I was hoping by now, I’d be able to report that the babies are healthy and life is back to normal.  Not yet.

Dexter was running a fever last Wednesday and a lower one on Thursday but it was gone by Friday.  Got Theo up, though, and guess what?  He felt hot.  So I took his temperature and it was 100.something.  He had a follow up from his ER visit at 8am so I decided not to give him ibuprofen right then and see what the doctor said.  His fever was still 99.something when we got there and the doctor was confused.  Let me tell you.  For the record, it’s a pretty icky feeling when your child’s doctor scratches his chin and says he just can’t figure out what’s wrong. 

He said his fever should not be back.  Croup peaks early and then symptoms go away gradually.  This was not the normal course for croup.  No strep.  No pneumonia.  No clue.  He did say that the steroid he’d received at the hospital should be wearing off, but the croup symptoms should be wearing off too. 

So, the conclusion was that he must have picked up another virus.  How?  Where?  We certainly hadn’t been anywhere besides the hospital (I know, they’re gross), but he didn’t touch anything there.  So all weekend, he continued not eating and coughing his little head off, and being a pain in the rear because he was so grumpy.  Towards the beginning of the week-o-illness, I’d said he could eat whatever he wanted.  Cookies.  Ice cream.  Crackers.  Popsicles.  Whatever…it’s calories, right.  I eat whatever sounds good to me when I feel like crap.

Backfire.  About 5 or 6 days in, he’s eating crackers.  Lots of them at times.  But that’s it.  I know for a fact that he loves pizza.  Meat loaf.  Peas.  Green beans.  Carrots.  But he absolutely refused to eat any of that.  Instead he walks around (or gets carried around as the case may be) and points at the junk food cabinet, saying “key-key?” and “cra-kah?”  So Saturday I put my foot down and said no more sweets.  He’s pretty pissed.  It feels extra crappy telling your SICK kid they can’t have this, they can’t have that.  Especially when you’ve been letting him have those things all week.  Now he’s confused.  And did I mention pissed?

Finally, Sunday afternoon, Theo started eating real food again.  It was touch and go, but I think his energy and appetite are almost back to normal.  He still has a nasty sounding cough (and he is still asking for a cookie every 5.2 seconds).

Poor, poor Deester.  My little baby now has a yucky sounding cough and it might hurt me as much as it hurts him.  I just want to take away all of their pain and discomfort and put it on myself.  It’s been hard seeing Theo so sick for the last week, but oh man.  Seeing Dexter so miserable is a whole new ball game.  Babies that little just shouldn’t be so sick.  We broke down and used the doctor’s cell phone number around 5 on Labor Day and he agreed to call in a steroid for Dexter, in hopes of avoiding another late night at the ER. 

Life has been such a whirlwind these past couple of weeks.  The house is a mess.  The laundry isn’t folded.  The dishes are dirty.  The shelves are dusty.  There have been several (more interesting) blog ideas that popped in and out of my head without getting written down.  I have missed lots of photo ops because my hands were full of babies.  There just hasn’t been time to do anything in the midst of all the craziness.  And everything being so out of order adds to my own sense of crazy.  Not good. Oh, did I mention that we got a new roof last week?  Throw that into the mix for a little extra stress and excitement.

I’m hoping Dexter will feel better soon.  Mainly because I love that little human more than life itself and I just want my happy, healthy boy back.  But also (selfishly, perhaps) because we are supposed to visit with good friends this weekend and I’d be devastated if we can’t get together.  And also because a new little bitty baby starts at the babysitter next Monday and I’d die if he got sick too.  Another thing that adds to my stress is that I have very little time that I can take off from work.  It’s so hard being away from the babes, especially at night when croup gets really bad.   

Ok, enough about the sickness.  We are going to get better.  I’m willing it to happen today. 

hopeful,
~C~

This week has been bad for a lot of people I know.  A super nice guy I went to high school with passed away suddenly on Sunday.  It’s just sobering and hard to believe.  It could be any one of my friends.  Our babysitter’s husband’s grandma passed away.  A friend’s 19 year old cousin was diagnosed with Leukemia.

In light of all that, I guess our week wasn’t that bad.  But it was bad and I’m waiting for it to get worse.  Sunday afternoon, Theo woke up from his nap with a fever.  It continued for a couple of days and he was just not feeling well in general.  Pretty much the same as the other few times he’s had a virus.  Tuesday afternoon he started coughing.  I got a call from R at work at 10:20 Tuesday night saying that Theo was “barking,” hysterical, and couldn’t catch his breath.  He was waiting for the doctor’s office/on call nurse to call back.  A few minutes later he called back and calmly said “he’s in respiratory distress, I have to take him to the emergency room.  And she said ‘it’s okay if you want to call 911.'”

Cue the freakout.

I dropped the phone and practically ran across the floor to find my supervisor.  As soon as I started speaking the words, I felt those invisible hands tightening up around my neck and felt hot tears springing into my eyes.  Before I got the first sentence out, I could barely talk.  My baby.  Respiratory distress.  Emergency room.  Call 911.

My bosses were so kind and gracious and told me to get the heck out of there.  Go be with your family.  I did something I never do and left my work for others to complete.  I still feel guilty about that but no amount of guilt could have tied me to my desk for another two hours while I waited to hear from R, not knowing if my son was okay.

I quickly wrapped up the file I was working on and shut my computer down.  I was on the interstate in no time.  The hospital never seemed so far away.  I called my mom, crying, because I needed someone to tell me everything was going to be alright.  I got to the hospital around 11 or just after.  There were my three boys, sitting in the waiting room.  Didn’t these fools understand the urgency?  Why didn’t they have him on oxygen or a breathing treatment?  I rushed over to where they were sitting and scooped Theo up into my arms.  He smiled and said “Mama!”

What?  This was respiratory distress?  We waited and waited.  And waited some more.  They took us back and did his vitals.  Then sent us to the waiting room to wait some more.  He had ups and downs and was definitely “barking” every time he talked, cried, coughed, and especially when he got upset.  He thought it was super fun to take a drink from the water fountain so we made a game of that to help pass the time.  Surprisingly, Dexter just sat in his carseat, never making a peep.

We finally got to go back and eventually, they said that Theo had an upper respiratory virus and croup.  He was exhausted but couldn’t get comfortable enough to go to sleep.  They gave him a steroid in liquid form mixed with apple juice, which was a huge treat.  We were there until 2am.  He has been in so much pain, every time he coughs.  He still feels like crap and his voice is so raspy, which is cute, but sad.  But cute.  Luckily, he hasn’t had a fever since Tuesday night so maybe he’s no longer contagious.

However.

Yesterday, Dexter came down with a fever so I called the doctor.  I remembered they had warned us about Dexter getting a fever when Theo was sick a couple of months ago.  I couldn’t remember what was an okay fever and what was a scary fever.  His was 100.4 when I called and they said if it gets above 101, they want to see him.  And they said he will probably get croup.  Sad face.  Croup is awful.

So today, his fever has been off and on.  I haven’t given him any medicine yet, I’m hoping it will just run it’s course.  He’s been a little fussy but doesn’t seem terribly miserable.  He has had a few weird coughs today so I’m afraid that’s the beginning of croup all over again.  My poor babies.

On top of the kids being so sick, we got a new roof this week and it has been one thing after another.  Mainly, I haven’t been able to sleep at home, which has been bad.  I feel like I’ve gotten about 10 hours of sleep since Sunday.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me.  Ever since I was pregnant with Theo, I just haven’t slept well.  It doesn’t matter if the kids wake up at night or not…I’m up.  And once I’m up, I stay up.  Everything is so much harder when you’re functioning at about half.

So good riddance to this week and welcome next week.  I’m hoping that next week treats everyone much kinder.

this week sucks.
~C~