What I Love About Sick Days....

No one likes a Negative Nancy.  So I'm being Positive Polly... or whatever Nancy's happier counterpart is called.  After this brief rant. We've been sick for over a month straight around here.  Lawson kicked off the latest sickness with a bang gag at the beginning of the week.  I've been avoiding the eyes of death so far and have been dealing with an overall lack of wellness in the way of exhaustion, achiness, stuffiness and ears that feel like I just blasted into the stratosphere without being able to pop them.  This, combined with Lawson being sick and needy and Naomi potty training and needing to pee multiple times in the night has left me seriously in need of some quality shut-eye.  And also a little cranky, if I'm honest.

Friday found us saying goodbye to Dustin for the weekend as he flew off in his jet to Florida for the weekend on a cross country flight for "work."  So far his work has led him to bars and beaches.  Sounds like fun!  Good for him! I'm not bitter.  Our fun weekend started off just hours after he left.  Naomi woke up with pink, nasty eyes.  Thanks to being Friday afternoon and a "new patient" in the practice we just switched to, her doctor couldn't see her.  Urgent care on base also could not see her because they only see people who's doctors are on base.  Like hers was the week before.  Lame.  Lame.  And lame some more.  So, the ER was our only hope for getting antibiotics, which was also lame since it was very obviously not an emergency.  So, I go to load the double stroller in the car, which had been left out.  Apparently a lollipop was left in the console and it was covered in ants.  Oh.  Em.  GEEEEEEE!!!!!!  So, I go in the house, where Naomi has been screaming continuously for a half hour or so, to let the dog out to go potty and what happens?  He pees all over the floor.  Did I mention there was an insane amount of lameness going on?  Finally we head into the ER with Lawson contained in the single stroller, Naomi sitting on the footrest with blazing, goopy eyes and Quincy in the sling.  Literally every person I encountered there said the same thing.  "Wow.  You've got your hands full."  Yes.  Yes, I do.

Long story short - we went, we were loud, we got an Rx for antibiotics and we sat in the Walgreens parking lot forever to get it.  Four hours later we were home and the kids went straight to bed.  My turn for sleep!  ....just kidding.  Quincy started screaming and crying.  When she stopped, her eyes looked extra puffy.  Hmmm.  She fell asleep for a minute, then opened her eyes again.  Pink.  It was the beginning of a long night with little sleep (again).  There is now Amoxocillin on tap in our fridge and we are continuing our antisocial activity in the house for the next few days until we are no longer contagious.  It's miserable business.

BUT, the kids take great, long naps since they aren't feeling well.  Which means, I get a chance to snuggle up and take a nap with my little smoosh-face!  And that makes me very, very happy!  It's much easier to be a Positive Polly after a little one-on-one quiet time with Quincy!  And a little playtime!  And a little 10-second-timer photoshoot to document that I did, indeed, exist beyond taking pictures when she was a baby.

Okay, so there wasn't much about loving sick days, but I'm *trying* really hard!!  Sleepy, happy baby smiles are totally helping!

Make it a Double

Sometimes it's super fun to make it a double.  Other times, not so much.  Like when it's a double ear and double eye infection. Lawson had a slight fever and cough a couple days ago, but it seemed to have cleared up yesterday morning.  Then he woke up from nap with copious amounts of green sludge pouring from his eyes.  Gag.  Then came the puffiness and by nighttime, they were looking pink.  I was thinking pink-eye.  This morning, they were full on bloodshot, puffy and boogery.  A trip to the doctor revealed his actual plight.  A virus that attacks the eyes and ears.  He looks absolutely miserable.  It came on quickly, so I hope it exits that way.  And I hope no one else gets it because it is apparently a highly contagious virus.  Ugh.

This comes on the heels of a stomach virus that took each of us out one at a time, ending with Quincy, who's cough settled in her chest and left her gasping for air.  She spent 48 hours in the hospital last week and is only just now getting well enough that she no longer needs breathing treatments every day.

I'm ready for this influx of illness to leave us the heck alone now!  There are way cooler things we could be doing right now!  In the meantime, I may be making mine a double cause this is no bueno.

End of rant. 

Sunshine and Sick Days

See this beautiful tree?  Lawson loves this tree!  He talks about it every day and is just sure it's made of snow.  We've been watching it bloom over the last week or so as the beautiful Mississippi winter weather continues on.

Unfortunately, we've been watching it through the window.

Because sickness has struck again.  Just when I thought we were all on the mend, we all started feeling sinus pressure.  Then Lawson got a fever a few nights ago and Naomi was acting a little strangely this morning... but I brushed that off.  I gave Lawson some fever reducer, loaded us all up in the Expedition and we headed out to run a few errands this morning.  A minute before parking at the first stop, Naomi started to cry.  Good thing we're almost there, I thought.  Or not.  I stopped the car, got out, opened the door and reached in to unbuckle my.... throw up   covered   child.  Seriously, covered.  And all over her brand new, beautiful, ruffly tissue tee.  I mean, my poor, poor child!  Priorities, people!  Geeze.  In actuality, she seemed fairly happy, but was sporting a nasty layer of the remnants of the apple, nuts and dried cranberries she'd just been munching on and was quite preoccupied with the mess of the situation.  She just kept repeating it over and over to me as I cleaned her up.  "Mess.  Mess.  Mess."  It was pretty pitiful and so on par with the mantra in my own head!  Thankfully, I keep the car stocked with paper towels and wipes, so I cleaned her up as well as I could, stripped her down to her undershirt and stuck her in the cart.  Yep, we were still going in. We were all the way to town and we were not going back quite yet.  I needed to buy Cliff bars in bulk.  Needed to.  Again, priorities.  Now, before you pass me off as irresponsible for taking two sick kids into public and spreading their germs all over the place, bear in mind, I used a shopping cart cover.  I also thought I only had one mildly sick child when I went.  See?  A totally responsible move on my part. We were already there in the parking lot and going back home Cliff bar-less (especially when I was able to clean her up to the point of looking like she had just spit a bite of food out on the top of her shirt) wasn't much of an option.  It seemed like a good idea to just run in really, really quick.

Until we got inside the store and Lawson announced to the first two people we passed, "Num num just throwed up and my penis really hurts."  He's obviously still reeling from the penis squishing incident and I have never made such a surely awkward transition from friendly smiling stranger to head-down-do-not-look-at-me-I'm-not-here-freak-girl with the bright red face.  Holy cow.  I can't even imagine what those people were thinking! It was a bad idea to "just run in really, really quick", after all.  I grabbed my boxes of Cliff bars and  r a n  out of that store.  Well, I paid.  And I gave Lawson the evil eye and a quick "Shhh!" every time someone got near us, but, then I ran out of there before he could inform another unsuspecting stranger of all things personal and embarrassing.  We then holed up in the house for the rest of the day.

I am exhausted from dismembering, scrubbing and then putting the Britax back together again.  I just installed Quincy's carseat on Monday and had a brief few days of satisfaction knowing I need not remove or install a carseat for at least another year.  Ha!  Luckily, I know Naomi's carseat well and the install process was fairly quick, given my girth and overall breathlessness.  I seem to have gotten most of the cranberry colored stain out of her new shirt, which pleases me to no end and I am now crossing my fingers, toes and legs in hopes that no one else gets the up-chucks.  Well, not my legs, actually.  They don't cross anymore as Quincy seems as overzealous in her preparation for D-day as I am and has left me walking like I just rode bareback down a bumpy country road.  Oh, that itch on my thigh?  No worries, Quincy will scratch it.  Yeah, it's THAT comfortable.

So, all of this has left us all tired, sicky and stuck inside watching movies and blowing bubbles.  Inside, where nary a human can walk by and hear about our squished penis and vomit issues... not so bad of a deal, perhaps.

Ready to Fly the Croup

It's a farm full of yuck-germs around here this week. It started out with a very unwelcome swine and is ending with a barrel of antsy monkeys trying to fly the croup! Lawson got sick all at once on Monday night and by Tuesday was in urgent care, having not had a drop to drink in nearly 24 hours and a fever of 103.3. They didn't test him and didn't seem worried but said that he had the swine flu and should take an anti-viral. So, home again, home again, jiggity jig, with Rx in hand we went. He had a cocktail of the anti-viral, Motrin, gelsemium semp. 30 and oscillococcinum and seemed to get better almost immediately. Tuesday was spent running around playing and coughing and saying "no!" as much as always. The pig seemed to be on it's way off the farm and we were glad!

Eight o'clock rolled around and he went to sleep seeming almost back to normal. Well, two hours later, I found a very different boy in his bed. A barking seal had joined us at the farm and Lawson was not pleased. I didn't like the sound of his cough and wasn't about to risk letting him go all night for this to develop into pneumonia or bronchitis. Off we went to the E.R. to have him checked out. By the time we arrived, his cough was markedly better and had me feeling a little on the silly side for having brought him in. I stuck to my guns though and in we marched. Lawson rode in his stroller and Naomi hung out in my favorite baby carrier, the Balboa Baby. The nurses were laughing that I had babies everywhere, that some people accessorize with jewelry and I accessorized with babies. This had us all laughing, which was nice since Lawson was feeling more than a little uneasy with his "dinosaur mask" on to keep from spreading his germs. The nurse checked him out and thought he sounded fine, then the respiratory specialist checked him over and said the same thing. Then, a seasoned and sassy doctor walked in to give him the once-over before they sent us home. Lawson started crying the second he came in because he knew he was about to be prodded and poked again. Well, the doctor heard him inhale once and said, "he has croup." Which made me feel a little less like an overbearing worry-wart of a mom for bringing him into the E.R. Apparently, the cold and damp air outside on the way to the hospital was a therapy of sorts. The gave him some meds to take down the swelling in his esophagus and we were on our way with a much happier boy.

So, we're not sure if he ever had the swine flu or not now. He may have been misdiagnosed in the first place, or he could have had it and it turned into croup. I'm kind of hoping we got swine flu out of the way and have immunity now! This is starting to sound a bit like Survivor: Sick Farm. Luckily, the barking seal and pig have been voted off the farm and hopefully won't be coming back for the rest of us (though my mom may very well have stolen that barking seal off the farm for herself.) In the mean time, I'm going a little stir-crazy and wish I could fly the croup for a while! Until then, we've got elephant trains and walking lady bugs to keep us company as the rest of the sanitized toys hide out until the coast is clear! And when it is, I'm jumping on that train to chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo my way off the farm to start in on some Holiday shopping!!!