Check (the chess kind)

Today has been a real Jonah day. Things have gone from bad to worse. We'll start with the worst part. When I arrived to pick up Bri from daycare, the lady told me that she has not been herself today. She didn't laugh or play like she usually does. Her cough is much deeper and she has red bags under her eyes. I took her home with a promise to get her checked out by the doctor tomorrow. And when I was feeding her dinner I realized that she has a rash under her arms.
There are other things that are bothering me too, but we'll stop there. I don't want to whine here. I'll save it for the Hubster! Your prayers are appreciated. Sigh.

PS- The reason I call this post "Check," is because I feel like there are lots of antagonistic forces surrounding me and forcing me to either do something against my will or give up altogether. Sort of like the king must feel when he's checked in chess.

Feels Like the Flu to Me

My sore throat has been building little by little all day, but the chills and muscle aches came out of nowhere at 4:27 pm. I think I caught the flu bug from Bridoodle. She's been pretty sick for the last 10 days. We started her on Amoxicillin on Tuesday and she's improved from 40% to about 70% of her usual smiley energetic self.

Looks like I'm going down for the count. At least the Hubster has the day off tomorrow. He can give me a hand.

Ugh. It's freezing in here.

I can't stand morons ...

Yeah, yeah. Happy Valentine's Day to you too. I'm a little grumpy after surviving the marathon virus that's been keeping our family sick for the past week. So I'm a little paranoid when it comes to taking Bri out in public. When we went through the checkout at the store today I purposefully turned the carseat around on top of the buggy so that nosy neighbors wouldn't stick their hands in her face. As I was fishing for exact change, I was shocked and frustrated to see the clerk reach out across the lane so that he could tickle my baby on the hand.

You can imagine my speechless fury when I glanced up to see a single droplet of clear snot hanging off of his nose. Who knows what will be making us sick now?

the difference between spit-up and vomit

Our house has turned into a quarantined area over the weekend and I've become both a pediatric nurse and a patient. Yesterday, the baby vomited no less than eight times! Most of the vomiting occurred while I was holding her which resulted in many outfit changes for the both of us. Since I've become a resident expert on the differences between spitting-up and vomiting, I thought I might offer an education to those less fortunate than myself in this important area.

Spitting-up occurs on a daily basis in our house. In fact, it happens so frequently that it has become barely a blip on the radar. I find myself frequently swiping it off my clothes and dabbing them dry. No big deal. We've taken to adorning darling little Bri with a bib so that her clothes are rarely soiled by the post-bottle dribble. It usually looks like she spilled a little bit of cottage cheese on her bib. Then the bib is whisked away and Voila! no more messiness.

Vomiting, however, does not happen so frequently. In the past, these experiences occurred only once in a blue moon and tended to be embarrassing because she has had a knack for emptying her stomach contents around guests. Yesterday, however, she set a new puking record for herself with an amazing 8 upchucks in 14 hours. (Please, God, don't let her ever break that particular record again.) Now, I like to use the word vomit rather than spit-up here because watching her hurl was like watching someone pour half a gallon of sour milk out of a jug. Forgive me for being graphic. It's important, those of you preparing to have children, that you have a clear picture of what I'm describing. Because when you find yourself dripping with hot sour milk, don't tell me that I didn't warn you. Most likely you'll gag (I did). But then, hopefully, your heart will swell with love and pity for your poor darling and you'll take care of her. Because that's your job as a mom.

And then you'll start researching vasectomies.

At least pediatricians have good job security...

We had to cut our Christmas visit short. Who knew that kids get sick so much? I've been battling a juicy cough and a raspy voice myself, for two weeks now and on Christmas Eve, Bri started coughing too. So on Christmas Day we packed up our things and headed home. We didn't get to visit any of the Hubby's extended family as planned. That turned out to be a smart choice when we found out the next day at the pediatrician's office that Bri has RSV. Did I mention, that I'm not a big fan of RSV? It's a virus that your body just doesn't make a good immune response too. Even people like me who have fabulous immune systems (and I'm not exaggerating here, just ask my Mom) will still catch RSV over and over again. So it definitely would not have been a good thing to bring it over to Christmas dinner.
Luckily, she has a fairly mild case. She isn't wheezing yet. But that may come. She seems pretty happy too. She eats and smiles like normal. Although we're napping a lot more than usual because we seem to be up even more frequently in the night. All in all, I think we've seen Bri's pediatrician more times in the last three and a half months than I've ever seen a doctor in all my 25 years. Well, except for my own pediatrician, maybe. And my medical school professors. But seriously, who knew kids get sick so much? And why didn't you tell me?

H. flu

We are a family of sickies this week. It all started Sunday. Bri was kind of fussy and had a very runny nose so she and I stayed home from church. On Monday I noticed that her eyes had more eye boogers than normal. By the time I picked her up Tuesday her eyes were filling with mucus every thirty minutes. So I called the doctor's office and they told me to come immediately. One hour later the doctor was pulling gunk out of her ears. Yum. He told us it was a combination of pink eye and an ear infection, courtesy of Haemophillus influenzae.

So the Hubster stayed home with her yesterday and gave her medicine. Today it's my turn. Both of us feel kind of cruddy, too. Tis' the season for sharing germs!