Project 857- December 13

As most of you may know.. this Saturday was a bit rough in our house.

I knew the day would come where we had both kids sick... so the day finally came. Granted, in the grand scheme of life this is definitely not the most sick our kids will ever be... that I know is yet to come.

As far as what Neal and I had experienced though, this was the roughest day/night we've had so far.. especially since it was the first as parents to two kids.

The day started off good, other than Austin had croup. He came into our room in the wee early morning hours, crying and coughing and in an instant I was like "It's croup. There go our plans today."

We were supposed to go to a playdate and then to Zoo Lights with friends. Even though cold air is good for croup, so being outside would be good... the last thing I wanted was to be the parent that brought the croup-kid to a playdate and had him hack all over all the other kids.

Once we were all up and dressed we went and got coffee and did some shopping.

Austin loved these random duck friends that were hanging outside the Starbucks.

 "Quack! Where's my latte??? Gimme a latte. Quack."

Owen had a new hat to wear and was so happy to show it off!

Then somewhere... things fell apart.

We got home from shopping and Austin got a little lethargic.

We watched a lot of cartoons, and read a lot of book. Yes, I said "book." Non-plural. Because he is quite obsessed with this pop-up book that was mine as a kid..

Ask by the end of the month if I have this memorized, and the answer will probably be "yes."

We got Austin down for a nap, and when he woke up he was feeling a bit better but still coughing. He decided to grab his brother and do some yoga on Neal's new yoga mat.

Yes.. my husband bought a yoga mat. And is going to start doing yoga. I know, it shocked me too!

Then someone got tired again.

All through the day we struggled with Owen too. We didn't know what was wrong with him, but he wasn't nursing well.. lots of unlatching, pushing on me, arching his back, kicking his feet, fussing... not like him.

He also wasn't napping.

We tried holding him, walking him, laying him down, swaddling him... nothing was really working and he cried hard, big real tears many times during the day. Also unlike him, since he's been a jolly little elf lately.

We assumed it was a tummy ache because he was pooping and farting constantly so we spent the day trying to work out his tummy ache.

Then.. came bedtime...

8:30pm: Austin given cough medicine and put to bed

9pm: a restless Owen nursed and put to bed

10:30pm: Neal and I in bed

11:00pm: Owen restless and needed soothing

12:00pm: Owen restless and needed soothing.. but as soon as we touched him, he started crying SO HARD. Actually, he was screaming. I tried to latch him on. He turned his head refusing, and screamed harder. Neal tried to bounce him. Nope. Neal went and heated up a bottle of milk we had in the fridge and Owen ate that, but fussed a lot.

1:00am: Owen back in bed, settled

1:30am: I hear Austin crying in his room. I go in there and he's coughing and struggling to breathe. I hold him on my lap and rock him, get him to match my breaths and calm down so he can breathe better. Neal gets him water, more medicine.

2:00am: Austin is settled and Neal gets settled on the floor in his room to listen over his breathing the rest of the night.

2:30am: I'm awake and Googling if we should be really concerned with Austin's croup. I pop my head in his room and Neal tells me he is sounding better.

3:00am: Owen is up and nurses ok this time.

4:00am: Owen is up again and starting to do the really fussy thing like he did before so I grab him and bring him into bed with me.

7:00am: we get 3 hours of sleep and Owen wakes and nurses in bed just fine.

7:15am: Austin is awake and in good spirits.

7:30am: Neal and I down some major coffee.

Parenting merit badge earned. Oh how lovely to know there are countless nights like this still in our future...

The Real Mama World #4- Sharing is NOT Caring

So this little tale begins a few months ago….

It was about a month and a half after I went back to work and Austin started daycare. I went to pick him up on a Friday and was handed a piece of paper alerting me to an outbreak at the school of Hand, Foot, Mouth disease and that there had been a baby in Austin’s class that was diagnosed with it.

Hand, Foot, Mouth disease? Never heard of it. I read the symptoms- fever, blisters in the mouth and throat, chills, blisters on the bottom of the foot and palm of the hand and thought “ewww… sounds like Hoofs Disease or something cattle would get.”

I knew the school was very clean and sanitized all the toys and surfaces everyday so I wasn’t too worried.

We went down to Springfield that weekend to see my folks and Austin was cheerful, talkative, active, happy and laughing. On Saturday, that is.

Sunday hit and he was sleepy, moaning and cranky. I blamed it on teething and gave him some baby pain reliever and tried to get him to nap.

Things just got worse when I took off for the drive home that night. Ever made a 2 hour drive in traffic with a screaming infant? It's SUPER fun. I’d rather eat onions for a week. If you know me, you know how profound of a statement that is.

The drive home was HELL. I pulled over twice to try and get in the backseat with him and give him a binkie or a bottle or soothe him down somehow.

No dice.

He just screamed.

I got home and Neal wasn’t home yet. I called him in a panic and told him wherever he was he needed to get home NOW that Austin was freaking out, had a fever, and something was wrong and I was going to Urgent Care STAT.

Neal got home soon after and I’m in a fluster. Why is my baby screaming??? What is wrong???? Teeth hurting? Gas?

We take off and start driving to an Urgent Care, I’m calling the Advice Nurse at Austin’s Dr. and texting with my Mom as the same time. Chaos, I tell ya. Chaos.

The Advice Nurse suggests we don’t panic because Austin’s fever isn’t high enough to be worried about. To try Tylenol and wait it out. Well, that works out well because guess what? There is only ONE (ONE, PEOPLE!!!) ONE Urgent Care in the ENTIRE Portland area that caters to babies. ONE. The only other option is the E.R.

Since I thought this was teething or gas or something, I wasn’t quite at the “we need an E.R. and George Clooney to save the day!” type mood quite yet.

In a nutshell, we had the worst night of our lives with Austin that night. He basically slept in 20 min spurts, on our chest in the armchair. Just like the newborn days. Yet worse since crying almost continuously was involved.

Neal stays home with him the next day and I meet him at the Pediatrician’s office. The Dr. takes one look at the inside of his mouth and goes “yep, that’s Hand, Foot, Mouth. Look… “

The inside of his mouth was COVERED in red angry blisters. No wonder he was crying and moaning the whole day. Every time he had to swallow his mouth would kill him. Poor baby!

We’re told this is a virus and it just has to run its course, that’s its very common and that the whole Portland area was having an outbreak at the moment.

The Dr. leaves and the Medical Assistant comes back in. I ask her if Neal and I have to be worried about catching this.

“Oh no,” she says. “Adults don’t really get this. It’s a baby and kid thing.”

So we take care of Austin over the next two days and sleep in the armchair with him, slowly give him bottles, cuddle him and he recovers quickly.

Two days after Austin’s diagnosis, I’m at work and feeling like a cold is coming on. My throat hurts, my head hurts and I’m cold.

“Damn it!” I think. “I’m so over getting colds this Spring! Ugh.”

The day progresses, I feel worse and worse and when I finally make it home I tell Neal I HAVE to go to bed and sorry to leave him with the baby that night but I was going to DIE I felt so like shit.

I take some Nyquil and my temperature…. And what the hell???????? 102.5????????????? I have NEVER had a fever that high in my life!

I fall into bed and try and sleep even though my head is about to explode.

The next day I drag myself into work because I’m crazy and hate calling in sick and just suffer through the day. When I finally decide to look at my throat because its KILLING ME what do I see?

ANGRY RED BLISTERS ALL OVER MY MOUTH, THROAT AND TONGUE!!!!!!!!!

I caught the damn Hand, Foot, Mouth disease!!!!!

I could have KILLED that chick at the Dr.’s that said I couldn’t catch this! My body even decided to go one step further even and pop out a blister on my foot, because you know… a mouthful wasn’t quite enough.

So to all you Mom’s out there.. when your kid is sick… be careful about wiping drool off their face then eating your breakfast because sharing is NOT caring when it comes to disease!!