getting old now

Ugh!! I have been such a slug all day today. Yet another day, yet another fever (from me again), yet another day of not being able to eat.... This is maddening! Thankfully, I do have a doctor's appointment tomorrow and I am hoping to be on the mend. This has officially lasted now longer than SweetPea's or Porker's fever/illness and its beginning to take its toll on everyone in this house.

poster child for sick mamas everywhere

The mom NEVER gets sick.  Its against some written code of rules somewhere. Dads can come down with "man colds", the littles (or bigs) can all become bedridden with mysterious colds. But the mom of the house is not allowed to get sick. Ever. And I can see why... but am too achy and yucky to do anything about it.

The dishes are piling up... My kidlets had pizza for the second night in a row for dinner. No one is helping Peanut study for her spelling test. PorkChop has taken up residence inside a box with his "soft" and just sits there looking dejected. SweetPea has decided that she can be "the mom" of the house by running her mouth and then squealing like a stuck pig whenever someone doesn't jump to her commands. Punk and Pickle disappear for long periods of time, forsaking their chores and their own cleanliness. While I just lay on the couch and try to stay awake long enough to make sure that the house isn't going to burn down to the ground while hubby is at work.

This bites!

Which is why I am taking one for the team and seeing a doctor tomorrow. I don't care what they decide to do to me, it has to be better than this. Because I am miserable and I just don't have time for it.

my turn!!! my turn!!

Ugh!!! Why did I think that I could avoid the stupid illness that has been making the rounds here? Today is day 2 of me running a fever. Yep, me. Hubby has been awesome, taking over for me around the house, working major hours split between here and the road but I want to be able to do things for myself again. Mainly eat... I miss eating.... *sigh* Too bad my throat hurts too much to do much of that. In two days, I have had a bowl of cereal, three bread sticks with marinara sauce and um... yeah, that's it.

Since I haven't felt up to doing much, I have been sleeping and reading. And reading and sleeping. Allowing the kids WAY too much time on the television, not keeping the house up to par and taking more Motrin than I care to admit.

the view from here

But I have got to read.... I finished "Into the Wilderness" and started reading "American Legends: Sitting Bull". While I am waiting none so patiently for the newest tale of Jamie and Claire (Outlander), I am trying to keep my nose in the American wilderness. So far, American Legends is amazing. Its a  historical piece in the sense that its a shortened version of Sitting Bull's life but I wish that it was more. Not sure what I want more of but I want more.

Since SweetPea's fever lasted for two days, I am hoping that tomorrow, I will be better. I am tired of not being me. Especially since it means short blogging since the screen is making my head ache so much worse.

another one bites the dust

I have no idea what is going on around here. This morning was wonderful. SweetPea and PorkChop woke in good moods, we enjoyed our tandem nursing morning together snuggled in the blankets. I cleaned the rabbits' area this morning while the littles played Lalaloopsy together at the kitchen table. Breakfast was eaten by most (ok, so SweetPea DID pick at her meal but that is not uncommon) and then it was back to playing while I finished cleaning the kitchen and living area. SweetPea asked for some cartoons so I let her watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (her new love) while Porker and I had a rousing game of dinosaurs at the zoo.

Then it started.... I made SweetPea turn off the television because, in my opinion, it had ran enough. She threw a temper tantrum and then flopped down on the couch, telling me that no one loves her. And promptly fell asleep like that. PorkChop curled up in my lap and did the same. Since he was still recuperating from his long week, I wasn't worried about him. And since SweetPea had just had a pretty epic fit, I wasn't worried about her either.

They both woke after an hour, refreshed and ready for some lunch. SweetPea was agreeable to eating (she is always much better at lunch than at breakfast) and I promised her after my shower, I would make her grilled cheese. In the fifteen minutes it took me to shower, we went from happy Pea to this.....

another one down for the count

104.7 when there was no sign of a fever before. Poor girl ended up sleeping on and off all afternoon in my bed where she could snuggle down without fear of Porker pulling her hair. One dose of Motrin brought the fever right down to a more acceptable range of 101 where it stayed all day until the next dose was approaching. No symptoms of anything, just a nasty high fever. And this one was high for her. Where PorkChop has now hit in the 105's for the last three fevers, SweetPea normally stays around 102, maybe 103 (like when her eye area became infected twice from mosquito bites). She slept until she felt rested though and then was content to tear around the house as if everything was fine.

So now we wait. If she is not better by Monday, into the doc's she will go. If she is back to her normal spunky self, we will just chalk it up as one of those things. She says that nothing hurts, just that she is tired. And I couldn't agree more...  I am pretty tired of these dang fevers too!

poor little wee one

My poor little buddy is sick. Well, sick like only my buddy gets. He woke up this morning running a temperature of 103 and its wavered between there and 101 all day. Little PorkChop doesn't take medications kindly so I have worn more than my fair share of motrin today. I don't even really think that I got any into him.

Fevers are not a new thing for Porker. Most kids get the sniffles.... he gets scary high fevers that, thankfully, usually only last a day. Burn hot and bright, and then like a star, burns themselves just as quickly right out. So its just a waiting game. I figure by tomorrow that he will be back to his normal rambunctious self. And while there are days when I wish that he would slow down and take a break, this is not how I want him to accomplish that goal.

my poor miserable boy

Thankfully, I have had a bit of help today. Even though our temperatures outside neared 50, the bigs all had a snow day due to the ice storm that hit last night. Its still kind of funny to see the weather gauge and hear the words "snow day" in the same frame since they went to school when the temperatures were in the single digits last week. But then you walk outside (or did this morning anyway, its basically all just slush now) and see a good half inch of ice coating everything and suddenly, it makes more sense.

So for today, I am thankful for odd snow days on warm, spring-like days. One, because it meant that I got an extra day with the family (minus hubby, unfortunately, who worked late) but two, because it meant that I got to give Porker as many snuggles as he wanted without having to tell him no so I could spend equal time with SweetPea. In fact, having Peanut here, I barely saw either of them today.

Albuterol and amoxicillin and z-packs, Oh my!

Can I just say how very much I love the winter months? Sliding around on the ice, freezing while walking to the mailbox.... Your shoes filling up with slushy snow and the wind whipping straight to the bone.... Not to mention the very best part of the winter months, the never ending colds!

This season has been one of the worst ones yet for our household. Normally, Punk gets his deep winter cough and we might have a few small assorted colds pass through the house but nothing too major. This doesn't seem to be the case this year.

Right after Thanksgiving (like the very next day), I came down with the worst sore throat of my life. The only time that it has been even comparable has been when I have had too much iodine in my system. We are guessing that it started because hubby was nice enough to share his "cold" with me and it just morphed out of control. Since that point, every single member of our family (with the exception of Punk, go figure) has decided that they needed to have this bug.

Oh the joys of winter!

Last week, we took PorkChop to the doctor over his cough. She also was nice enough to check SweetPea out at the same time even though she didn't officially have an appointment. Today it was Peanut's turn. She woke for school at 7am, literally howling about her ear hurting. I figured that it was more of a case of the "I don't want to attend school" blues and ended up fighting with her for more than an hour. But she refused to get out of bed, preferring to keep screaming. I even took her temperature to make sure that she was fine (and she was fever free). Checked SweetPea to make sure that the thermometer was working... apparently it was because SweetPea WAS running a fever. So I caved and told her to go back to bed that she could stay home.

After listening to two and a half straight hours of crying, I made her an appointment to get checked. Good thing too that they could squeeze us in (thank God for cancellations!) because her ear wasn't just "sore" but severely infected. The doctor couldn't believe that we had had zero warning about it because of the shape it was in. Peanut now has a follow-up appt in ten days to make sure that the ear drum doesn't rupture and if it does, that its healing ok. Fun!

All totaled for this month, that makes two infected ears (both on Peanut's head), one child on breathing treatments for a junky cough without an apparent cause, one child that has been consistently running a low grade fever also without an apparent cause, two adults battling headaches (which we are thinking are being brought on by sinuses), one teen boy with a man cold and the other almost teen boy who went to bed early tonight because he was "too tired" to finish watching a movie with the family. Definitely doesn't bode well right now for our "healthy" family member.

Mr Unique

PorkChop never seems to do anything "by the book". He was born after the most crazy, messed-up labor that I have ever heard of (and wouldn't have believed if I hadn't been through it myself). We spent his whole first year with crazy high fevers every two months that came with no other symptoms of illness (we just referred to them as molting periods). So why did I expect his newest "illness" to be any different?

Our poor little dragon face

It all started the Thursday after Christmas when I took SweetPea and PorkChop out to play in our first snow fall of the season. Over six inches of the white, fluffy stuff just begging to be played in/with. So I obliged. Little did I know that thirty minutes of playtime outside would result in SweetPea coming down with a cold, myself being knocked flat out for a day with something and poor PorkChop developing a nasty, junky sounding cough.

Like I said, mine lasted for a day. I did nothing but sleep, fret and cough. I ran a fever, couldn't stomach the thought of eating or drinking anything and was just perfectly miserable. SweetPea is still fighting the lethargy that seems to have catergorized her illness. She has a slight cough, has been running a fever off and on but checked out fine at the doctor's today (other than the guess that she just has a cold). PorkChop though....

Every night, his oxygen levels have been dropping. His poor little lips, chin and upper lip take on a dusky hue that get worse every time that he coughs. His appetite has dropped (we think because of how much his poor little nose is pouring) and his cough has gone between sounding junky and sounding barky. He has earned himself the nickname Boogers because of the amazing amount of snot pouring out of him. But I digress.... We took him to the pediatrician today to make sure that he was ok. And of course he is!

At 17 months, he is weighing in at 25.5lbs. So he has gained since his birthday in July. Ears, eyes, throat and chest all look/sound clear. But based on the cough, his coloring during those jags and the way that his throat dips down when he coughs/cries, she decided that the best course of action was to prescribe a nebulizer for right now. Twice a day unless needed more often, PorkChop has to sit still and receive Albuterol through the neb. Do we know officially what's going on? Nope. Doesn't seem to be a cold, but it could be. Could be allergies. Could be asthma. Could be just Porker being Porker. I am guessing that this kid is always going to keep me on my toes though.

a first for us

Yesterday began what was one of the most scariest times in my life. PorkChop hadn't been feeling well for a few days but I just assumed that it was teething. His fever was high but he was still acting pretty normal, a bit more clingy but his normal happy and content self. During SweetPea's party though, he decided to stop eating. All together. I would offer the breast and he would just rear his body backwards and howl, huge tears running down his cheeks. By early afternoon, he wasn't wetting any diapers. We decided about 8pm to take him into the after hours clinic at the hospital before it closed.

When we got there, it had been at least 7 hrs without a wet diaper and even longer since he had eaten. He still wasn't interested in food and his eerie crying fits were getting closer and closer together. Thanks to some motrin, his fever was at bay at least.

PorkChop was seen at 830pm and because of his age and the history of illnesses in the family (SweetPea had an ear infection, Punk had both ears infected, Peanut was starting to complain of the same), it was decided to admit him through the ER for some IV fluids.

We were told at first that it would be a few hours and then he could leave. But with the length of his fever, his refusal to eat and his lethargy, they decided that it would be better to admit him overnight to the pediatrics ward.

Hubby took the older kids home, including my poor birthday girl who didn't understand one bit why mama and her baby were staying behind. I kept trying to offer the breast and my poor little man just kept refusing and looking at me with such sadness that I wanted to break down and cry. I didn't though. I was too afraid that if I started, I wouldn't stop.

Instead, I held PorkChop through six attempts to get a blood draw, through two more attempts to get the IV started, through a catheter to check for urinary trouble and an RSV swab.

I didn't sleep a wink that night having PorkChop not in the bed next to me for the first time since his birth. And the poor little man was so exhausted from the lack of fluids and the testing that he slept for four straight hours for the first time ever not snuggled up in my arms. Three bags of fluid later though and that ended. Once the IV fluids began kicking in, PorkChop started to become more like his normal self. He perked up, slowly ate from the breast and began wetting again.

Results came back that his body was fighting something but they never could pin point exactly what. Best guess was that it was some kind of viral infection based on my description of his slapped looking cheeks most of last week.

It never would have occurred to me before that such a mild appearing "cold" could be so concerning so quickly. None of my children had ever been hospitalized overnight before even though we had made other ER trips for various illnesses. Just the mental image that I carry of my PorkChop screaming (from hunger they guessed... ) but unwilling to eat, wanting to snuggle and just sleep, to being hooked to an IV is something that I will not soon forget.

I will take more time to snuggle him, to love on him, to have a bit more patience. We were lucky that nothing was seriously wrong. But what if it had? What would I have done without my baby?

welcome home?

Wow, as if I wasn't behind enough, let's just shove more in my path, shall we?

SweetPea's third birthday and party are Sunday and really, this road trip, while a very welcome break from our norm, couldn't have come at a worse time. I have so much to prepare for and no time to actually do it. Add in that we had stowaways on our return trip and my limited time just became more limited.

We ended up making an emergency trip to the doctor's today for SweetPea. She has been feverish since Wednesday night but today, she was complaining of pain in her belly button region bad enough that she was in tears. This the same child that doesn't cry for anything (pain related). After listening to her sob unrelentlessly for an hour, we made the decision that a trip to the doctor might be in order. Turns out that she has an inner ear infection and major constipation. Wow, who would have guessed that from the child that pooped every day while we were gone?

Poor Porkchop has been feverish too and his little cheeks are really starting to tell the tale. My baby looks like someone slapped him across the face and he is miserably warm. I am guessing that its just viral though from his face so I am waiting it out.

Then Peanut and Punk had school conferences today. Whew... yeah, let's cram a bit more in there. Punk is actually doing better this marking so far than last. His teacher would like to see him use his voice a bit more in the classroom (I wonder if she would like to take him after school hours a bit since she thinks that he is quiet!!) and a bit more organized but other than that, he is doing well. Peanut, on the other hand... her conference didn't go badly. We signed her up for math tutoring since she is still just not getting it. I understand that math will never be a "favorite" subject for her but her aptitude scores and what she does in class are vastly different. So we know that she CAN do it, its just a matter of doing it now.