Benadryl - -more than meets the eye

People have been telling is it will be difficult to resume normal "parenting" in the face of what has happened. I was expecting to be more anxious with the next cold -- down the ROAD, but hadn't anticipated how quickly that anxiety would surface.

Last night after putting Toby down he coughed TWICE around 10pm. This is 24 hours after we'd stopped antibiotics. We didn't say anything about the cough to one another -- but he hasn't coughed in a few days and as we went to bed I could tell that Rob had noticed it. He kept our bedroom door open and didn't put the fan on. When I asked him why he said, "He's coughing again". That clinched it for me.

I lay there for hours anticipating the return of his pneumonia, going back to the doctor's, facing the ER again - - everything. All over again. Needless to say, I got myself a little worked up. And I couldn't sleep.

Finally, sometime after midnight, I decided I was being ridiculous. He hadn't coughed again and was sleeping soundly. So I got out of bed and went over to my trusty medicine cabinet and guess what I found? Aha....our good friend Benadryl. I've never taken benadryl to help me sleep but I had some that my mom gave me "just in case" for those first few nights in hospital with Toby. I looked at the package - -they were 25 mg tablets. The dose I'm used to giving in ER is 50mg so they looked a little wimpy. I then noted the expiry date - -April 1999. They had expired last CENTURY. Harmless. But hey, I am a firm believe in the placebo effect. So I decided to take one.

8 hours later.

I suppose I got back into bed after taking my fine 10 year aged low dose benadryl. I also suspect that I turned off the light and pulled the sheets over me. I don't remember. All I know is that I had a mighty good sleep. HOw Toby managed to stay awake DESPITE a dose of benadryl at 3am while in hospital is beyond me -- that is some GOOD STUFF.

I admit, I was a little groggy this morning. As I lay awake but dopey in bed, I happily listened to the sounds of of Toby laughing with Daddy as he ate his yoghurt. Which was shortly followed by screaming Toby who was DONE with breakfast and desperately wanting out of his high chair. Which was then followed by the CRASH of him having pulled down his stereo system from the shelf in his bedroom. I decided it was time to get out of bed. There were no more coughs, just the continual sounds of a healthy, happy Toby well on the way to recovery.

PS - -this is for Vivian - -Toby is doing very well, thanks. He is making lots of sounds and chatter and back to cruising around the furniture. Every day he reminds us of the little things he used to do before he got sick. Like pulling my glasses off my face in the morning, trying to feed himself but getting yoghurt in his hair, and dancing to Shania and Dance,Baby,dance. Its all coming back and reassures us that our old Toby is just around the corner. My favourite was the other day -- I was lying on the floor talking to my mom on the phone when Toby remembered how to give kisses. He came crawling over and slammed his face into mine and I got a huge one right on the mouth. It was wonderful....