Its been a wheezing week...

I would have wished for the past week to have whizzed by, but it wheezed by! My sense of humor is not exactly first rate, so, you should begin to expect lines as these! But yes, Kautu got a bout of wheezing after the mysore trip we had taken last to last week (I didn't write about that as I didn't want you all bored by the details of a journey where nothing happened, except that Kachi shat in the car!) and the poor guy has been suffering since. We did give him his prescribed medicine (Deriphyllin), but cut down the dosage as he seemed to recover fast. However, he still hasn't made a good recovery and has bouts of coughing and sneezing and a running nose the whole day through. The home remedy that sure shot works is inhaling. But as you can imagine, no child of one year is going to peacefully sit through your attempts to butt his head into a cauldron full of steaming water. And so, every morning and evening, the house is filled with his desperate cries, till his parents can't stand that wet hair, leaking nose, red face and loud cry anymore.
After that I rush about getting a blanket and covering him up totally so that his body doesn't cool fast (This is something my mom used to do to me too, ahh..yes, you guessed right, I too had severe wheezing and asthma problem when small, which disappeared mysteriously when I turned 10 years!). And does he look adorable, all wrapped up, basking in the attention he's been getting over Kachi and trying his level best to wriggle out of the tight wrap.


Kachi's been feeling left out the past week, so, decided to get himself a cough AND stay awake the whole of yesterday night coughing. I did give him his drops, but no relief here. So, I spent the night putting a coughing Kautu to sleep from 12 to 1.30 AM and a coughing Kachi to sleep from 4 to 6 AM, so, was pretty much bushed by the time Kautu woke up at 6.30. Luckily for me, my in laws have been here the last two days, so, they took full charge of Kautu till I got my real needed sleep.
Bringing up twins is a good load of work (bringing up a single kid is too, and I really admire the parents who have to cater to the needs of their first born and the completely different need of the second, the infant or toddler) but on nights like yesterdays, I feel that the toughest situation a mother can ever face is a pair of sick twins!!!! Both need to be carried around, massaged, steamed, syruped, fed, patted, rocked and sung to, for them to forget coughing for a while and fall asleep. And since their dad has to be in office the next day, the burden falls on the mother, who for all intents and purposes is supposed to be at home, and so, can 'rest' during the day!!! huh?? But no complaints here, through the hard work and effort, theres the satisfaction that the babies slept when I rocked them, when I sang to them, they cling to me when sick and they need me to be with them all the time, as long as their nose is leaking and their throat is itchy. And for all the cribbing I seem to be doing, I would not have anybody else take care of them when sick. Not even their dad. I can't sleep in the other room hearing the cries of the other baby. I am able to assure myself that the baby is fine and not really suffering as much as his cough seems to indicate, only when I am the one holding him while his little body rocks in the spasms. This is not to say that the dad doesn't feel all this, he is affected too, but, by now, he has kind of gotten used to Kautu getting a wheezing attack once a month and Kachi getting a running nose once in a while. Also, he does not get to see them suffering the whole day through, and I think this gives him a chance to practice 'I don't see them, so, I assume they are fine' syndrome. Its a great syndrome that enables one to work efficiently in office leaving the kids at home!

They will not need me a few years from now, and I am enjoying their need and their single pointed devotion while it lasts!

After the wheezing whizzes by,
And the coughing crawls away,
A tired mother lets out a sigh,
But never ceases to pray.

p.s. I like rhyming words too (if that makes it a poem, so be it!).