at it for half an hour. He wasn't as grumpy as before, but still noticeably ill. We sat in the living room and read a Bible story, prayed together, and sang songs to Jesus. To my surprise, as I was singing Judah lifted up his voice in song, too - with no prodding. I cried tears of joy as we prayed one more time. His temperature began to swing up again, so I promptly gave him more medicine and put him to sleep.
When I got him up from his nap, he was drenched with sweat. I brought him into the living room, set him on the couch in front of the TV, and gave him some crackers and water, hoping to keep him relaxed as long as possible. The next time I checked his temperature, I was pleased to find that it had dropped into the 35 degree region - so much better than the 39.3 it had been the night before! God hears the prayers of His people, that's for sure!
I've said it before, I'll say it again: parenting is tough stuff. Tough, but so very good. Any strength I have comes from God - and He is so good to me. There's never been anything that has escaped his notice.
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