Before I Had Three Kids

Welcome to the first installation of "Before I Had Three Kids" where I'll tell you something I thought before I had three kids. Naive? Sometimes. Stupid? Abso-freakin-lutely.

Here we go.

Before I Had Three Kids...

I thought it was so gross that one's subsequent children could be sick at a young age. I mean, how can that happen to such a little baby? Honestly, my kids never had to go to day care of any sort so they were never exposed to tons of different germs and viruses early. Say what you want, I just thought it was a lack of attention on the parents' part. They could wash their hands better and try to not let the bigger kids put their dirty little paws and snot on the baby.

Well, it just happens...

Dunks with his first fever, thanks to his first run-in with the flu.

Now that I have my own day care of sorts, I see that some things just get passed around. My hands are cracked and bleeding from washing, but sometimes there isn't enough time between snot wiping to cleanse again. I tried to keep the bigs from kissing on the little, but they love him and I'm not going to be accused of squashing affection. 

C'est la vie. 

Crawling Back

...from the dead!

Holy crap, that sucked. After last night, we're finally on the mend. Turner's fever hovered around the 103 mark leaving him in a lump on the couch. The poor dude was confused; almost like he knew he was supposed to be up and running but he just couldn't. I'd ask if he wanted this or that to eat and he'd try a bite but put it down. He'd try to play but go sit back down. After not bathing for two days I tried to get the older two in the tub. Turner sat for a minute but I could tell he was just out of it.

I put the boys down for the night last night and finally turned my attention to the baby. He was feverish and starting to get restless. Eli came in to visit around 8:40 and I knew it was going to be a loooong night. Deacon needed to nurse as much as possible to fight the virus but Eli was NOT being a good bed buddy. The baby fell asleep so I brought Eli back upstairs, sat with him until I thought he was sleeping and went back down to comfort a cranky babe. Eli came BACK down at midnight and I thought I'd just let him stay in bed. He tossed and turned and tossed and turned and.... until 4am. I was SO furious. Just tired. The baby nursed all.night.long. Eli kicked and whined. Turner started crying that he wanted Eli back upstairs.

SO...

I brought Eli upstairs, brought Turner to my room and told them to sleep or I'd be very upset. I know, great mommy skills. Everyone was screaming; I was desperate. They slept til 7:23. Joy.

The good news is that the baby slept from some time in the early morning until around 10am. Fever free. He's on the mend now, too.

I felt terrible about the morning so I sneaked in to the shower and just washed the funk off. I promised the boys that we'd make cookies if they took a good nap. I've been able to put them ALL to sleep (Turner sounds like he's just laying in bed, coughing his little head off), have a cup of tea and read some "mom-spiration."

Here's to a better week!

Flu Schmu

Some how, we've managed to be graced with the flu virus. Between the library, gym and aquarium the nasty germies made their way in to Eli first. Saturday morning he woke up very grumpy, after nap he had a fever but I didn't really make much of it. We had some friends over and he just went downhill. It seemed like he was a little better as he made his way out of my room (he went to sleep again at 4:30 and just wouldn't move). He came out to play with our friends but I could see he wasn't himself. I feel terrible because if I knew in any way, shape or form it was the flu I would have cancelled. 

As soon as our friends left I felt a fever develop. I already had a terrible cough and that got worse over night. So bad, in fact, I pulled the muscles between my ribs. 

I decided to take everyone to the walk-in clinic on Sunday morning because I knew they'd give Eli tamiflu. Normally I'm not a treat the symptoms kind of person but with no extra help around, I wanted to shorten the length of misery. 

It's a good thing we did because this morning Turner woke up with a fever. The doctor prescribed two bottles of tamiflu so I've started Turner on it as well.

So far little dude doesn't have any symptoms. I had a really long night with him as he just couldn't be satisfied. He did wake up with a cough but I'm hoping it's nothing a little extra nursing can't cure.

We're pretty miserable over here and I wouldn't have survived the last few days without the help of my friend, Joy. She has gone out of her way to bring us supplies.