"Just" a cold...

Even with three years of "experience", I still need reassuarce that I'm not missing anything... so, I took Jemma to the doctor today. She has not been eating well since Monday. She has been up for over an hour during the night for the past three nights, she has had a slight temperature (not enough for me to bring out the thermometer, but enough for me to give her a dose of Tylenol), and a cough. I knew it was a cold. BUT, the cough worried, and still worries, me. Even with Delysum at night, she hacks and has trouble sleeping. Our normal pediatrician, who I adore, does not work on Wednesdays, so we had another charming pediatrician in the practice. She was quite impressed at how well Jemma can blow her nose and how well she did with the whole exam. She said that most 3 year olds don't breath deeply when asked or open and say ahh on demand. I had to explain that Jemma LOVES to play with her doctor's kit and has been doing this for well over a year. She is an expert patient and doctor.

Anyway, if she doesn't sleep the whole night through tonight, I plan to keep her home from school to rest tomorrow. She didn't want to miss today... the tumble bus comes on Wednesday so I sent her even with a runny nose and cough. I did talk to them at school with instructions to call me if they deemed her contagious or too sick to be there. (And I know that they have called parents in the past!) When I picked her up this afternoon, Ms. Megan said that Jemma had an excellent day. She said that Jemma was wonderful, but ate very little. She was a very, very tired little girl though. I gave her a bath at 6:30 and she was asleep by 7:15!

The positive side effect was that I was able to play with James and rock him to sleep. I usually have to rush through getting James to bed in order to get Jemma to bed. Tonight, after he finished nursing, he just put his head on my shoulder as we rocked and rocked... I cherish those little moments that I can spend with the kids...

I do pity my poor husband. Yes, he went to Tahoe for the weekend. Yes, he is getting to fly and actually sleep... but he gets to hear Jemma say, "Daddy I miss you." And he knows about her meltdowns. Last night she was crying/sobbing, "I want my Daddy" so much that she made herself sick. And tonight in her sleep/wake cycle, she was calling for her Daddy. She is such a Daddy's girl that this workup and cruise cycle is going to be really though for her. It has to be heartbreaking to be that far away and know that you are missed so much. I do what I can... we look at pictures and talk about how many days until Daddy gets home... we talk about other things (friends, school, things we have done)... she paints, colors, plays... we sing and dance... but she still misses and wants her Daddy!

I'm off to bed... I need some sleep myself!