Sleep deprived delirium..

I had so many exciting topics in mind for my second post - attachment parenting, recipes, tips for new mothers, crafts, my current marriage problems...
But all that has gone out the window as I have not one, but two sick kids.

Mr 3 started out with bad croup-y sounding cough on Thursday night.  He has then gone on to have HIGH fevers, a really bad cough, and just generally unwell.  He has been sleeping in bed with me and has required a lot of night-time parenting.  So he is pretty hard work, constantly needing cuddles etc.

But the fun really started last night (Sunday) when my 7 month old had a bit of a red spot on his face. My husband thought we ought to check the rest of his body, and thank god we did.  Seriously, his arms and shoulders were covered with nasty red, swollen welts.  Called the Dr's surgery, who just happened to be running a Sunday evening clinic, by the time we got there, his face was swollen with hives, and the rash was spreading rapidly.

Turns out he has an allergy.  To what, I have no idea.  I didn't feed him anything different to normal, and I haven't eaten anything differently, in case it was something in my milk.

He got dosed up with steroids, we came home, and had to check on him every 10 - 15 minutes during the night in case his breathing became difficult.  Then at 3am he decided it was time to get up.  He looked quite a bit better, the swelling on his face had gone down.  My husband kindly offered to get up with him so I could get some sleep.  But the time I got up at 6am, the swelling and rash was even worse.

So back down to the dr's.  So thankful that our doctor didn't mind getting up and meeting us there at 6.30am. Now he has had more steroids, and antihistamine and he is looking much better.

Phew.

So happy too, that doctors visits are free for children under 6 in NZ.  I think they normally charge for after hours visits, but not this time.

Since Thursday night, I have not had more than 3 hours sleep each night.  I am kind of in a sleep-deprived delirium.