Brantley: 20 Months

Brantley,

This month we experienced your first real sickness and it was a BAD one.

You came down with croup and we suffered through six miserable days and sleepless nights. We knew something was wrong the first day when I went to pick you up from Nana and Papa’s house and you were laying on Papa’s chest in the recliner. He said you had been there for a half hour and for our kid who never sits still, this was definitely a red flag.

That night your symptoms got worse and worse. You slept for a couple hours, coughing on and off throughout periods of rest but just after I laid down in bed I heard a weird noise and realized you had gotten sick in your crib. Every time you would cough from that point on, you also got sick and then you just cried and cried afterward. It was so heartbreaking. I brought in a cushy blanket and my pillow and laid next to your crib for a little while but you were only getting worse. Around 2am, I brought you into our bathroom with the essential oils diffuser and the shower running hot and you finally fell asleep in my arms while breathing in the steam. Afterwards, you slept for about 2 hours next to me on the floor of your nursery. I can’t say that I slept very much because I was so worried about you but it was such a relief to see your sick little body resting at least for a little while.

When Daddy got home in the morning and we realized you weren’t getting any better, we called the doctor and made an appointment for later that afternoon. By the afternoon, your breathing was so labored that every time you took a breath in, your neck muscles strained and even Daddy was getting scared. At the pediatrician’s office, they gave you a shot and breathing treatment but even after an hour your breathing was still bad so we were sent to the ER. You eventually started to show improvements while we were at the ER so they sent us home and I slept on your floor again that night since you were still coughing so much. Every time you started a coughing fit you started crying, probably scared that you would get sick again. It was a rough week at the Roberson household, but eventually you started to show little moments of your old self. There were still long periods of the day when you just wanted to be held and I was ok with that.

When you started feeling better, we took advantage of the nice weather and took daily walks around the neighborhood.  There’s a new path that connects our neighborhood with the one behind it and you absolutely love to walk over the bridges along the path.  After such a long week (both physically and emotionally for your poor Mama) it was so beautiful to see you feeling better – running down the path, insisting that we cross the bridge back and forth over and over again, and smiling non-stop.

Things I want to remember about this month of your life:

• Every night you sleep with your lovey tucked up underneath your head.
• Your favorite new word is “WOAH!” and you use it ALL the time.
• Occasionally you’ll come sit on the couch with me – it happens very infrequently because you just don’t ever sit still – but when it does happen, sometimes you’ll drape your leg over mine just like your Daddy does when we sit on the couch together.
• I made you a color matching activity with cups and pompom balls for Christmas and it’s currently your favorite toy.
• Some days you spend the morning or afternoon at the B&H office with Nana and Aunt Laurie and this month you learned all about the backhoe.
• A few weeks ago you hurt your hand and I offered to kiss it to make it feel better. Sometimes you fake that your fingers are hurting so we’ll kiss them over and over again. And now, every time you get hurt, fall down, or even bump your knee on a toy, you run over to us and ask us to kiss your fingers. I guess you haven’t figured out the correlation yet but it’s pretty cute nonetheless.

Happy 20 months, Brantley.

Love, Mama