Asthma

Among other things, Mann has inherited my asthma. In today's parlance, this is called hyper-reactive airway disease, which means that small infections or allergens can trigger an attack of bronchospasm and bronchial inflammation, leading to wheezing and respiratory distress. Treatment typically involves a combination of bronchodilators such as salbutamol or terbutaline, inhaled steroids, sometimes systemic steroids and nebulization.

Mann had his third attack three weeks ago, his third in as many months and the most severe. Within four hours, he had become unmanageable; he had a rasping cough, an audible wheeze and he would throw-up all food and liquids given to him, because of the associated cough. We eventually agreed with the pediatrician to admit him for the night at a local nursing home so that he could receive two-hourly nebulization and intravenous antibiotic and steroid injections; he was that bad.
 

Adjusting Feeding Schedules

We were in a soup. For a couple of weeks, Maya had started getting up virtually every two hours at night demanding a breast-feed from WFM. She would then also wake up Mann and there would be chaos. To work this out, WFM and I started sleeping in different rooms, one with each kid. I started sleeping with Maya next to me and her frequency of getting up at night went down significantly. Yet when she did get up, I couldn't handle her and I had to call WFM from the other room to breast-feed her. 

With this background, we were a little stuck. If I stayed with Mann in the nursing home, each time he was hungry, WFM would have to come to feed him. If WFM stayed at the nursing home, each time Maya woke up, I would have to go to the nursing home to relieve WFM, so that she could go home and feed Maya. Luckily, the nursing home was a three-minutes drive or a ten-minutes walk away; but it still promised to be a crazy night.

My mother-in-law offered to spend the night with us, since we would need someone to take care of Maya at home, in case things went awry, despite the two maids. Maya slept with my mother-in-law.
 

Clairvoyance?

And guess what happened!

I went to sleep at 11.00PM, expecting to be woken up every two-three hours by Maya's loud cries, at which time I would immediately have to rush to the nursing home. With that in mind, I did not even change into my night-clothes. The next thing I knew it was 5.00AM. It was the first time in months that I had slept for six continuous hours at night. I went to the next room to look up my mother-in-law and Maya and found them fast asleep. I called WFM on her cell and she said she was okay, having just finished another round of nebulization with Mann.

Later in the morning, we found out that Maya had woken up just once around 3.00AM and after a few sips of Electrobion water had gone back to sleep to wake up straight at 7.00AM. 

Was it my mother-in-law? Or was it that Maya sensed that something was drastically wrong at home and with Mann and she should not be a bother? Or was it just coincidence?

Can eight-month olds sense all these things?

You tell me-I don't know!
 

If you would like to share your thoughts on this article or view other people's comments, Click Here.

If you would like to correspond directly with the Man From Matunga, send him an email at me@manfrommatunga.com

For more of his articles, visit www.manfrommatunga.com