Barking like a seal
...is how the croup cough is described. All I know is that it certainly sounded alarming coming from my upset baby at 3:30 in the morning! Full props to the NHS 111 hotline, where we got advice from a nurse and the number for Cardiff's out-of-hours doctor, who then prescribed some medicine that I picked up in the early hours of Wednesday morning. The sun was up but hardly anyone was out on the streets. The fresh air was good and as I walked I reflected that yes, this was another parenting milestone – the medical condition that overprints best laid plans and work priorities.
Getting the medicine into baby was an exercise in futility (I'm envisioning more battles like this in the years to come!) but fortunately she had a relatively mild case of croup and is on the mend. A quick haiku captures that moment of realisation that the cough was more than just standard congestion, and the narrowing of focus that comes:
Croup cough in the night
Parents suddenly awake
Babe all that matters
Entry 67 of my participation in the “100 Days to Offload” challenge – find out more and join in!
2021-03-18 #100DaysToOffload #fatherhood #poetry #haiku
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