Finally, after 7months, I feel relieved, at peace with my boy, at peace with myself….

7months ago, I was woken by a whining Keatkeat at 3am. My 4 year old was sneezing non-stop for who-knows-why.

The weather was not cold, my home was the cleanest that night ‘cos my part-time maid came that afternoon; his shirt was intact, it was not raised up to his chest, his body felt nice and warm….I have no idea what made him sneezed so badly suddenly… maybe a mosquito flew into his nose accidentally and go stuck in his nostril hair….I DON’T KNOW! *eyes rolled*

All I know was I was slapped awake from my beauty sleep by a whining kid in the dark bedroom. With the little moonlight that peered through my window, I was still clueless as to how bad the situation was, until my palm rested on Keatkeat’s mattress to balance my groggy-half-asleep body…I touched something cold, wet and definitely sticky…the clues were way too obvious to have second thoughts and after switching on the lights, it confirmed my guess – it was Mucus!

Mucus was everywhere! ON his twisted face, ON both his hands as he uses them like a napkin to wipe off the goo from his nose, ON his pillow, ON his bolster, ON his Winnie the Pooh, ON his shirt and what was the worst? Spots of mucus were all over his mattress. They were so thick, it seemed that its almost impossible to soak through the thin sheet of cotton bedsheet cover.

When I tried to lift my first born out of that mess, I noticed even his hair had mucus! He was resisting me, he kicked, he whined, he fussed and made noises of all kinds, enough to wake everyone up. Who would like to be woken up in this manner. I understand how he felt but I’ve got to get this mess cleared before he starts rolling around and soaking up the mucus with his pajamas.

I was pissed to some extent! The stronger he pushed me away the harder I lifted him up. After saying, “Keatkeat, get up first, let me clean you up…” in my gentlest tone, for countless times, he showed no signs of cooperation. I couldn’t control anymore, I shouted, “GET UP NOW! YOUR MUCUS IS EVERYWHERE! I NEED TO CLEAN YOU UP! GET UP NOW!!! NOW!”

I saw his body shudder, I felt guilty, I was scolding myself inside, “Get a grip of yourself, won’t you? The little kid is sick.”

I zipped my mouth, let my hands do the work. As I scooped him up, he thanked me with wetness! He sneezed at the exact time when I pulled him closed to my chest and there he went, “HAhhh…Cheee” and his saliva and mucus were on my face! (*Eeewww* You can say that again)

I almost dropped him that moment! I was fuming! “Keatkeat! Cover YOUR MOUTH when you sneeze!!!” I yelled!

Seated him on the floor just outside the bedroom before I went to the toilet to wash my *Urrghh* face. I needed support, physically, Allan didn’t know that, he was sitting at the edge of the bed looking at me, obviously still in his dreamy-land, giving me the best MORAL support ever… sometime I do give the wrong signal – the signal that I’m too capable to do things on my own.

“Go clean him up and change his clothes!” I woke my man up to join me in my misery. I raised my voice to let Allan know that he had to snap out of his sleep completely and get to work THAT INSTANT!

The only good thing that night was Binbin’s super cooperative behavior. He was jumping in to ‘help’ but was rejected. He was asking tons of questions whereby no one was in the mood to answer, he sensed it quick and he just sat there and watched the ‘show’.

Keatkeat went on sneezing the whole night through. We ran out of the runny nose medicine, so there is little we could do at that moment, other than applying Vicks, which created a whole new kind of struggle from my 4 year old, he hated that smell and the sticky feeling of that medicine on his skin.

That night was unforgettable. Neither Allan nor I could get back to sleep with Keatkeat sneezing the whole night through. I was so afraid that this intense sneezing could trigger his Bronchitis again…I sat beside him throughout the night, dozing off uncontrollably at times and woken umpteen times by his, “Hahh…Cheee”. With eyes half opened, I had to wipe his nose and wipe his saliva off my body over and over again….

This was the beginning of my worst struggle with Keatkeat.

(I’ve mentioned in this particular post before that THIS STORY is probably going to break the longest post record and I decided to break it up into 3 parts over the next 3 days, so as NOT TO KILL YOU! *laugh*)