ER

Nathan hates going to the emergency room. His feeling is that we're going to sit for 2 hours, and pay $50 just to hear what we already know: they're sick and they'll be fine. I try to save the ER for the scary things, but sometimes as a mommmy, everything can be scary.

Evan has had diarrhea (and no other symptoms) for 3 days now. He's had no appetite, his little bottom is sore and raw, he only wants to be held, he cried off/on for 4 hours in the middle of the night and only settled down when he fell asleep on my chest. He hasn't been himself, to say the least.

So when he felt cooler than usual, was acting delirious and had some of the signs of dehydration, I decided to call the pediatrician, who then expressed her concern and suggested I go to the ER. Nathan and the kids were sound asleep. Nathan doesn't even remember that I woke him up to tell him I was leaving. Never knew I left or came back.

We walked in to the ER and of course, Evan became chatty and lively all of a sudden. Yes, I am a paranoid mother who just likes to go to the ER in the middle of the night, is what I wanted to say out loud. But they took us in immediately and found that his temperature was low. A little too low. They gave me a very warm blanket to wrap him in for 45 minutes. Then we would know if he would need to be hooked up to IVs and get blood work.

As scary as it could have been, I prayed that the Lord would take care of my baby boy. Then I walked and talked with Evan for the next 45 minutes to get him warmed up. And it was an unusually slow night at the ER, so we had about seven staff members talking to us and trying to engage Evan. They loved him.

They took his temperature again and it went back to normal. They sent me home saying that he had an allergic reaction to his antibiotic and that I needed to make sure to bundle him before putting him to bed.

It's always a potentially scary situation when your child is sick. There's always the possibility that it can be something major. I'm prepared for something like that; it comes with the territory. There's also something very powerful about just holding your child in your arms, no matter what the situation you've faced or are about to face.

I know that the Lord was holding me as I held my child in my arms last night.