Wordless wednesday 69

First school oral

I logged in today with the intention of giving a follow up report on Yusuf, but decided instead that this post about Bilaal and his first school oral is long overdue. A few weeks back, Bilaal came home with a homework task of preparing a 2 minute oral called 'My Family'. Bilaal is very confident about speaking in front of the class, in fact in his first week of grade 1 he actually asked the teacher's permission to stand up in front of the class to tell jokes! Never mind that the jokes were not very funny (no hopes of him being the next Joey Rasdien I'm afraid!), but he did it and it was no big deal. I thought maybe he would be a little bit nervous seeing that this was an official school assessment...but he wasn't...not in the least!

So I asked him to think about what he wanted to say about his family, I would write it down for him and then he could sit with the paper and memorize it. This is what he came up with:

My Family

My daddy's name is Yaasier, he is very handsome.
I like to give him hugs and kisses.
I like to play cricket with him.
My mommy's name is Tasneem
She is very pretty.
She takes good care of us.
My sister's name is Sumayah.
She is 2 years old
My baby brother's name is Yusuf.
He is 2 months old.
I love my family very much.

Sweet and short :)

Baby Yusuf goes to hospital

Last week was an exhausting and traumatic week for the Abrahams family, particularly for baby Yusuf. About 2 weeks ago he developed a cold, nothing serious, just a bit of nasal congestion. He was still feeding and sleeping well, and he was still he's usual pleasant, contented self. I did the whole saline and aspitator drill which seemed to help at first, but as the week progressed the congestion became post nasal drip which led to coughing and occasional restlessness. In the the meantime Yaasier, Bilaal and Sumayah were all finishing courses of antibiotics for sinus colds and ear infections. Towards the end of the week Yusuf was coughing quite a bit more and was starting to be a bit crabby during the day. So I phoned the paediatrician to find out if i should bring him in for a consult and after describing his symptoms and answering some questions, the doctor prescribed Betnesol drops and said that if the coughing became more frequent or he didn't improve over the weekend I should bring him in, and when weekend swung around that's exactly what happened! He suddenly wasn't sleeping well day or night, he wanted to be held all the time and if he wasn't sleeping or feeding he was crying or coughing! But what concerned me most was the constant chest wheeze. So off to the doctor we go on monday afternoon, the first available appointment, thinking he'll probably be precribed a nebulizer and maybe antibiotics.

But after examination, Dr Li says something no mum wants to hear, he says, "mom, he's not well hey. He has an ear infection that's why he's been crying all the time, he's in alot of pain. But what worries me is that he has bronchiolitis as well so he's struggling to breathe and because he's still so young I'd like to admit him to the ward now then he'll be discharged by Wednesday". To hear that my 2 month young baby angel has to be admitted to hospital came as such a shock I felt like I was going to burst into tears! But I managed to just barely fight back the tears while trying to listen to the doctor. I started to feel a little better when he said that if I really want to, I can treat at home, but the reason he recommends hospitalisation is because Yusuf is so young so he would prefer if the infection is treated aggressively so that he can recover more quickly rather than putting his immune system under anymore strain and risking further complications. He explained that in hospital they can give him pure oxygen and administer the antibiotics intravenously.

Skip a few hours of admission procedures and making arrangements for the other 2 kids, and we find ourselves in the paediatric ward with Yusuf being whisked away to have a drip put in. While answering the ward's admission questions I could hear Yusuf screaming his head off and it broke my heart! And then they bring him back to me with pipes coming out of his nose and arm and my heart breaks even more! I know it's silly, but I felt so guilty, like I failed him as a mother by letting him get sick. The days to follow were exhausting to say the least, but I have an incredible husband who has an amazing bond with our little monkeys. So while living in jozi far from family support made this time extra challenging, we just got on with it and survived.

Well I'm happy to report that Yusuf was discharged on Wednesday and has been improving everyday. He's still quite crabby, but there have been glimpses of his usual smiley self more and more often everyday. And as frustrating it is sometimes, he's gorgeous smile with those fat kissable cheeks an the way he stares at me as though he is completely lovestruck...that is what makes everything worthwhile!