Because I Just Had to Wonder

I tend to wonder about a lot of scenarios.  They always pop into my head as just random thoughts like: If I ran out of diapers while out and the baby needed to be changed what would I do?  They're almost always scenarios that could be likely but are probably highly unlikely.  Sometimes I have a solution for the situation in mind and other times I just push it away and pray that I never have to find out.  Today one of those scenarios I hoped would never happen, happened.

The scenario is: What would you do if one of your children vomit during Mass?  My initial panic reaction revolves around how I'm going to clean it up.  Our parish has hand dryers in the restrooms, so running to get paper towels isn't an option.  Fortunately for us, I had wipes on hand and it wasn't like crazy full out stomach virus caliber vomiting.  Anthony was asleep until the Gospel and we assumed all was well with him.  He woke up, was fussy, and seemed like he just wanted to go back to sleep.  Then he started acting like he needed to drink so I gave him his cup.  Seconds later we heard that cough that all mother's dread and my arm was suddenly bathed in vomit.

We didn't know if there was going to be another round so Bryan took Anthony to the back to the church to clean him up while I used wipes to clean up myself and any surrounding areas he may have hit.  Since Bryan came back about 5-10 minutes later and Anthony seemed like he was going to make it, we didn't have to cut out mid-Mass.  The homily was about temptation and I thought it was pretty fitting since I was pretty tempted to just get up and leave after the vomit incident.

So now I know how we would handle small scale vomiting and clean up at Mass, but I have no idea and I hope I'll never have to find out how we would handle something on a larger scale.

On Vomit and Confession

My past week has really been something.  It's the kind of something that I'd choose never to experience again if I were in control of such things and I'd certainly go back and delete it if that were even a possibility.

Last Friday afternoon Anthony started spitting up huge amounts.  So much that I started to question whether there might have been oatmeal in his new box of rice cereal since he was reacting the way he does when he has oatmeal.  The spitting up, which we later realized was vomit, kept happening, and it wasn't until he vomited about two ounces of baby food that I was still in the process of feeding him for dinner that we realized there was something other than just regular spit up going on.  Almost immediately after the disturbing dinnertime display he began vomiting a lot and his color quickly turned very sickly looking.  He was starting to remind us of how Katie looked when she dehydrated from her bout with pneumonia so Bryan ran out and got him pedialyte and we began hydrating him every ten minutes with a few MLs of pedialyte.  After an hour or two he was seeming a bit better, but it was obvious that he wasn't feeling well.

Neither of us was comfortable with the idea of putting him to be in his room, so we set up a playpen in the family room and decided he would stay down there with us until we were certain the vomiting had passed and he was hydrated.  I had kept telling Bryan that I thought I felt sick, too, but he kept telling me that I was just worried about the baby and his impending business trip to Denver.  I figured he was right since I do stress out to the point of feeling ill when he goes away and I was also stressing out about the baby.

Around ten or eleven at night I started getting sick.  By midnight I was vomiting all over the bathroom floor because I had no other choice.  Within minutes Bryan was also sick and once the next wave of feeling sick came around Bryan and I were practically doing synchronized vomiting.  Then Anthony got in on the action and woke up wanting of all things, to be fed and held and neither Bryan and I were in a position to tend to him.  Nursing a baby while succumbing to a nasty stomach virus just isn't possible.

We ended up having to wake Madeline at 1AM and have her come down to take care of the baby and help us as we tried to clean up two bathrooms that were covered in vomit.  An hour or so later Katie woke up and had vomited all over her bed, herself and her carpet.  So Madeline had a new patient.  I tried as best I could to help clean up the mess, but that's not easy when you're also throwing up and running to the bathroom every few minutes.  We got Katie settled and an hour or two later Ellie fell victim to the same horrid fate as the rest of us [except Madeline].

I don't think Madeline got much sleep the rest of the night as she helped her younger siblings and did her best to get the loads and loads of vomit laundry through the washer.  She came through for us in a huge way.  I'm not sure if we would have survived without her.  She kept the baby hydrated, made sure Bryan, the girls and I had drinks, saltines and orange slices.

I'm amazed that the didn't get hit with the stomach bug, too, but we think she may have had it last month.  The day after Christmas she was sick and had very similar symptoms to the rest of us.  She was the only one to get sick with it then.

The timing for this virus was not ideal.  Bryan was getting ready to leave for a business trip and I had loosely planned out my Saturday.  Once I had gotten sick I realized that heading to Mass for the feast day of St. Francis de Sales who has become one of my favorite saints over the past year or two was out.  And going to confession was also out.  Soon enough I realized that there was no way I was able to teach my CCD class on Sunday and there was no way we could go to Mass and share our grotesque stomach bug with everyone else.  Even though we all stopped vomiting by early Saturday morning the fun of horrible body aches, fevers and dizziness were just getting warmed up for their two day stay.  I laid on the couch thinking to myself that labor, strep throat, ear infections, and possibly hand foot and mouth disease were all less miserable.  Of course, that last one is a misery in itself and I'd rather have the stomach bug for a few days than relive a day of hand, foot and mouth disease.

We were mostly all on the mend by very late Sunday night or Monday morning.  Katie and Ellie had some lingering effects for a day or two after, but were doing much better by today.  Anthony, on the other hand, will seem like he's doing just fine and out of nowhere have an explosive diaper.  That I could handle.  But this evening I fed him dinner and then loaded the kids into the car so we could go to confession.  All was going well.  We were there right at 6:00 when confessions begin and I was hopeful that we might not be at the end of a long line since the parking lot hardly had any cars in it.  Then I opened the door to get Anthony and was met with a baby sitting in a puddle of vomit that consisted of all the freshly pureed peas I had just fed him.

I thought maybe the spit up wasn't as bad as I thought but a quick attempt to clean him up with a burp cloth revealed that there was no way I was getting this child out of his seat and standing in a line for confession.  We would have had a slimy green trail following us.  It was that bad.  It was so bad that I took pictures when we got home so I could show Bryan.

As I stood in the cold parking lot completely defeated, I told the girls to get back in the car.  They were more than happy to comply.  I was just left with the feeling that if I didn't need to go to confession when I pulled into the church parking lot, I certainly needed to go now.  Patience had officially left the building.  Inside my head I raised my little white flag of surrender to God, all the while grumbling that I now had a phenomenally bad mess to clean.

When we got home I made the unhappy discovery that Anthony needed bath number two in four hours. The kid was covered in green pea vomit.  Can I shock all of you and tell you that I've bathed Anthony three times in the past two days which is more times than I've bathed him in the past month.  Bryan is much better at washing babies than I am, so I usually propose to him that I'll dry and dress the baby if he washes.  So yes, he's cleaned regularly, just not by me.  I will say that I'm feeling more confident washing him after the last two baths I gave him today.

Once he was cleaned I set about getting his clothes sent down to the laundry room only to discover that the dog decided to try washing them.  Arrgh!  Why are dogs so gross?

The real fun began when I had to pull the carseat out of the van.  That cute cover that can be pulled off for washing so you don't have to remove the harness is a load of crap for people who don't live in reality land.  When junior pukes all over the harness and there's so much vomit that it dribbles out of the car seat and onto the car upholstery, the easy remove seat pad is worthless.  I had lots of choice words and thoughts about the engineers and designers of the Britax Marathon 70-G3.  Ignore my 5 star review of it on Amazon.  I obviously didn't have real world baby disaster experience with the seat when I wrote the review.  My recurring thought was "What genius makes a car seat where the *@&%@*$ harness cannot be removed?!"  It's covered in green pea sludge and the omnipotent owners manual is telling me to "sponge clean" the harness if it needs to be cleaned.  Ok, Britax manual writer....you're drunk, you probably don't have any children and have never had to clean up green vomit; it's time to pack it up and go home.

So picture me dear readers at the kitchen sink with a giant car seat sitting on the counter top with the harness, dripping with green oozy grossness hanging out of the bottom of the seat and into the sink so I can wash it with mild soap.  The seat and the fantastic design that does not allow the harness to come out is an occasion of sin, my friends.  Plain and simple.  On the bright side, I kept all the expletives that I had regarding the seat, and it's designers in my head so the kids were at least spared that nice little show.

Madeline had very kindly offered to clean the puddle of green slime off the car upholstery, so that was a huge help.  I was really impressed to see that the got it all up.  I guess she gained some practical life experience this past weekend.

I was going to attempt to put the carseat cover back on the seat tonight and get it back out in the van, but it's not dry.  I hope it will dry sometime this evening so I can get everything back where it belongs.  I'd really like to get to Mass tomorrow morning.  This is one of those times where I wish I didn't keep our spare carseat in Bryan's car.  Since he's out in Denver until tomorrow, my spare seat is sitting over in the Philly airport parking lot.  Some days it just seems like nothing can be easy.  Too bad this happens to be one of those days, right?

I'm looking forward to tomorrow.  Bryan will be back and I don't know about you, but I'm confident that it's going to be a vomit free day.  If it's not, I'm going to go and eat a lot of chocolate and have a glass of cranberry wine.

If you made it to the end, thanks for sticking with me.  I promise not to talk so much about vomit next time.  Maybe I'll talk about the upcoming name change for the blog.  Oh and how happy are you that I didn't share any pictures with this story?  I almost did.  Sure they aren't something anyone really wants to see, but the watermark on the picture would have revealed the new name for my blog.

What a week!

This week seems like it has gone by really fast but at the same time the days have all seemed really long.  On Monday Katie seemed like she was coming down a cough and was having a little tummy trouble.  By Tuesday her cough was becoming worse by the hour.  It was so bad that in the middle of our lunch at Bertucci's Bryan had me call the pediatrician to see if she could be seen that day.  Minutes later we were having our food packed up so we could go home.  The coughing had become that bad.

Bryan took her to the doctor's since Ellie had a friend over for a playdate that afternoon.  They suspected that she might have pneumonia based on the cough, the fever and this weird grunting sound she was making when she breathed, but they didn't hear any fluid in her lungs.  They tested her for the flu and it was negative, so they sent her for a chest x-ray.  The x-ray came back negative.  Bryan was told that we needed to watch her breathing to see if the grunting sound continued or worsened, and we also needed to watch the fever.  Tuesday night she wouldn't sleep unless one of us was holding her and even then she wasn't sleeping well.  The ibruprofen and tylenol weren't doing anything for the fever.

By Wednesday morning she had almost zero interest in eating or drinking.  She was lethargic and only wanted to sleep.  At one point I took her temperature and it said she was over 104 which I was certain had to be a mistake.  We called the pediatrician and they had us bring her in.  When we got there her fever (with ibuprofen) was 105.7  she was seen within minutes by a couple of nurses and the nurse practitioner.  We were sent to the ER where they quickly triaged her and had her in a bed.  They ran a bunch of tests on her and gave her some fluids via IV.  It wasn't until they did another chest x-ray that they diagnosed her with pneumonia, which had been suspected by the dr. who saw her the day before.  We left the ER shortly after they got a bag of antibiotics in her.  By the time we left she was looking a lot better thanks to the fluids.  Her fever had also dropped down to 101.

This morning I was hopeful that she was on the mend when she drank about 1/3 of a sippy cup with no prompting and then ate about half of an icee.  I didn't want to leave the house with her today, but I had to pick up her antibiotic and get juice and a few other things we needed for her, like Jell-O and batteries for the ear thermometer.  Of course, I get home and realize that I forgot to get her ice water and ice pops, so one of my awesome neighbors ran to the store and got them for her.  Things were going well until about noon.  At that point she was refusing to drink or eat anything.  Her breathing wasn't sounding too great and her eyes were glassy again.  Once I let Bryan know what was going on he rearranged his schedule so he could come home.  A few minutes later the pediatrician's office called to check on her and I was told we need to give her a syringe full of liquid every five minutes until she perks up.  It appears that she's on the verge of dehydrating.  She wouldn't take any of the liquids from me, but once Bryan came home he was able to get her to take them.  He also managed to get her to east some goldfish crackers.

Now we're just trying to keep her hydrated and keep her fever at bay.  It's been under 101 today so that's good. But her eyes are glassy and she's still not interested in taking fluids.  Fortunately Bryan is good at getting them in her.  Tomorrow we need to take her to the pediatrician again.  I'm praying that she will be doing better and that we will not have to go to the ER to get fluids in her.  I was already warned that it's possible that she may need another bag of IV fluids if we can't get enough in her.  It doesn't help that now that we have fluids going in that she keeps having diarrhea.  I feel like we are fighting a losing battle here.  I just want to see her on the mend.

Katie is just worn out, and Bryan and I are both pretty exhausted. Any prayers you can offer up for us are greatly appreciated.  We're hoping to get through this without needing to go back to the hospital.  I know Katie would very much like to avoid having to get hooked up to an IV again.

An Unwanted Souvenir

The last few times we have gone to Disney World I find myself feeling like a germaphobe by the end of the first or second day of the trip.  Usually this feeling is unfounded.  Everyone comes home and is well and my fretting about picking up whatever germs are on the rides and the railings in the queues was all for nothing.

I was a bit wary heading down to Disney World last week.  The day before we left for our trip I was beginning to feel sick again.  Oddly enough, two days after the antibiotics I was taking had been finished I began to feel exactly the same way I had two weeks before.  Somehow I made it through the trip without feeling too awful.

By the time we left to head home early on Friday morning I was feeling like we managed to get out of Disney World with nothing more than a case of sniffles for Katie.  But I was wrong, she picked up something far worse than the sniffles.  This morning she woke up with what I thought was one of the worst diaper rashes I had ever seen on one of our children [and Ellie used to get some dreadful ones].  She had these huge blisters, that I assumed must have been from the hot dog she had the night before.  As the day progressed and airing her out, balmex and lanolin all did nothing, I started to worry that maybe she had chicken pox or possibly fifth's disease since the red marks were spreading all over her legs and arms.

Katie and Ellie had flu shots scheduled for this evening so I figured if she had something bad they wouln't give her the shot.  The nurse giving the shots didn't seem too concerned about the rash and Katie got the flu shot and she suggested that we go to waiting room and ask if one of the doctors could see her.  They told us that there was no way she could be seen tonight, but I was able to flag down one of the nurses that I know and she made sure Katie got looked at by one of the doctors.  A quick glance at her by the one doctor got us brought into an exam room where we were squeezed in for an appointment.  After a short wait the other doctor who usually sees Katie came in to have a look at her.  He seemed a bit fascinated by the horrible cluster of blisters on her rear.  Apparently he had never seen this illness present itself in such a way.  I still didn't know what was wrong with her until he took a look in her mouth.  As soon as I saw a little sore in the back of her throat I knew exactly what Katie had.  Just as I was about to ask if I was right the doctor announced that Katie had quite the case of hand, foot and mouth disease.  Arrgh!

If you've never had a bout of Coxsackie virus then I should tell you that it's quite painful.  I've had it a couple times when I was in college.  Only I never had the rash and sores on my body, just my throat.  The worst part of it is there's nothing they can give you to make it go away.   I suspect Katie is in for a miserable week.  And since this virus is contagious, it's possible that any of us might get it.  Since I can't help but hold Katie and take care of her I'm not sure if I have any chance of not catching this.

From what I have read about this virus, it looks like Katie is contagious as long as she has the little sores/blisters.  I'm not sure if my parents and brother are going to want us at Thanksgiving dinner at this rate.

So I guess in the end I was right to be a bit concerned about picking up germs.  I suppose Katie really didn't stand much of a chance with all of the different changing areas, high chairs and rides that she touched.

Katie Update

One of the things I like about blogging is sometimes I get a commenter who offers a suggestion or a perspective that I hadn't considered or simply haven't had the clarity of mind to think of on my own.  A few days ago I blogged about Katie's teething and how she was miserable.

A commenter, Mrs. Poole, made a friendly suggestion that perhaps she might need to see a doctor to get her ears checked.  I mentioned it to Bryan yesterday, but he was convinced that it was just teething.  I had a busy day ahead of me with VBS preparations, so my choices were to throw the day into upheaval on the off chance that she had more than a cold/teething.  By around 6:30 last night I began to reconsider my decision to wait and see.

Things started clicking into place.  She was coughing, sticking her hands into her throat trying to make herself vomit, and kept sticking her hands behind her head and screaming.  Some of what she was doing was making me think she either had something going on with her ears or her throat.

This morning I called the pediatrician and got her an early appointment.  I told Bryan that essentially this was a now or never thing.  She cried for about two hours last night between 3 and 5am.  I need to be available from Sunday through Friday this week for VBS so I knew I needed to know one way or another if she was sick or not, now.  We brought her in to the doctor's office and it turns out she has an ear infection and possibly pink eye.  So now she's on antibiotics and eye drops.  The doctor also thinks with the cough she has that it's possible that it may turn into Croup.  I'm praying that it doesn't come to that.  Croup in a week when I need to have my wits about me is not a good thing.

So thank you Mrs. Poole for your comment.  If it wasn't for your friendly suggestion, I may not have taken her to the doctor for a few more days.  Now Katie will be on the mend rather than suffering through this.

I always welcome comments.  Even if you think I might not like what you have to say, comment anyway.  I don't mind if you step on my toes a bit or light a fire under me as long as it's not done with the intent to be unkind.

Teething is Tough

The past week and a half here have been pretty rough.  Katie is cutting several teeth and that translates into a lot of screaming.  When the house is completely quiet [which is rare] Bryan and I still think we hear Katie crying.

I'm exhausted.  Katie has been waking up in the middle of the night because of the teeth and the icky cold she seems to have developed.  Why are teeth and yucky snotty colds so prone to happening at the same time?  So back to her waking in the middle of the night.  Most nights this happens minutes after I fall asleep in our bed.  This isn't just cranky baby waking up and crying.  No this is screaming at the top of her lungs baby.  No crying, just screams.  Screams that I bet you can hear a few houses away at 2am if you happen to be awake.

I feel like I'm dragging.  Katie is usually a very happy baby, but this teething business has made her quite crabby.  A few days ago tooth number one cut all the way through.  Now tooth number two is partially in, and the bottom teeth look like they'll be breaking through pretty soon.  The timing for all of this is, of course, most inopportune.  Teething while Bryan was in Nashville was a big drain on me.  I had hoped things would get better once he was home but they haven't. The drool turned into snot and the snot turned into a cold which is now in both eyes.  She's cranky and I'm thinking about how it might be nice and Bryan and I had the ability to go somewhere for a weekend.  I'm already seriously considering going on a retreat next spring.

The screaming, crying, snotting and sleep deprivation are making it hard for me to think straight.  VBS starts on Monday and the last minute things I need to to are taking me quite a while to do because I need to tend to Katie.  This is turn is stressing me out.   I can't tell 150+ people that I've got a teething, sick baby and need to push VBS to the back burner.  I'm inching towards having everything done, but like most things over the past year, it's not following my control freak time line.  Alas, I'm still learning that I'm really not the one in control.

Tomorrow I'll take Katie over to the school to start doing what I originally had planned for Sunday.  Madeline has to altar serve for a funeral in the morning and a wedding later in the afternoon.  My plan is to work on decorating the parts of the school that are my job and to get all of the materials distributed to the classrooms for the teachers.  If all goes well, I may be able to finish decorating tomorrow, but only God knows what tomorrow will have in store for me.  I'm praying that Katie will kick this yucky cold and that I will be able to do everything I need to do with no difficulty.

Poor Katie

On Christmas morning when Katie woke up and was completely miserable starting as soon as we went downstairs to the family room which was brimming with brightly colored presents, we figured she had gone into sensory overload.  Bryan and I felt the same way the evening before as I arranged all the gifts into piles.  When her screaming and crying didn't stop after the room had pretty much returned to normal, I wondered if maybe she was feeling unwell.  I thought perhaps it was just a bad reflux day based on the unusual amount of spit up and her arching away from me whenever I would nurse her.  She was spitting up quite a lot on Christmas Eve night, too, so it seemed like a logical connection.

Monday and Tuesday didn't see much of an improvement with Katie's temperament or appetite and it became obvious that she wasn't feeling well.  She was congested and had developed a cough.  Since Ellie had been coughing a bit and seemed to have a bit of a cold I wasn't all the concerned.  I've been around the block enough times to know that when I bring a kid with sniffles or a little cough to the doctor that there's really nothing they can do to help it.  Following that logic I decided it wasn't necessary to take her to the doctor just yet.  I needed something more convincing to make me think a trip to the doctor was needed, something like Katie rubbing her ear.  I don't mess with ear infections so as soon as we noticed that Katie was going after her ears many times today it was time to call for an appointment.

I was hopeful on the ride over to the pediatrician that we were either going to be told that she just had a little cold or that she had an ear infection.  Both are not fun with a baby, but I don't see them as being a big deal.  What I wasn't expecting was to hear that the baby had a problem that if it escalates could land her in the hospital.  Few words fill me with as much dread as the mention of a hospital stay.

Katie has bronchiolitis which apparently is a big deal when you are two months old.  The doctor tells me that in an older kid the virus which causes this will result in a cold that could either be mild or severe.  In Katie's case, she's wheezing, congested, miserable and not eating well.  Her wheezing was significant enough that the doctor put her on a nebulizer while we were there.  It made a big enough difference that he felt confident that she could benefit from nebulizer treatments at home.  So now we're on watch to see that she doesn't get worse.  We're told that if she makes it through the weekend without getting worse then we are pretty much in the clear even though she will still be sick for another week or so.  If not, she may find herself in the hospital.  I'm praying that we can avoid that.  The doctor will be monitoring her condition over the next week or so which means we'll be seeing the doctor's office every few days.  I'm hoping that she will improve between now and Friday morning when she goes back to be checked.  I can tell you that she has clearly degraded a decent amount between Christmas Eve and today.

The Case for Future Baldness

I'm pretty sure that me going bald sometime in the near future is a real possibility.  If this happens it will most certainly be the result of me ripping my hair out by the handful.

I blogged about how Madeline was hit with an umbrella on the school bus yesterday which resulted in her getting a cut near her eye and a pair of badly bent glasses that are pretty new.  I spoke with the principal about this last night and I was happy to hear that she was not only concerned but was going to address the situation today during school.  It turns out her idea of addressing the issue was to ignore it.  Not the brightest thing she could do when the mom of the injured child is overdue.  I called and left her a message this afternoon and have yet to hear back from her.  She clearly has no idea who she is dealing with.  Perhaps she'll move on this issue if I call the superintendent of the school district.

Ellie came home sick from school again today.  She was fine all day yesterday and this morning so we sent her to school today.  At 11:30 I got a call from the school nurse telling me that Ellie threw up at school again.  I seriously can't catch a break here.  So since she was signed out before 1:20 today she's considered absent.  She also can't go to school tomorrow because she vomited during school today.  So she's managed to log three absences in one 3 1/2 day school week.  Awesome.

I walked around the neighborhood for an hour today trying to get contractions going.  As long as I was walking things were picking up, but as soon as I sat down everything stopped.  I was really hoping to have something going by this afternoon so I could head to the hospital tonight.  The midwife who is on call tonight is totally willing to break my water and make sure I have this baby provided I can show  up at the hospital already having contractions.  Obviously this is easier said than done.

I'm on edge right now.  I'm tired of being pregnant and I'm fed up with all the school BS that I have to deal with right now.  It's all very frustrating.  I'm fairly certain that if we had gone forward with homeschooling that I wouldn't be dealing with a sick kid and I certainly wouldn't be having the issue that we have with the bus incident.

I'm hoping that tomorrow will be a better day.  At the very least it would be nice if it were a little less stressful.

What's more fun than 1 sick kid?

That's a silly question! Why, two sick kids, of course! Fortunately sick kid 1 appears to be on the rebound. The 100.3 fever and lethargic sickly behavior only lasted Tuesday night. To be safe, sick kid 1 was kept home from school yesterday. Thanks to an organized third grade teacher, and a willing 8 year old neighbor, Madeline was able to do all of her missed school and homework yesterday afternoon, so she's already caught up. Sick kid 1 still has a cold, but she's going to school today since the fever and stomach pains have passed.

This morning has been moving super slow. Hopefully, this is not a sign of things to come. I like days when Bryan is away on business trips to fly like the wind. Slow moving days, sick kids and business trips do not go well together.

It became evident that I had acquired a sick kid 2 overnight early this morning. My child who is not a morning person and likes to sleep in came downstairs rather early this morning [likely because she heard the voices of our neighbor's daughters down in the kitchen]. She was pleasant at first, but it soon became evident that Ellie had come down with Madeline's cold and was in a grumpy mood. Ellie is not a kid you want to cross when she's miserable, but I'm the kind of person who will stupidly find every way to irritate said grumpy child by accident. I hope to God that this child decides to take a nap today.

The neighbor children have been far more agreeable than I had anticipated. They didn't argue with one another, they happily ate the breakfast I gave them (I fully expected whining and complaining about our breakfast selection--we're not a sugar cereal house [except for me].) They were happy to eat the waffles we had on hand, and they even cleared their dishes when they finished. Oh how I wish my girls felt motivated to do that every morning!

I got to experience what sending my child off on the middle school bus will be like this morning. Let's just say I'm amazed that all I have to do is stand in the comfort of my own home and watch as the middle schooler crosses the street and walks one property length to the corner. How easy is that? That's a shorter walk than the walk I have to make from the elementary parking lot to the spot where I wait to pick Madeline up after school.

In less than 10 minutes my stint of watching the neighbor's kids will be completed [that is provided the surgery goes well and they get home before 1PM]. Here's hoping Ellie doesn't go off the deep end since she's feeling under the weather. I'm ready for a nap!

Where does the time go?

Over the past several days I've become keenly aware that time is flying. I'm a little surprised that Halloween will be here in less than a week. What happened to October? Looking back, it seems like this past month was a blur of soccer games, running back and forth to do school school drop offs and pick ups and house cleaning. I know I got a lot accomplished this month, but I feel like this month and the two before it zipped by before I had a moment to sit back and enjoy them.

Flying time also means growing kids. It has really hit home with me within the past week that Ellie is growing up and away from me. There is hardly any baby left in my baby. Her little palms are still baby soft, but she's a little kid who talks and does her best to be independent. It hit me last Thursday morning as I chased her around the house with foam swords that she won't be here in the mornings next year. It will just be me and Mr. Furkins and that makes me feel very sad. I don't want Ellie to grow up. If I could have her stay just as she is right now forever I would. I know next year as I sit here alone every morning after the kids go to school that I will miss her terribly. Next year she will be in school for a full day. I think if she was in a half day program I wouldn't feel so bad about it, but I know that's not going to happen.

We got drenched Saturday afternoon while the girls played soccer. Madeline and Ellie had back to back games. The weather was sketchy. One minute it would be sunny and warm and the next it was rainy and windy. This scenario repeated itself more times than I care to remember. Madeline had a good game where she scored three goals. Ellie's game saw more wind and rain than Madeline's. The game felt like it went on for forever. I think we were all really happy when we finally got to head home.

On Saturday night Ellie fell asleep on me at Mass. It is very rare that she falls asleep in my arms anymore. So while part of me was happy to have her sleeping in my arms, other parts (my back, arms, shoulders and neck) were straining under the pressure of carrying one third of my body weight in limp child form. It's moments like these that I really wish Bryan was beside me instead of sitting at home watching a movie or playing a computer game. By the time Mass was over I was beat, but I'll take it. It's worth the sore muscles to squeeze a few more drops of baby out of Ellie.

Madeline developed a bright red rash on her cheeks on Friday. I though she was a little red when she came home from school, but after going to her school Halloween party that night she was really red. At first we thought she was just hot from running around. It got progressively worse over the weekend, but she wasn't itchy and didn't have a fever. My parents, without seeing her were convinced she had the mumps. (They always jump to the worse case scenario.) Bryan thought she may have had an allergic reaction to something. I wondered if she picked up some sort of contagious rash. When she woke up with the rash looking brighter than ever yesterday morning, I decided yesterday to take her to the pediatrician to see what it was. She has Fifth's Disease. The doctor tells me it's harmless in her case and that she could show signs of the rash for a few months. Unfortunately, we had to sit in a waiting room that smelled of vomit and sour milk packed with sick kids for over 45 minutes waiting to get called back to an exam room to be told that Madeline is perfectly fine and just has "a cool rash". (Madeline isn't amused with the "cool rash".) I hope that Madeline and I don't come down with anything. I did notice that our pediatrician's office will happily take gently used toys and books. I sat there thinking of how wonderful it would be for me to dump the huge stack of unwanted children's books I have sitting on my bedroom floor in their office. I could get part of my room back! I'll certainly be keeping them in mind.

Just a few more days until November. I hope it's a month that lingers.

Can I get a germ-proof bubble here?

I've been a bit preoccupied over the past week or so with all the medical types of issues going on with my little family.  

About a week and a half ago, Mr. Furkins stubbed his foot when playing fetch in the back yard with Bryan.  So for a few days, the dog walked around with a little limp.  I'm sorry, but Oscar is the clumsiest thing on four legs.  He's always tripping or falling over things.  He even underestimates the traction on the kitchen floor and runs into doors and walls and furniture.  I have little sympathy for him since I think he could avoid these accidents if he'd slow down a little.  But he's a crazy dog and I don't think he knows how to relax.

A week ago Ellie went to the doctor for her 4 year old well visit.  Turns out I haven't been putting the sunscreen on her funny.  She really is spotted, and apparently the pigment loss is caused by eczema.  So she's has white spots.  I'm told by the doctor that dry eczema patches don't tan.  Every moisturizer I try on her makes her skin red and it hurts her.  Lanolin is the only thing I can use on her that doesn't irritate her, but that unfortunately stains everything.  Sometimes I wonder if the hypoallergenic dermatologist tested creams and lotions have ever been tested on people who actually have sensitive skin.  My guess is probably not.

Ellie also has a cough that the doctor thought was nothing last week.  Now I'm not sure if she's getting better or not.  It's hard to tell when compared to the other sick people in the house.

Bryan has bronchitis.  He started to feel unwell this weekend, but he's stubborn and decided to suffer rather than seek medical attention so he could feel better.  He realized on Monday after he got to work that he probably shouldn't have gone to the office.  Fortunately, he decided to capitulate and seek the advice of a medical professional.  I got to the point where I told him I wasn't going to have sympathy on him if he wasn't getting help for his ailment.  He's now on 5 different medications for his bronchitis.

Madeline woke up in the middle of the night on Monday and was crying that her ear hurt.  She was so miserable and crying so much that Bryan and I thought Ellie was the one calling us.  So we walked past Madeline's room to check on Ellie only to find her fast asleep.  Turns out Madeline has a really bad ear infection, and the nurse practitioner told Bryan that she may have the beginnings of bronchitis.  So she's now on an antibiotic.  She has seemed pretty out of it for most of the past two days.

I am just hoping that I get through this unscathed.  I'm constantly next to at least one sick person.  Bryan keeps telling me that it's only a matter of time before I succumb to illness, too.  I'd like to think that I may be immune.

I do think that Ellie is getting better. The cough doesn't sound as bad as I remember it being last week.   She's been hanging out with me a lot more since Madeline hasn't been up for playing.  I've taken her to stores while Bryan and Madeline stay at home and rest.  Ellie was so happy to go out with just me.  She had the biggest smile on her face when she said "Look Mommy, only one child is going to Target!".  She skipped and pranced all though Target yesterday.  She smile on her face was infectious.  Since Madeline isn't allowed in the pool for a few days (nurse practitioner's orders) Ellie has been relishing her one on one time with me in the pool.  She is such a little love and I know she has enjoyed her one on one time with me as much as I have.  She's making me feel like four isn't a bad age.  I guess I'm not missing age three all that much anymore.

How'd you sleep last night?

I woke up pretty early yesterday morning.  Not sure what has gotten into me, but I keep getting up around 6 AM.  Perhaps I'm just old now.  I fully expected after having a rather full day of gardening, going to confession, more gardening, swimming, going to Mass, and then going out to dinner that I was going to crash on the couch before 10 PM.   Apparently sleep just wasn't in the cards.

I was ready to lay on the couch and watch a movie or documentary by 9 last night, but Bryan had put Kung Fu Panda on for Madeline sometime before 9 (I live in a time warp) and we both said she could stay up to watch the end of it.  I didn't realize that the end wasn't going to be until around 9:45. Ugh.  

Ellie was clearly wiped out and wanting to go to bed before that. So we put her to be sometime shortly after 9.  I figured that she had just had a long day.  I figured wrong.  I discovered at 12:30 last night that she was sick.  Ellie isn't the kind of kid that will come and get you if there is a problem and that usually creates a bigger problem.  So last night when I was finally ready to go to sleep I walk upstairs to a strange smell.  Turns out poor Ellie had been vomiting.  Everything on her bed had some degree of vomit on it.  She also threw up over the side of the bed onto the carpet and her pjs were covered.  I called my smelling impaired husband, who was in a sleep induced haze, in to help out.  Bryan ended up taking one for the team when he carried her into the bathroom.  Once we got Ellie and her room cleaned up I tried to go to sleep.  I'm not sure how long I was awake but I don't think it was long.  I woke up at what I think was 2:30, but Bryan tells me was 3:30 (maybe I need to relearn my numbers) to the sound of Bryan springing out of bed to the sound of Ellie at the start of the vomit cough. Ugh!  The second mess wasn't as bad as the first time, but I needed to change the sheets again.  I felt so bad for poor Ellie, but the kid handled the whole thing like a real trooper.  She didn't cry about it and only asked that I brush her teeth. 

We woke up again at 8:30 AM to the sound of Madeline asking when we would be making breakfast.  So far, Ellie seems fine.  She's drinking but not eating.  She says she feels fine.  Here's hoping that no one else gets sick.

Aside from all the laundry last night, I think the worst thing that happened was Bryan was reminded of what life is like when sleep gets interrupted.  Once we were back in bed after the second round with Ellie he made a comment that this is like having a newborn again.  It may not seem like such a profound statement to an outsider, but it was a message that I got loud and clear.  Guess I'll have to back off my already scaled back campaign for another baby.  On a positive note, he also realized that he still has the great waking up in the middle of the night dad instinct.  I pretty much lost my ability to wake up to the sound of a crying baby when Ellie was a few weeks old.  

So I'm certainly tired now.  I plan on taking a nap today.  I just hope it actually happens.  

*Fun Fact: Bryan has no sense of smell and never has.  The only thing he can "smell" is mineral ice.