Hmmm. Last Friday started out normal. Low-key. Relaxed. Then all hell broke loose. In the space of about 12 hours, Robbie went from normal to very sick. Very very sick. He's still so small, and his poor lungs are still so fragile, that I took him up to urgent care. Several hours later we were home with an inhaler and breathing treatment schedules. The chest xray was clear, so they weren't terribly concerned, but when we got home the poor thing had a rough night. I nearly went back to the hospital with him, but sometime in the night his fever broke and he has been slowly recovering ever since.

It's a scary thing when your kids get sick. It's terrifying when you know that their immune system is compromised, that their lungs are especially susceptible to infection and severe damage at these sorts of things, that the mere sounds that they make can't always tell the difference between a simple cold and a ICU-worthy illness. Robbie's still a bit short of 12 pounds, despite his strength he is still so young and fragile and I worry.

My clearest memory of that night is holding him upright on my chest, skin to skin, his fever burning us both and his skin bright red all over. The gasping for breath that rattled his body, and the racking coughs. After the initial shock of onset, the thing settled. He's snoring a bit now, and otherwise seems as healthy as ever. Hard to believe.