The week in brief; sickness and business as usual

The week went by as usual: schoolwork in the mornings, lunch, reading, then tennis, dinner, maybe a game of chess and some news on TV, cleaning up, a bit of computer time, and then bed.

On Thursday Abraham woke up feeling awfully hot. It very soon became apparent to me that there was something wrong with him. He wouldn’t let me put him down, he whimpered and whined, and he wanted to nurse, nurse, and nurse. I couldn’t really help the boys with their work effectively enough, so we sat down on the couch and I read to them for several hours, Abraham in my arms. We ordered lunch and he ate a little, and then he started an afternoon of drifting in and out of sleep, nursing in between. I borrowed our neighbor’s ear thermometer, and Abraham’s temperature went from 100.6°F to 102.6°F and then 103°F over the course of the afternoon. Eventually I forced some baby Tylenol down his throat. I could only watch my usually very active baby sit on the couch or lay on a pillow with tired, glossy eyes, completely lethargic, for so long. The medicine brought the temperature down a little, which made me feel better but didn’t seem to make much of a difference to Abraham. When Courtney finally walked through the door after dinner, Abraham played a little with him, but soon he wanted back in my arms, nursing. (Which was just as well, because Courtney had run into the Pharaoh’s curse at campus, and ended up spending the night in the bathroom.)

Abraham woke up probably ten times over the course of the night, nursing, whining. I held him, and sometime right before I heard morning prayer he started to cool off. The boys got up right after seven, woke Abraham up, and inevitably, I had to get up too. He didn’t have a fever any more, but he was still cranky and needy. I felt very sluggish as well. (obviously). Sometime after lunch I managed to bring the boys to the Maadi House for an afternoon swim, and we hung out with our neighbors. The water made Abraham happy, as always, and after a two-hour swim and a short nap, he woke up a different boy.

We rented Ponyo at the Maadi House since the kids missed it last night, and let all the kids – ours and the neighbor’s - watch it. I had a GT, and Courtney had another rest. Hopefully he’ll feel better in the morning. He thinks it was something he ate on campus. This happens in Egypt.