A few weeks ago my husband and I woke up early on a Sunday morning and as we were able to get the three babies ready for church in time, we packed them up and enjoyed a couple of hours in fellowship. We were relaxed and enjoyed the interaction between all the people at church and the babies.
At home I noticed that Lee’s breathing was very fast and that her stoma losses were higher than normal, but I was not too concerned. By 3pm I realized that she is sick and made preparations to take her to hospital. Twin brother Theo had had fevers during the previous week and after two trips to the ER and our general practitioner, the joint diagnosis of a viral infection kept us just treating the symptoms.
Just as I was ready to leave, Theo woke up with a fever and vomited – all over me. We quickly gave him a sponge bath and paracetamol and while I changed, he vomited again. This time with much more gusto. We decided that we needed to take him along.
By the time we reached the hospital, he was vomiting and had bad diarrhea. This started a roller coaster week of very sick babies. After spending 24 hrs in the Rehydration Ward, they were moved into a general ward. Hours and days became blurred as I changed his nappies and linen, and kept measuring Lee’s output.
One night I realized that the night staff did not wake me to do the 6 hourly weight checks on the babies. The nurse moved very quietly around my bed while changing their nappies, seeing to their needs while still doing all the other nursing duties. She tried her best not to wake me. I was aware of her being there, and her kindness brings tears to my eyes as I am writing.
Stories from Sparrow House is a collection of my thoughts and experiences as I go though the journey of being a Foster Mother, Safety Parent and Temporary Caregiver to 3 special needs babies one of which has VACTERYL Association. My hope is to raise awareness around VACTERYL Association by sharing our journey, as well as offer support to other foster and safety parents or parents with children who have this syndrome