It gets better

I feel like my blog posts lately have been oscillating between optimism and disaster, between high-on-life and how-low-can-you-go.  Last week was a new low.

On Monday I was eager to start fresh.  The kids and I were back from PA, the contractor was coming to do the finish touches on the cabinetry.  It was a good day full of the promise of better things to come.  And then on Tuesday I woke up with a sore throat ... again.  See, with all the chaos of Jon's trip to the hospital, our jaunt to NJ and the visit to PA I sorta, kinda forgot to finish out the last three days of my antiobiotics.  And so strep throat struck again.  I didn't mess around this time and by Wednesday was feeling much, much better.


Unfortunately, Jude was not.  He started with a fever that was up to 103 that afternoon.  I called the doctor's office several times trying to get him in, but they kept saying they'd call back when a time opened up.  The nurse finally called me back at 5:30 ... to tell me they were closed for the day.  Um, thanks.  Jude still had a fever, even after Tylenol so we decided to take him in to Urgent Care at that point.  So we sat and waited some more.  It was a strange day, with my 2 year old swaying between feverish, clingy and lethargic and then his silly, happy self.  He was silly, happy self by the time they took us back to the examination room, but his fever was still 103.6.  I've never had a child with a fever that high before, so I was a little nervous but he didn't seem too bothered by it and neither did the nurse.  They ran a strep test and a flu test, both came back negative.  But since there was strep in the house and those rapid tests aren't always accurate, they sent us home with a prescription anyway.

Waiting at the doctor's.

It had been a long day, the kids where exhausted, we were so ready for them to go to bed ... and Jude's fever kept getting worse.  When it reached 104.6 Jon decided to take him into the ER just to be safe.  Thankfully, they were able to bring his fever down fairly quickly.  The doctor said his throat looked irritated and diagnosed him with strep and told us to keep up with the antibiotics.  So Jude was home and in bed by 9pm.  And when I checked on him later that night his fever had broke and he was sleeping quite soundly.

The healthy one.

It came back again on Thursday, and was on again, off again for the next day or so.  And so was Jude.  We're going through a really challenging time with our middle son right now anyway, but when you add in feverish sickness (and I believe some 2 year molars as well) the child is just a complete mess.  All of Thursday he just cried and clung to me.  He didn't want to eat, he didn't want to drink, he didn't want anything but to be as close to me as possible.  And after ALL DAY of this I was about to go crazy.  Jon's boss had given their unit an early afternoon for a picnic, which I thought meant he'd be home to give me a hand earlier than usual.  But he was having too much fun schmoozing with his co-workers and apparently did not receive my telepathic messages to hurry home and rescue me.

This is what my day was like.

He did help out once he got home, and thankfully he had off the next day too because he was also able to give me a hand that night ... which did not go so well.  Jude was up crying and wanting water about every 15 minutes, which is generally the amount of time it takes to just fall back to sleep.  So Jon and I alternated toddler cuddles and sink runs until 2am.  Then Julia was up and hungry at 3:30.  She rarely wakes up in the middle of the night and if she does she always falls back to sleep while nursing.  Not this time.  I fed her and fed her until I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer and then finally gave up and laid her back in bed where she evidently went back to sleep on her own because I didn't hear a thing until the next morning.

Jack made his own slide out of kitchen scraps.

Friday was a big day, the day our kitchen was getting finished.  Jon took Jack to school and picked up us both some much-need coffee.  Jude seemed a little better but was still having his moments, long moments.  I hadn't done dishes in 4 days and was eager to initiate the new dishwasher.  But Jude's whining had gotten so bad that Jon couldn't take it anymore and volunteered to finish the dishes if I held Jude.  Of course, I couldn't just lounge around snuggling him all day.  After being under construction there was a lot of cleaning to do.  So we decide do test out the Ergo on a slightly larger child.  He protested for a good 20 minutes but after I explained it was either this or going to his room by himself he quickly settled down and let me mop the floor.  And even pointed out a few spots I missed. 


By this point Jack was saying he didn't feel well and that his throat hurt.  He laid down on the couch to watch some TV and was soon asking for a blanket.  And so, within an hour of a fun, active day at preschool Jack was zoned out on the couch with a fever. 

We didn't mess around, I'm so tired of dealing with sickness.  We were able to get into the doctor that afternoon.  His strep test also came back negative but she suggested putting him on the antibiotic as well just to be safe.  And since it was a holiday weekend and we had guests coming in, we agreed.  And thankfully, by the time he got home from the doctor, we had two happy boys again.  We also had a (mostly) finished kitchen.

This is all you get for now.  Of course, I'll be devoting an entire post to the long-awaited kitchen reno.

And one very tired mama.  So we celebrated the best way we know how - with a trip to Chipotle!  It had been a rough day, a difficult week, and a long month.  But we had a brand new kitchen, a presumably healthy weekend ahead of us and, best of all, a visit from Nonnie and Poppie to look forward to!  And really, at this point, it could only get better!