Still Sick

I typically consider myself to be a fairly optimistic person, and I usually try to look on the bright side and remind myself that there are always others who have it worse. But when my kids are STILL having on-again off-again diarrhea and who knows what else, it's REALLY hard to remember that there are mothers out there who would love it if all they had to worry about was a little diarrhea (as opposed to chemo or hospitalizations or major surgeries or anything else). Life has just been a major struggle lately--I'm struggling with the constant stink, I'm struggling with all the laundry, and mostly I'm struggling with the constant disruption of plans--and while I (rationally) know my boys aren't intentionally being extra whiny and crabby, I find myself struggling to be patient with them. William was supposed to start VBS this morning, which I was really looking forward to--good social interaction for him (we've had a few outings/classes that have been kind of a bust for my little introvert, so I was really looking forward to this experience for him since he'll know some of the other kids from church) plus a few hours in the morning for Mommy to only have one boy to wrangle (hello easy errands!). But nope--William was up at 5:00 throwing up and although he's done with that (thank goodness), he's still been in the bathroom plenty this morning. And this was after he'd been fine all weekend (he even had a solid poop last night before bed). Silver lining (I suppose) is that he got sick before I took him to VBS so he didn't get sick there. But this pretty much just confirms I can't go anywhere--I tried going to the park on Friday (after he'd been okay for a few days), and we spent as much time in the bathroom as we did on the playground. So that was fun.

We're headed to the doctor this afternoon--after going last week and getting a diagnosis of gastroenteritis, which should have run its course by now--so here's hoping we can get some more answers. Or at least a magic pill that will make all this stop (and make Garrett's eye teeth come in as well, since I'm pretty sure that is contributing to his issues).

A Vote to Outlaw Holiday Weekends

Remember how our Mother's Day Weekend was, well, a little on the chaotic/disastrous side? Despite my comment about not having to worry about doing much to make sure Darrell had a better Father's Day, I'm actually saddened to say that I'm pretty sure my mother's day topped Darrell's father's day. If I try really, really, hard, I think I can come up with three highlights from the weekend:

1. Darrell got to go golfing on Sunday. Only nine holes, but that was probably okay because he re-opened his wound from his fun little knife incident (after getting the stitches out Friday, no less). Nothing major, just prolonging the healing (and pain) a little bit.
2. Despite throwing up a handful of times (and all but one of those times in his bedroom), Garrett managed to miss the rug in his room every time. Which we were very grateful for--cleaning his sheets, bamboo floors, and even the recliner was a lot easier than trying to figure out how we would clean his (mostly white) rug.
3. Even though William has been in underwear for less than a month, he had absolutely zero accidents all weekend (since Thursday, actually)--especially impressive since he had some pretty constant diarrhea (TMI? Sorry. But it's been the story of my life all weekend for both boys--we just didn't have to worry as much about Garrett since he was wearing diapers, although he did leak out a few times).

How's that for highlights of our weekend? For the worried grandparents out there, we took the boys to the doctor today, and as long as things get, ahem, "plugged up" in the next five to seven days (and they stay well hydrated during that time), they'll be just fine. Just a stomach bug (although he used a much fancier word)--which I should mention Darrell had as well. Only because it was truly the icing on the cake for his father's day. Maybe things will improve for his birthday later this week--although I'm not going to jinx myself and say that things certainly can't be worse than they were for Father's Day!

Life as a Horse

So you know what's a blessing--and equally a curse? Having the immune system of a horse (total sidenote--but any idea where that expression came from? It's totally random in my opinion). It's a blessing for obvious reasons--no one actually enjoys being sick--but when you have two kids and a husband who do not have immune systems of horses, it can also be a curse. Because guess who ends up being the healthy (or at least, healthier) one that always has to take care of the sick people? Lucky ol' me. And I know--being able to be home with the kiddos when they are sick is (rationally) a blessing: I don't have to worry about them feeling under the weather and being in someone else's care, and we don't have to worry about juggling PTO and missing work to be home with them. But seriously... Sick kids are awful. And draining. Especially when they don't actually know how to be sick. Rather than just lying down and enjoying (somewhat) unlimited TV time so they can rest, my boys would rather continue to be up and about doing stuff--but being very whiny and temperamental while doing so. And thankfully, Darrell doesn't fall into the "man flu" category of being sick--he'll usually just shut himself up in the bedroom and stay out of our way--but still. Part of me gets envious of his life behind those closed doors. Lying in bed all day? Napping freely? Time to actually rest--and maybe even do some reading? Seriously--where do I sign up? Granted, I'd have to be pretty sick for Darrell to stay home and watch the boys, and if I'm that sick I'm definitely not enjoying a minute of my time in bed (and let's be honest--I'd probably feel guilty about being a lazy pile, regardless of how sick I might be), but still--a girl can dream. In the meantime I'll just continue to suffer through this mild cold that I've had for two weeks (because yay immune system of a horse that keeps me from getting more than mildly sick) while taking care of my boys who seem to pick up colds and stomach bugs at the drop of a hat.

Weekend Rewind

Well, we're only halfway to the next weekend, but better late than never, right? And I actually have a few pictures to share, plus some unplanned (and definitely not needed) "excitement" from the weekend, so I figured I might as well write my recap even if it is a few days late.

In short, Saturday was packed. I felt like Darrell and I spent the majority of the day tag-team parenting. We headed to Luverne, MN early Saturday morning so Darrell could march in a parade, which left me (and my nine-month pregnant sister) on duty with the boys. They did pretty well watching the parade, although William wasn't too fond of the fire trucks and motorcycles because they were too loud (the amount of candy he got probably made up for that, though!). We had lunch in Luverne (another adventure in tag-team parenting: one of us eats while the other helps the boys with their food, and then switch!), then got the boys home for their naps. Shortly after they went down my mom came to pick me up so we could go out to Mitchell for my cousin's high school graduation open house. We were only there for about an hour before we had to turn around to get back home--my brother was pitching in a baseball game that evening that we wanted to get back for. Darrell took the boys over there after their naps (it was a tournament and there was a game before the one my brother pitched), and after watching a few innings he handed them off to my dad and sister because we weren't back yet and he had to get to an event where he was taking pictures for the Shriners. My mom and I made it to the fields shortly after he left, and we stayed to watch my brother pitch four innings before I took the boys home (quite a bit past their bedtimes, I might add). Darrell got home late, we crashed, and looked forward to having a much more relaxing Sunday.

And relaxing it was--at least to start. Church, lunch, naps, a run to the store for me to get a few plants for my garden (some of my tomato plants that I started from seed didn't fair too well being transplanted), and pretty soon we were settling in to enjoy some homemade pizza for dinner. We had a chance to Skype with Darrell's parents after dinner (and it even worked for us to take the iPad outside--win!), and then off to bed for the boys. And that's when the fun started. While I was finishing getting William to bed, Darrell sat down on the couch and started getting ready to watch NCIS (because you know, we never do that in this house). I told him that there were a few things I wanted to get done before we checked out for the night, because I knew if the stuff didn't get done Sunday night Monday would end up being way more chaotic. So I asked Darrell to cut up the watermelon and cantaloupe that had been sitting on our counter for a few days and were nearly overripe. A few minutes later, as I'm helping William use the potty, I hear a "shit" from the kitchen--and I get out there to find Darrell standing over the sink, running water on his massively bleeding thumb. Awesome. Thank goodness for parents who live nearby. They came over and took Darrell to the ER (I would have gone with him if it had been major, but William still hadn't settled down and we knew that if Grandma and Grandpa showed up it would have taken even longer for him to get to bed). Four stitches (and as many hours) later, he finally came home. And we could finally get to bed so we could get ready to enjoy our Monday... Or something like that. I don't know if it was the busy Saturday, the somewhat poor sleep (did I mention Garrett is STILL teething and decided over the weekend he needed to wake up nearly every two hours at night?), my lingering cold, or Darrell's knife incident, but between everything we got this week started on the wrong foot and it just hasn't gotten much better. Granted, it hasn't exactly gotten worse (although it would take at least another ER visit for me to deem it "worse" than a weekend where we already had one ER visit), but it's just been riding at this unpleasant level of yuckiness (and yes, that's the technical term, I looked). I suppose on the bright side it's practically another weekend already, so here's to hoping we hit an upswing coming into the weekend and can carry that momentum into next week!

Update: Story of my week. I specifically mention that part of the reason I'm not going to skip over this weekend recap is that I actually remembered to take a few pictures. And then I completely forgot to share them. Sounds about right.

Weekend Redemption

So, after a less-than-stellar Mother's Day weekend, this past weekend was a breath of fresh air. Granted, as is par for the course in this house, Garrett passed his little illness on to William (without completely getting over it himself), so we weren't exactly feeling 100%, but we made the best of it anyway (and truthfully--after a miserable Thursday and Friday, William was feeling exponentially better on Saturday, so it was almost like he was healthy. Minus all his random coughing fits). Since both boys were still feeling a little under the weather (and decided to grace us with extra-early wake-up calls), we took it easy Saturday morning and bummed around the house until it was (finally!) nap time. That was my cue to get out of the house (for the first time in almost two days!) to pick up a few things for the graduation open houses we had that afternoon (nothing like waiting until the last minute). After naps, we headed to Harrisburg to congratulate some of the soccer players I used to coach and a former neighbor on their successful completion of high school. We socialized for a little bit, ate some food (and plenty of desserts!), then rounded up the boys before they got too antsy to make a quick stop at the store to look for summer sandals and a new swimsuit for William (spoiler--we ended up not finding what we were looking for, so I guess that means we'll have to go shopping again!). We made it home in time for dinner round two, baths, and bedtime, followed immediately by Darrell and me crashing on the couch and crossing our fingers for a good night's sleep for both boys.

Although the boys didn't exactly sleep through the night, they did sleep in until 7:30 on Sunday, so I'll still count that as a win. While Darrell made some pancakes, I got the stuff ready for the rest of the (super busy) day, and then headed out on a quick run before church. My parents took the boys home with them after church (freedom!!) so Darrell and I could spend some time at my sister's house answering a million baby related questions (just over a month to her due date and she's definitely feeling anxious!) and then go to a performance of Mary Poppins put on by the Sioux Empire Community Theater (if you are local there are still four more performances to catch this weekend and it was really really good!). And as if our Sunday hadn't been busy enough, it was also the home opener for my brother's amateur baseball team, so we picked up some beer (baseball necessity, in my opinion) and headed out to the game (where we met back up with my parents and the boys). William was actually pretty interested in watching the game--and if he wasn't watching he was usually playing with his baseball stuff--but Garrett could not have cared less. Thankfully, there was a mud puddle and a puppy dog, so he was in heaven.

We were all pretty exhausted when we got home (in fact, the boys were so exhausted that they didn't sleep well at all--funny how that works), and since we had been gone almost all day was that there wasn't much to clean up, so Darrell and I rounded out our weekend with some lounging around on the couch watching NCIS.

 

The biggest "failure" from the weekend was the fact that we didn't get the garden planted like we had wanted to--although not by any fault of our own. Thanks to freezing temperatures Friday night and near-freezing Saturday night, we didn't exactly think it was the best time to get our seeds in the soil. We're hoping to get that done this week--or next weekend at the latest! 

Irony at its Finest

At Garrett's one-year well-visit, one of the vaccinations he received came with a "warning" that it could cause him to spike a fever about a week after the shot. The same thing had happened to William, so we have been watching and waiting for Garrett to spike a fever this week. So of course, Darrell was the one to spike a fever (bad enough for him to stay home from work yesterday), and today William has fallen ill. But no fever for Garrett. Go figure. (Although he has pooped six times today. So I guess he has that going for him.)

Needless to say, things are a little rough around here. While Darrell was completely and utterly useless yesterday while he was sick, at least he kept to himself in our room and obeyed the things I told him to do (drink water, eat soup, etc). William, on the other hand, is downright miserable while sick. He doesn't want to do anything, doesn't want to eat or drink anything, doesn't want to get his temperature taken, doesn't want to take his medicine--nothing. Suggesting that he do any of those things--or trying to force him to do something--causes a meltdown. And on top of that, he feels it necessary to whine to me every thirty seconds that he "feels sick", no matter how many times I acknowledge his statement and apologize for his misfortune. I know I shouldn't be annoyed by my sick child... But there's only so much I can take, especially while also tending to a one-year old who is his normal ornery self (and who--admittedly--just wants to play with big brother and doesn't understand that throwing a ball at William is going to make him break down and cry). For all of our sanity, I hope William's illness is as short-lived as Darrell's was, otherwise I may have to call in for reinforcements tomorrow.

Cruel, Cruel, Fate

So I try really hard not to complain about my pregnancy (Darrell is doubled over in laughter at that statement--I give him the full brunt of my complaining since I avoid doing it publicly), but I've officially decided that one of the cruelest and worst things that can happen to a (VERY) pregnant lady is to get a cold. As if my lungs weren't already running out of room making it difficult for me to take deep breaths, now I can't take deep breaths even if I try because of all this lovely congestion. Plus thanks to dear little parasite in my belly, there isn't a whole lot I can take for said congestion. Joy.

But. At least I was able to get a reasonably decent night's sleep last night. We'll refrain from discussing how many pillows that required. And at least this is all I really have to complain about. I may be mopey and annoyed right now, but I still have the ability to recognize that I am fortunate to have been blessed with two remarkably uneventful pregnancies. And if the least of my worries is getting a cold while 8.5 months pregnant, well, I suppose I can suck it up and deal with it. But only after I throw myself a little pity party first.

Silver Lining

William puked this morning. Full on, all-over-everything puked. But I'm doing my best to stay positive and look for the silver lining in the ordeal and not let it ruin my Monday.

Silver Lining Number One: He puked in his car seat on the way to Darrell's office (because Darrell forgot his lunch at home). This meant that Darrell was able to come out and take care of the majority of the mess for me--all I had to worry about was getting William into a change of clothes, and Darrell even took the puke-y clothes off for me! (thank goodness I had an extra outfit in his diaper bag!) I have a notoriously weak stomach, and while I know things are going to get worse before they get better with kids, it was nice to have Darrell's help with the majority of the mess. (I still have to be responsible for rinsing out his clothes and car seat cover before getting them in the wash--a task that I might need to do while breathing through my mouth.)

Silver Lining Number Two: Not only was I already planning to do laundry today, but the load that William's car seat cover needs to be washed in had not been washed yet. That may not sound that remarkable, but considering I had already started two of my four loads before leaving the house this morning, I consider it fairly lucky that I hadn't started the load I was going to need.

Silver Lining Number Three: Even if I weren't able to get William's car seat cover washed and back on his car seat in a timely manner, it wouldn't be an issue anyway because we just ordered a new car seat for William and it is on the truck for delivery today! We have him in a rear-facing convertible seat in Darrell's car (and have since he was born), but up until now he was still riding in his infant car seat in my car (although I long ago stopped removing the car seat from the base to carry it around. Little devil was too heavy for that business!). He's pretty much at the point of having outgrown it, though, so as of tonight he will be in a new rear-facing convertible car seat in my car as well!

Here's to hoping I find more silver linings in my dark clouds today--or maybe just no more dark clouds!!

The Wrong Foot

Well, happy 2014. At least I hope it is for you. 2014 has definitely gotten off on the wrong foot in this house. What I thought may have been just a cold for William might have actually been the flu--complete with puking and diarrhea. Of course, we also (foolishly) tried giving him some pineapple the day after we got back, so we think that may have attributed to his tummy issues. Then on New Year's Eve, I spent the night ringing in the New Year during Central Time, Mountain Time, Pacific Time, and a few other western time zones--all thanks to a bout of stomach issues that kept me up most of the night. Darrell fell victim to the tummy bug last night, and we've spent the entirety of today lying low and recuperating. Thankfully we all seem to be on the mend, so fingers crossed our plans for this weekend (Christmas party and wedding) are able to go off without a hitch. Then maybe life will calm down--but highly unlikely since we have a nearly nine-month old who is constantly proving to us that our house isn't nearly as baby-proofed as we think.

Only Tuesday

It's funny how being sick makes the week seem to draaaag on forever. Is it seriously only Tuesday today? Ugh.

This is what my night looked like last night.

I feel remarkably better; I'm actually starting to enjoy tea quite a bit. And rubbing Vaseline on my nose after spending all day yesterday blowing it was fantastic. Totally worth the stop at the drug store. I think I'm going to head back there today to get some vapor rub for this darn cough that developed this morning. Oh well. I'll take a little cold over the flu any day.

Weekend recap coming tomorrow--I'm going to try to squeeze it all into one post, so it might be a doozy!

Sick Day

Since I'm too stubborn to take a sick day from work, I'm going to take a sick day from blogging instead. Darrell and I had a great weekend and I want to be able to give it the recap it deserves, which will be difficult when all I can think of right now is cough drops, tylenol, and a nap. Thankful to only have to work an hour at my part-time job tonight!

Sick

I apologize for the absence in blogging--our weekend was crazy busy, which was made worse by the fact that I came down with a cold at the beginning of it. I'm still struggling with it (thank goodness for DayQuil), and since I want to give my race and weekend recap all the glory they deserve I'm going to hold off on blogging about them. Because miserable Jess = miserable blogging. And to make matters worse, it's actually starting to feel like spring outside. Normally I'd be ecstatic about that, but when I'm holed up inside going through box after box of tissues it's hard to care too much about the weather. Although I'd be lying if I said I was completely un-excited about it--I just wish I could get out and enjoy it!

Figures...

Compared to the crap we've been having, the weather today is supposed to be quite gorgeous. Actually, it's been quite nice the past couple of days, but I had to work both jobs those days. Today though? I actually have a free evening and would be able to go home and enjoy a nice leisurely run outdoors in the sun and "cool" temperatures. "Would be" being the key word. The past few hours have been a serious downhill slide for me. I was starting to feel stuffy last night so I took some Vitamin C before bed, and again this morning, but to no avail. I'm still stuffy and now I'm starting to feel achy. All just a mere two hours before I was to enjoy my outdoor, not on the treadmill run. Don't get me wrong, I'll probably still run (just because I'm stubborn and highs are supposed to be back into single-digits next week), but I just don't know if I'll be able to enjoy it. Sad day.


I do have some baking to look forward to tonight, though, so look for some (hopefully!) delicious recipes next week!


Update: Guess what I just found on the information-full world wide web? A plugged-up proboscis can result from more than just a cold or the flu. Other causes include allergies or a non-allergic inflammation in the nasal blood vessels (which can occur in response to stress, cold air, spicy food, or exercise) (From WebMD). Awesome. So that means it's possible that my sudden change in exercise regiment is the cause of my stuffy nose. Almost makes me reconsider my stubbornness to go running today. Almost

Sick City

Sick city may be a slight exaggeration, but it's definitely a sick house at our house. Darrell and I both managed to come down with a cold to start off the New Year, and it's been uber fun. And of course we haven't cut back our work hours to expedite the "healing" process (I'll have just over 30 hours by the end of today, and Darrell will have over 35). It's gotten so bad that I was actually excited to see that tissues were on sale because we've gone through SO. MANY. 


But hey, at least 2011 can only get better, right? RIGHT?