Can't Catch a Break

Truman is sick AGAIN. He started at the end of last week with a cough and some congestion. He continued this week with fever and vomiting. I am honestly at my wits end with viruses this season. The other two seem to have some congestion, but Truman seems to be the only one with vomiting. Hopefully, it's not a sign of what's to come for the other two. I'm not sure how much more I can take of all of this.

Well, James was nice enough to announce to all his Facebook friends that we're expecting our 4th, so I thought I might as well break my silence too. I'm about 10 weeks in, and it probably explains a lot about my stressed out, impatient mood lately. I am not one of those giddy, 'I feel great' pregnant people. In fact, I am probably the complete opposite. I am in a foul mood, and I lose any semblance of patience I might ordinarily have. It's not pretty, but I'm not quite sure what to do about it. The only thing that seems to help is having some time to myself and lots of sleep.

I'm looking back at the title of this post, and realize how it probably sounds. I think it's obvious I'm talking about the sick kids. Although we had planned to wait a bit for another baby, we are happy to welcome him/her early. We might go insane for a while, but somehow we will make it work. Now, if we could just keep them healthy. . .

Healthy For the Moment

I feel like I've been on a nursing sick kids to healthy marathon.  Thankfully, they are all better, for the moment, at least.  Seriously, what a pain!!!  In four days, Jameson had almost an entire container of Children's Motrin.  I'm not one to medicate quickly, but 24/7 fever is unbearable.  It's really strange too how when he's running a fever, he seems to have stronger responses to his dreams.  Anyone else seen this in their kids?  If I sat outside his room when his fever was returning, I could hear all the nonsensical things he was saying.  It was cute, but I felt bad for him.

Truman kicked off this virus round with 4 nights of the worst sleep I have ever gotten.  I think on the last night, we just gave up and let me scream his head off for a couple of hours.  This is not normally our style, but we were both deliriously tired.  I was cursing everything in mind and sight a couple of those nights.

Amelia was, as usual, our good sleeper despite her fever.  She got the least amount of Motrin and did the least amount of complaining.  I guess that just goes to show you that men are wimps when it comes to illness.  Then again, I didn't need my daughter as evidence to confirm that men are the weaker sex.  Sorry, guys, you have your strengths, but toughing it out is not one of them.

I am now cringing at the thought of sending Jameson to the virus cesspool that is daycare tomorrow.  He doesn't go every day, but I know every day that he goes is another day he is likely to pick something up from some other snot-nosed 3 year old.  Well, wish us luck that the rest of the cold and flu season is, at least, tolerable.

Too Sick For Blogging

I've been meaning to blog all week, but we've had our hands more than full with sick kids. I finally seem to have found a few moments of peace before the next kid needs his/her dose of ibuprofen.

Truman kicked off the week with high fever in the middle of the night and continued for about 3 days. He is a bear at night when he's sick, so nobody got any sleep. Amelia followed him a few days later with the same symptoms, and continues with her fever. Jameson just started with fever yesterday, so he is eager for the "purple medicine" every 6 hours. Not to be outdone, Truman suddenly broke out in hives last night, so all eyes were on him again last night.

It's no fun with a whole house full of sick kids, but it's one of the ugly necessities of parenting. Congratulations, Jim & Liz! Enjoy the "honeymoon" of parenting.

All Alone . . . and Sick

James is stuck at Newark Airport, and I'm at home alone with 3 little ones - sick ones at that.

Yup, out of the blue today, Jameson spiked a fever.  I, as usual, ran him to the doctor to have the ears and throat checked.  Both clear, but I'm still keeping an eye out.  He was still running a fever by bedtime, so I can look forward to little sleep.  Now, I'm just waiting for the babies to catch up with him.

James is out of own all week for work, so I'm relying on my mom and his mom and sisters to help me as they can.  I'm not really nervous about being alone a whole week so much as being alone with sick kids.  When it comes to sick kids, saying that I'm paranoid is probably an understatement.  I start imagining all kinds of scenarios, and I completely over-think things.

For instance, tonight Jameson gets up from my bed which he laid in for a while following his shower and says, "My neck hurts.".  As soon as he says this I'm already wondering if meningitis is a possibility.  Yes, it is, but I know it's far more likely it's just some other virus.  I wait a few minutes and ask him if his neck still hurts.  He tells me it doesn't, but he's already planted the thought in my head.  James isn't here to tell me I'm crazy, so I try to keep my imagination in check.

Wish me luck.  We miss you, Dad.

Rude Awakening

I woke up at about 12:47 a.m. this morning to Jameson throwing up on me. He's now waiting for me to come back to bed with him, but I can't lie that I'm a bit apprehensive to go back in there. I just sat down after cleaning up dirty clothes, bed sheets, the floor and bathroom, and taking my second shower of the night.

Fast forward 12 hours since I had to get JJ to sleep last night.

Talk about a rough night. It sounds like we're not the only ones having a tough time this cold and flu season, which I thought was supposed to be over. Well, last night I was very abruptly reminded that it's still making it's way around. I got Jameson to bed at about 11 p.m., and I fell asleep with him. I shot up out of bed at about 12:30 a.m. when I hear him starting to cry and cough. It all happened so fast all I could do was contain the mess with what else but my own body. Yuck! What a mess! Of course, Jameson was very quick to point out that he "made a mess". I hollered at James to come help me with the aftermath, and I think I woke up Truman (poor guy!). There was nothing I could do. James threw JJ in the shower, and I worked on cleaning up the mess. Unfortunately, poor little Truman just cried until I was ready to feed him since it was time for him to eat.

It's no fun, but I know it's part of being a kid. I just hope it's not as bad as our last stomach virus. That one knocked all 3 of us out for at least a week. I was 7 weeks pregnant with the twins and had to make a trip to the hospital due to dehydration. Jameson seems in pretty good spirits though. He's not eating a lot, but it's probably better that way until he's feeling more like himself.

Now I'm just hoping my little ones don't pick up this bug. They are troopers though. I'm pretty sure we're going on 3 or 4 colds/bugs this season for each of them. James has been hit a couple of times, but somehow I am hanging in there. I'm using positive thinking and so far it seems to be working. We'll see if I hold up.