Mother's Day a near bust at Casa Story

Mac has had a cough for a couple days, but everybody in Sao Paulo has a cough right now so I haven't been overly worried. The weather's doing that schizophrenic thing where it changes from hot to cold to rainy to dry while you blink your eyes and everybody is suffering from sort sort of sniffles, cough or allergy.

So this morning when Mac woke up coughing at 5:30, I didn't intend to do anything more than give him another dose of cough medicine so we could go back to sleep for a little while longer. I let him get in the bed with me and that's when I heard the really shallow, quick breathing that freaked me out. I asked him to take a deep breath and he said he couldn't because it hurt too bad.

As we lay there trying to go back to sleep, I did the over-anxious mother routine of "do I take him to the ER or not? What if it's nothing and they make me feel like a dolt? What if I don't take him and it is something and then I really am a dolt?" I decided that being made to feel like a dolt is far worse than really being a dolt and I also thought we stood a better chance of getting seen faster really early in the morning than if we waited until the sun came up.

We got dressed and on the road at 6am and nearly set the land speed record to the hospital. I have figured out when traffic in Sao Paulo is light: Sunday morning at 6am is your best shot at having the roads nearly to yourself. I say we "nearly" set the land speed record because I missed the turnoff to the hospital because Mac's stomach chose that pivotal moment in time to void itself entirely of its contents.

We finally got to the hospital and were seen immediately. We never sat down to wait from the moment we entered until we saw the triage nurse until we saw the financial people until we saw the pediatric doctor on call. Brilliant.

The doctor said his chest was very noisy so she said Mac would have two inhalation treatments and a chest x-ray and she'd go from there. After all that, she said he had pneumonia. Now I know in my head that pneumonia is very common and very treatable but that's not what I really expected to hear because I was really prepared to be chastised for bringing him in when it was the common cold. Also, as some of you know, my dad was in the hospital with pneumonia when he died and while it probably wasn't the pneumonia itself that killed him, it definitely weakened his system to the point of death. So a pneumonia diagnosis strikes fear in my heart. And this was my sweet little lethargic baby that we were dealing with on Mother's Day no less.

We finally got out of the ER some 4 hours after entering and after two more vomiting episodes and with a stash of medicine to treat this thing. By then the steroid had kicked in and Mac was feeling better, so he thought we were going to continue our day's plans (which had been to have lunch with friends). But those plans were aborted (although I did stop for Starbucks on the way home, justifiable by going to pharmacy next door to get the antibiotic prescription filled).

We came home "to rest" per the doctor's orders, which extend through tomorrow. Mac's idea of "resting" is a little more active than mine. I thought we'd pile in the bed to watch movies but 10 minutes into the first movie, he was trying to turn somersaults in the bed. It's been a battle but I think he's winding down now. We're waiting for the pizza delivery guy to come and then it's bedtime for all.

In all the activity of the day, Mac never forgot it was Mother's Day. When he was getting dressed this morning in the dark, he suddenly sat up straight and wished me a happy Mother's Day. He also didn't want to go to the doctor (because he thought he'd have to get a shot), but I'm promised him no shots (thank you God for answering that prayer) and on the way home, Mac told me - unsolicited by me - that I was right about going to the doctor and he was wrong. Then we got home and he remembered that he had this packet of homemade stuff from school that he was supposed to give me today. So he made me leave the room and he wrote a note that said "I love you" and he handed the note to me with all these beautiful handicrafts. And finally, he's told me all day that I get to choose what we do because after all, it is Mother's Day. He apparently reserved the right to veto my suggestions which meant that we did nothing that I suggested (like rest, for instance) and did everything he suggested, like play bowling, watch Indiana Jones and Tom and Jerry, play Uno Spin, practice yoga, fold Mac up in the yoga mat and pretend to tape the package shut, etc. And to think we get to do this all over again tomorrow!

I hope that all you mothers out there had a spectacular day celebrating your motherhood. My day might not have been "spectacular", but I did get to celebrate my motherhood!