Saturday night was probably the definitive moment when I concluded that, "We are all ill". Usually, when the kids are ill, they get to sleep on Daddy's & Mommy's bed with no questions asked. That night, Sarah had a real difficult time sleeping. She flipped, tossed and rolled from one end of the bed to another end. Everytime she coughed, she would cry out in pain, "Mama, Mama". I could only offer her words of comfort and hold her hand and stroke her back. It won't be long before she went into a deep sleep that she would be woken up by a cough and then it would repeat itself over and over again. During one of those cycles, our sweet Sarah seemed to know that Mommy was keeping watch over her and she whispered, "I love you." These expressions of love always make me smile...our Sarah responds to illness in a very affectionate manner. Well, after what seemed a long time, she finally fell asleep.
But her sleep was shortlived as Samuel's cries pierced through the night. Soon, Samuel was on the bed with Daddy, Mommy and Sarah. And Samuel was perhaps more hard hit with the illness than anyone that night. Poor boy. Everytime, he coughed, he cried out unforgivingly. He refused to lie down on the bed. And everytime someone touches him, he cried out again. Our dear Samuel is like a bear with a toothache when he is ill.
There came a point in the wee morning, that Sarah was awoken by Samuel's cries and seeing Mommy carrying Samuel, Sarah started to wail again and cry out for Mama. So amazingly, we had two crying children during the climax of the morning. Whilst, Daddy pat Sarah, I tried to pacify Samuel. Finally, we were all lined up like sardines on our queen size bed - Sarah, Mommy, Samuel and Daddy [in that specific order as specified by Daddy]. All but one refuse to lie down. No prizes for guessing who:) Daddy and I couldn't help but snicker through the darkness at the quirkiness of our little special 'genius'. Samuel's final position where he did stop crying was to sit upright on Mommy's stomach. Don't ask me why. I left him there for about 5 minutes and watched him dozed off. Nod, nod, nod and kuplunk. Samuel was soon wedge comfortably where he should be, right in the middle of Daddy and Mommy. And thus our whole family finally went to bed.
I have since learnt from Daddy and from these experiences that the best way to enjoy these bouts of illnesses is to accept the uncomfortable reality that sleep is a forgone conclusion. With this in mind, watching our charges through the night and praying alongside of them in their illnesses makes all the difference. Not forgetting the other conclusion to buy a king size bed in the near future:)
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