The fewer the words, the more important the prayer

What do you pray when there is no time? When you know, “Jesus, I need your help right now!” You pray “Help me.”

This last Wednesday night the Bean firmly set me on the path to gray hair. He has had a cold with a nasty little cough to boot. Well I was feeding him some mashed lentils with chicken broth when all of a sudden he started gagging. I paused for a second to let him cough it up, but it just wasn’t happening. I watched in horror as my sweet little boy started turning purple. There was no air getting in. So I grabbed him, leaned him over my arm and used my finger to sweep the back of his throat and clear it. The only prayer I was able to get out in my panic was, “Oh Jesus, save my baby.” It was the scariest moment of my life. I really thought I was going to lose this wonderful little boy.

Of course He answered my prayer, for Finn took a gasping breath and immediately went into a spasm, dry heaving, and bringing up mucus. I held his bib up to his mouth and when I pulled it away there was blood on it. I said to DH, “Call your mom and dad and tell them we are bringing Elizabeth down, we are going to the walk in right now!” It took nearly fifteen minutes for Finn’s coughing fit to settle enough to were I felt comfortable bundling him up and putting him in the car.

We arrived at the walk in clinic at 7:00. There were five other families ahead of us and I just thought, “Oh no, we are going to be here forever.” The receptionist asked what Finn was being seen for this evening so I explained everything that had happened and we were seen immediately. What a relief. The walk in is part of our family physicians and so we know the doctors, we were lucky enough to get one of my favorites. He is an elderly british Dr. with a very dry sense of humor. He comes off very gruff, but secretly is a teddy bear, and my favorite…he’s brimming with common sense.

Finn, despite sounding like a little wheezing wind up robot, was in good humor and began pulling on the stethoscope when the Dr. was listening to his chest, he laughed and said, “Now don’t pull too hard, you’ll pull my head right off my shoulders.” He said he didn’t like the sound of Finn’s right lung and ordered chest xrays, a simple walk down the hall. Now I don’t know if any of you moms have ever had to have an infant get a chest xray, but it’s quite an experience. They immobolize them so they can get a good picture free of wiggling and flayling arms. They put them in one of these, a Pigg-O-Stat.

As you can probably guess. These little babies don’t go over too well with…well, babies. “Hey Kiddo, we are gonna stick you in a round hole in a table, pull your arms up over your head and squeeze you between two plexi glass sleeves, ok?” The technician warned us we were in for a struggle so Travis and I suited up in our lovely lead aprons and prepared ourselves. It took us a good five minutes to convince Finn to let us pull his arms up, he is a strong little bugger! He wasn’t fussing just giving us looks like, “What do you mean I need to raise my arms? Are you gonna tickle me?” Well anyway, we finally got his arms extended above his head and the xray tech strapped him in. Travis and I stood to the side and looked at our little boy, pathetic looking, arms stuck up in the air…ok, it was mildly hilarious. Finny got this look of panic on his face so I smiled real big and started singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider (it’s his favorite). Immediately he broke out in a smile and began giggling, making him look all the more hilarious. He would giggle, giggle, and cough, cough, cough, giggle, giggle, cough, cough, giggle. The xray tech was astounded, she said she never had a patient laugh let alone smile in the Pigg-O-Stat. That’s my boy.

Anywho possums, the xray confirmed it, pneumonia. It’s not too bad, the Dr. said he would get over it if we didn’t do anything, but he put him on an antibiotic to help him get over it much faster and give him a little boost. So now we have a vaporizer going in Finn’s room and one in the living room with a bedsheet tacked up in the archway to keep the living room warm and steamy. I discovered Olba’s oil at my midwife’s shop this week too.

Photo courtesy of Olbas Herbal Remedies

I am telling you this stuff is amazing, it smells fresh and not mediciney like Vicks. Not to mention it’s all natural and doesn’t have turpentine in it *cough* VICKS*cough, cough*. I just put a few drops in the vaporizer or on a tissue and tuck it under Finn’s sheet. Great stuff! We use their cough syrup too, also great stuff.

We are tired, and grouchy because we are tired, we have circles under our wee little eyes, but we are getting better. And just like my little Finny, he just keeps on smiling.