Germs, Germs and more Germs

Thinking we were getting off easy with Sophia's quick bout of norovirus, we clearly jinxed ourselves. As you've probably read, the flu season has been out of control here in Boston and the Ahouse house fell victim...

It all started with me - a bad cold or something, but I was knocked on my butt, but, as a mother, I had my obligatory 18 hours of rest/recovery on the weekend before resuming normal duties...As a side note, I found this hysterical blog depicting life as a sick mom in a family of sickies...

Tuesday night, Dave came home from work feeling less than stellar. Honestly, the sound of a grown man puking is about the worst thing I've ever heard. I'm often shocked that he doesn't wake up our entire building with the sound. But I digress...around 4am, I hear Theo crying, which he never does unless there is physical pain involved. Upon checking in, the poor little guy was a hot water bottle - 103 fever. After taking his helmet off and feeding/snuggling for awhile, he fell back asleep.

Too sick to smile...but I look tough!

Luckily, Sophia was untouched and I happily sent her over to our nanny share buddies for the day to avoid too many germs. Poor Theo and Dave were miserable on the couch all day and I was just working to disinfect everything.

On Thursday, I took Theo in for a flu test and he tested positive. I brought Sophia up for a test as well (I told her she was going to have a really cool nose-picking experience!) and she was negative. Both she and I got our shots - better late than never, I guess. Theo was prescribed Tamiflu suspension, which, we quickly learned, was in high demand all over the city.
Finally, at 7:30 that night, after calling about 10 different pharmacies, the Target in Watertown had it. So, with Dave still down for the count, I trucked the kids out there to pick it up. Poor Theo puked up his first batch- I can't blame him. The frothiness and smell were enough to do a healthy person in.

Luckily, it started working and he turned the corner (after a brief stint with another 103+ fever and a concerned midnight call to the doctor) on Friday morning. Dave rebounded as well. Sophia was still looking good. Below - a moment of happiness! 

But sadly, whether from the germs in the house or after effects of the shot, Sophia turned into a hot mess. No fever, just a cold beyond everything. Which led to about a week of not sleeping for anyone (up every hour to have nose blown or need a snuggle or to move the blankets just so...sigh...)
So we're now recovering and hoping to shake this soon. Germs germs go away, don't come back for another day!

Happy New Year

It's been awhile since I've blogged - since last year!
It was amazing to have a full two weeks off with the kids. I'll admit, I was nervous about being a full-time SAHM for that time. There are definitely days when work is a sanctuary. But we all survived and filled our time up with good playdates and visits with friends.

Unfortunately, we did get hit with the norovirus (aka the puking bug). While Sophia is the only one who had it, we all got to take part in it. I don't actually wish it on my worst enemy.

Luckily it was fairly quick moving and she recovered in time for our annual New Year's Day pilgrimage to see the flag raising on Prospect Hill. Here are the munchkins bundled up for the event!

Real life resumed the next day with work and school in full swing. Little did we know that more germs were to follow....

And sickness descends...

It's been one hell of a week for the Ahouse family. We were all sick - starting with Dave last Thursday and moving through Sophia and I over the course of the weekend.
When Dave first started complaining, I honestly thought he was suffering from a little bit of "MAN" disease. (what can I say, there's a reason women have babies and not men)

By Saturday, he hadn't really made it out of bed and Sophia now had a 102 fever. I was feeling less than stellar, but was trying to hang in there. Fast forward to the afternoon, and Dave was diagnosed with pneumonia, Sophia was miserable and I was hanging on. Happily, Dave got fluids and antibiotics, I gave Sophia Motrin to break her fever enough to fall asleep. I was able to curl up on the couch and get myself to a doctor on Sunday. Sophia had her 15 month well visit Monday, which got her on antibiotics as well as me (the beauty of going to a family practice!) and all of us on the road to recovery. It was a slow couch day that included the introduction of Calliou (apparently, not a winner for Sophia who, despite her fever and yuckiness, was content to toddle around the house as oppose to watch Calliou whine about his cat Gilbert and not winning any ribbons.)

I'm all for families sticking together, but all 3 of us sick was not something I'd recommend. The best thing that happened for Sophia (who was still struggling sleeping because of her sad little cough) was to have our amazing baby sitter come to care for her on Tuesday while Dave & I went to work. Here was someone who was 100% healthy and could devote herself totally to Sophia. She's a godsend. By the end of the week, Sophia was back to her normal perky self and Dave & I were feeling human again. Hooray! What a way to celebrate Dave's birthday and Sophia's 15months.

Sickness Strikes!!

We've had a relatively healthy first 7.5 months of Sophia's life. There was a brief sickness back in December that Sophia caught from me, but we both persevered. She slept all the time then anyway, so chasing away a bug was easy.
Fast forward to last Thursday. It has been extremely hot and humid here in Boston over the past week. Despite Dave and my penchant for true New England suffering, we felt it was in Sophia's best interest to install an A/c unit in her window. The trick was getting the setting cool enough to be refreshing and good sleeping weather, but warm enough not to turn her into a penguin.

Around midnight, Sophia woke me up by crying. It was an extremely unusual cry that I hadn't heard from her before. I went in to check on her and when I picked her up - she was a hot water bottle! I quickly got her out of her sleep slack and found the thermometer to take her temp (we're still going the armpit route). 102 degrees!!
I gave her some Tylenol, which she promptly puked back up. This caused me to wake up Dave and he held and rocked her while I called the on-call doctor at our peditrician's office. She called back within 10 minutes - great response time in my book!

After I explained the situation (and made sure to tell her I wasn't roasting her in her room with the humidity) She said our best bet was for me to nurse her and see if she'd take more Tylenol (she did) and go back to sleep. I could take her in to the office when it opened in the morning. So, after a night of nursing almost every hour, I took her in at 9 to our fabulous doctor. Sophia's fever had broken by this point and was only about 99, which was a relief.
Dr. Tomkins said that she probably had just caught a little virus and it (happily!) didn't look like an ear infection. Just keep an eye on her and give Tylenol when she seemed to need it.

It was a relief to know there was no ear infection, but as the weekend progressed, she descended into the land of mucus and phlegm. Yum. My heart was just breaking, though, every time she coughed or sneezed one of those big snot bubbles. (If only she could blow her own nose!!) Sophia was very clear that she did not want us to invade her personal space (i.e. nose/mouth) to clean her up. It took Dave basically pinning her down and receiving multiple kicks to the Adam's Apple for me to be able to suction out her nose with the bulb. As much as she hated it, we saw how relieved she was afterwards to be able to breathe through her nose, at least for a little while.

Another side effect of this (besides the not sleeping much at night - she would cough herself awake and start crying almost every hour) was lack of interest in eating. Solid foods were just a big no freaking way and breastfeeding (and even the bottle) was difficult. She hadn't figured out how to breathe out of the high side of her mouth while eating so she would take a big breath like she was diving under water each time she went to eat.

Happily, it looks like we've turned the corner. She's back to sleeping through the night and while she is still quite phlegmy, she is clearly happy and excited to be outside in the not so humid air.
It's never easy to see your child sick - it breaks my heart to not really be able to do anything - but I know that she is just building up a big, strong immune system. Just in time to eat some more sand at the beach!