Sick Babies, Oh My!

Image by [ r ♥ c e y t ♥ y ] {I br♥ke for bokeh} via Flickr

Maya is sick. When I watch her and see dark circles under her eyes, like purple bruises, my hearts skips a beat. She runs a bit of a fever and her eyes, huge and grey - blue are glassy because of it. She isn't her usual merry self, and this change in her mood tells me immediately that she isn't well. Thank God, I don't have to deal with it by myself. My husband is here, and so is (for now at least) my sister. This doesn't make me or Maya feel better, but it helps with the morale. I also have a good paeditrician, the emergency services near our building, telephones (a land line and countless mobile ones), pharmacies, a good thermometer and so on.
Almost twenty years ago, when my boy, Darie, was sick, I had to to everything by myself, because I was a single mother, living in a city where I didn't have any close relatives (only my sister, a student at that time). We didn't have a telephone, land line or otherwise, so if I wanted to call the doctor, I had to run at the central bus station that was nearby and to pray to God that the pay phones were working, that I had enough change and that I didn't run out from the house with my dress backwards (it happened once, when I had to take him to the doctor , and I noticed that only after we returned home). It wasn't easy to be a single parent back in Romania. Once, Darie had chicken pox (he was 9 years old) and he had to stay at home and taken good care of, but at work they didn't let me have a few days off ( I worked as a journalist) so I used to run back home every couple of hours or so, to check on him. I was lucky that being a journalist I had to do a lot of field work, so I used that as an excuse to stay for a while with my sick baby. But I was young and strong back then, very determined to make myself a career, so I did everything and never complained (maybe I didn't have time to feel or say anything, I was always running back then). I used to sit by myself in my tiny kitchen and smoke ( I was a smoker until 10 years ago) and cry because I was alone and afraid and I had nobody to ask for advice...
So, yes, when my baby girl is sick I cuddle her and check her temperature every half an hour, and I worry and I take her to the doctor but at least I have somebody near me to share my worries with him and to seek confort when I feel I'm running out of strenght.
I am going now to lay down for a while near my sleeping baby-girl and husband...
Night - night whoever you are...
May God help us all, parents and children...