May Day - Man Down

The plague hit us. The preschool plague finally hit us. We made it two full weeks before Liam got sick-sick. He started a cough last Monday. By the time our friend Kara and her 5 month old, Aidric, came to visit us on Wednesday, Jon and I had sore throats; Liam started having coughing fits during the night. I was sure we would be getting them sick too, but as she lives in Washington and we might not see them again until November, we had her visit anyway. Well, she forgot her coat and since I had to go into Roseville to pick up a note from my doctor, I volunteered to bring it to her on Friday. I drove down with Colin and the 4 of us went out for Cheesecake Factory lunch. I also brought her a book that is by one of her favorite authors (she turned both Jon and me on to him when we were up visiting them last June). I tried desperately not to cough on her since I was having awful post-nasal drip attacks.

I got home from Rocklin around 4pm. Liam had only been up from his nap for a little bit and he looked awful. Jon said he had been out of sorts and kinda tantrummy at preschool. When he got home, he proceeded to barely eat any of his lunch and headed straight into bed. He had a fever. A mild fever, but one nonetheless. He vomited while in bed. This is awful for us since he doesn't get sick like that at all. With Tylenol and love, Liam's fever had passed. But just at bedtime, it picked back up again. In fact, I could tell when it happened. He was sitting next to me on the couch watching Olivia and by the time it was over he had slumped onto me and was just staring at the television. The side of his face that was leaning on me was 103.4, but his forehead and other temple were only 101 so another dose of Tylenol he got and went to bed. Saturday, he was cool all day, but obviously out of sorts again. He spent the whole day on the couch when he wasn't napping in his room. And of course, by bedtime, he had another fever. He woke up in the middle of the night from a coughing fit and Jon spent the majority of the early hours sleeping in his room in the recliner because "he was just staring into the dark and breathing so pathetically. It freaked me out."

Sunday . . . cool and active all day. No fever. Officially ready for preschool on Monday. But oh, his nose runs and the snot and coughing are oh so bad. And he tells us everything hurts.
Liam: "Mah finger hurt. Mah knee hurt. Mah elbow hurt. Mah heh (head) hurt. Mah eye hurt. Mah ear hurt (this one makes me concerned because I don't want this cold to turn into an ear infection). Mah toe hurt."
Me: "Does your brain hurt?"
L: "Mah bain hurt."
Me: "Do your pants hurt?"
L: "Yeah, mah pants hurt."
Me: "Does your shoe hurt?"
L: "Yeah, shoo hurt."
You can see where this goes. I continued to ask him more and more inanimate objects that have nothing to do with him. Apparently everything hurts.

He was up at 6:30(OMG!!!) for Monday morning. He went to school and had a great day. He fought going down for a nap, but I slept with him and did okay until I woke him up with my coughing. Then he got into such a coughing fit that he vomited again. It was mostly mucus (you're so lucky you get to hear all this). End of nap.

Yesterday, up at 6:00am (OMFG!!!) for the day. But at least he was eating his cereal (he was fighting eating breakfast at home last week). He had a great day and was "so HAPPY!" according to his teachers. Nap was easy. He was being pleasant, but when I got out of the kitchen and took a good look at my child's pallid face with faint shadows growing under his eyes, I sent him in. He didn't argue or fight me. A definite sign he still feels awful. And by 6:30 in the evening, he grabbed his blankie and sang a made up song with "green ghost" as the only words (that's his blankie's name). He disappeared. I was nursing Colin so I figured he was just quietly reading when he didn't come back out. Nope. When I checked he was awake, but laying in his bed, facing the wall. When he heard me he looked me square in the eye and said "Mommy, I so sick. I so tired."

Breaks your heart :(

Today's been another day of miserable coughing and running nose. He and I slept at naptime again until, again, I woke him up with my own coughing fits. He's probably gonna have to have eye drops for pink eye (more on that in the next post) thanks to his well-child check-up today. Not looking forward to dosing my child with eye drops. I am already have horrid memories of my own parents having to do the same to me.

I'm going to drop off the infant in his daddy's arms and take the little man to the shower. I think we both need to get rid of these plague germs we have all over us (seriously . . . I'm sure you've seen a snotty toddler so you know how gross his face and arms and hands are right now).

32 weeks

So here we are with 2 months left. I don't know which seems shorter or freaks me out more in terms of leaving my classroom unprepared. 8 weeks? 2 months? Either way, I'm still hoping to work up until I go into labor or my doctors refuse to let me work. And either way, it freaks me out because I'm so busy and focused just trying to get my lessons for the next month all squared away and pull off our school's first medieval festival that I haven't had time to put a schedule of lessons for long-term (and as yet undetermined) substitute. Things were so much easier when I knew I was having my baby in the summer. This not knowing thing is awful in the middle of the school year. I go to the doc on Wednesday.

So here's some updates:
Baby B still has no potential names.

He is now the size of a squash, but what does that mean? I know he's definitely bigger than any summer variety squash (like zucchini or crook neck). But does it mean he weighs the same as a squash or that he's the length of a squash? Acorn squash are small but dense. Is he a spaghetti squash? a butternut? (I love butternut squash). All this talk of squash is making me nostalgic - acorn squash puree was Liam's very first solid food!

Home scale says I'm only slightly up from my pre-preggo weight. Only about 1-2 lbs on avg. I made a specific point to ask my high-risk clinic nurse when she called a couple weeks ago for my blood sugar report. My doctor hasn't said anything about the weight. The nurse said that if I'm eating right (following my diabetic diet), snacking frequently, and not feeling hungry or deprived then it's okay to not gain weight. She said I was overweight to begin with (I know) and that the doctor would probably only want a 15lb gain overall. She also reminded me the fastest gain will be in the last 2 months, when I'll probably gain 1lb. week.

Speaking of diet . . . I've been bad lately. I've been sneaking in sugary snacks here and there and everywhere. So this last week I decided I needed to monitor my sugars more than my required 3x week. The worst thing is that my fasting glucose levels have been sneaking up. They're supposed to be <100 and preferably <90. Well, this week I've had several levels higher than 90 and the last two days were just over 100. I'm gonna get in trouble. I MUST have a late night snack of only protein!!!

Aches? The sciatica is easing. A lot in fact. At the beginning of last week it was so bad that I could barely stand. But I think I've finally gotten used to the new mattress (which is heavenly by the way). Since about Wednesday, the pain has just gone away. Ahhhh! I did get some stretching ideas from a coworker who is seeing a PT for his sciatica. They help when I do feel some twinging.

Weirdest moment this week was watching B spin somersaults around my belly. Jon got one of those weird-cool kicks out of it. I just liked watching him go-go-go. He's very active. Doctor said last time that this one might be our athlete...great.

Cravings? Many, but all things I really shouldn't have. Ice cream. Candy. The best was my idea was lays potato chips dipped in See's chocolate.

our Thanksgiving - aka we burned our turkey

So we're celebrating our big family dinner today. We're going to my Granny's house; she's 85 and this year has not been kind to her in the health department (I think she's been in the hospital 3x since New Year's). My mom has been staying with her and pretty much has abandoned her home in Pioneer to a friend that she is letting live there rent free because she has 2 boys still living at home and is going back to school and there is no income. I know this is financially strapping my mom too; she's still paying a mortgage on a house she isn't even living in. We're also having Jon's dad join us today; things have been rough for him since my mother in-law died two years ago. The house they owned is grossly over mortgaged and the government just realized they've been paying more in his annuity than he should have gotten . . . hence, they want almost $13k back. I haven't talked to my dad yet, but he works on the holidays and he's probably out shopping this Black Friday.

Yesterday we had a scary moment. Liam has done very well staying away from the pellet stove. He ignored it almost all day yesterday and our house was delightfully cozy (for a heck of a lot cheaper than running the heater). But last night, while I was cooking dinner and on the phone with my mom, and Jon was doing something who-knows-what at his computer, Liam took an old baby ring toy over to the glass of the stove. I just happened to catch him and I yelled to get his attention; Jon swooped in to yank him away. He was in tears but we thought it was because we had scared him and that he got caught doing something naughty. But he kept being whiney and miserable (also earmarks of a little boy who only took a 45 minute nap) and then he threw such a monster tantrum that we left him in his room.

Well he screamed so loud that he threw up (joy) and when we went back in that's when Jon noticed his little burned fingers on his left hand!!! We couldn't see them an hour earlier, but he had developed a couple blisters on his pointer and middle knuckles. OMG I let my baby burn himself! We got him into the tub to wash him for today, but he immediately put his hand in the warm water and that made him wail. So instead I got in the shower with him and had to hold his hand up because every time he tried to use them it he cried. But by bedtime, the Tylenol kicked in and we had some bacitracin on his fingers (can't use bandaids because he pulls them off). He woke up once in the middle of the night and it was more of a whimper than his nightmare cry. I rocked him back to sleep very quickly. Today his fingers look so much better! The red inflamed color is back to skin color and the blisters are still there but we'll keep putting bacitracin on them. This morning he's in high chipper spirits too.

Oh also, my ringworm is also gone and Liam's is looking much better but will still need a couple weeks before being totally gone.

Fungus amongus

We've been sick here in the Rogers house. It all started with a little bug bite on my ankle one morning, mid-October, when I woke up. It was the kind that I scratched the hell out of (it even bled a little) and then never bothered with it again. Well, a couple days later it was starting to look like a pimple or an ingrown hair. Then I made the mistake of shaving over it --- stupid!!! Within 10 days, it had gotten to be a red spot the size of a quarter and had that distinct circular ring shape. Yep, I have Tinea corporis, aka ringworm! I had been suspecting it for about a week, even before the ring shape developed and had been treating with miconozole (which I knew from my previous pregnancy was safe for topical fungal/yeast treatment) but it wasn't helping and now my legion was hurting.

Liam developed one ring spot on the back of his leg just before Halloween. We stopped by Target on November 1st and asked the pharmacist (they're great people, they know their shit, use them as a resource). She suggested clortrimozole; apply 2x daily like the package says. Well, my legion started to go away right away and is now practically gone. Two weekends later and Liam's spot is bigger and looks, to quote my husband, "angry." Over the weekend, we also noticed that Poppy has a bald spot on her ear and it's inflamed. Monday night Jon emails a photo to the doc; Tuesday found us racing to catch the last appointment.

Doc looks at both legions and says "yup it's ringworm." But apply 4x daily and expect it to take 4-6 weeks to clear up. Has to do with the compromised immune system of children. Add to that we've had head colds and mild congestion the last week and then I mentioned that Liam's cradle-cap is back. "Yup, more evidence of immature immune system. Perfectly normal."

How did I get it? you ask. Well, my coworker (and landlord's girlfriend) had a major outbreak of ringworm in her house this summer. I then roomed with her on a business trip while she was treating it. Any physical contact with her or her things could have caused it. But that was August!!! you exclaim. Yes, but ringworm is a fungus and can live dormant for a long time. I basically gave it to my cat, who gave it back to me, and that fateful morning I scratched that bug bite until it hurt-so-good I transferred it back from my hand (and the cat) to my leg.

As for treating the cat . . . the same clortrimozole cream on her ear a couple times a day. Rub it in really good so she licks as little as possible off. Her ear already looks better in the last couple days.

Stay healthy!

kitchen helper

Little helper is too much in kitchen.
Baby-proofed but not spit-polished so we never let him in.
Cat's water...led to fall. Dishwasher...plates rescued.
Pantry door...locked Poppy in.

hop on pop

Daddy's 35th birthday.
A cuddly-wuddly guy who gave Dada lots of love.
Didn't care for maki rolls. Scraped knees.
Spent 20 minutes bouncing on Dada's belly. It ended in tickle fight.

in time for easter

Family portraits last night for Band fundraiser. First formal pics of Yam in 14 months.
Visited coworker's family in town. They have chickens; a pesky hen bit my baby's finger.

Park afternoon

Liam's first knee scrape today; he'd run so hard all over Beamer Park. Caught him just before he face planted, but sandy concrete was his undoing. Sore but barely noticeable.