Stomach Flu/SB 2012/Easter

Whew! This was awful! Not that we were planning to go anywhere for Spring Break as I've been on maternity leave since January 11, but we planned to go to church for Easter today. It really sucked to be sick the week before I returned to work. As a bonus I lost 5 pounds, but I didn't enjoy the time spent in the bathroom or lying on the bed in agony. Julia actually had the bug the weekend before; we cared for her, no problem. A few days later Jai got sick & I'll admit I had little sympathy as I cared for both girls & tried to help him (I really thought he was exaggerating!). Then 12 hours later I succumbed to the torture. So awful! Luckily Jai felt slightly better so he helped me by bringing drinking water & the baby to the bed for me to feed. Thankfully Jacqueline was fine & got tons of time with me on the bed; I mastered nursing lying down which is another nice bonus. Real kudos to breast milk keeping her healthy since that is all she eats & it's easily digestible. Someone was healthy in our house! : )

A Sick Child is a Funny Child

I know I shouldn't laugh at Julia when she feels bad - she's got some stomach bug - but her pitiful call for Tara or me is really cute and even a bit funny in its pitifulness.

"mooommeeeee" if Tara is here
and "daaaddddeee" every other time.

I don't know exactly what's going on. She ate a good breakfast yesterday but after the Y she ate about 2 bites of a granola bar and wanted to go take her nap. Three hours later she woke up, ate the rest of the granola bar and wanted to lie back down. Within an hour I heard "daaaddddeee". By the time I got down the hall she had thrown up the granola bar all over the guest bed. HUGE MESS. Same thing happened with yogurt at dinner time except this time we heard "mooommeeeee".

We gave her some ginger tea and a bit of crystalized ginger, read a couple of stories and she slept the rest of the night without incident.

This morning...so far so good eventhough she says her stomach hurts.

Anyway, those pitiful cries for help are sometimes sickly cute.

Being a Toddler is for the Birds

I am in love with birds. They are the most fun animal to watch. I think that's because they are everywhere I go and they make all those fun tweets and chirps.

I remember a couple of weeks ago I surprised my dad. We were outside - the best place in the world - and I looked over his shoulder, pointed and said "bird!?". He didn't know what I was talking about because he didn't know I knew the word and he didn't see the bird I was pointing at for a few seconds.

**It is amazing how long it takes tall people to see or understand what I'm pointing at.***

Anyway, the other thing is that I've been sick more times since I started walking and talking than I was the whole year before and THAT is definitely for the birds!! A couple of weeks ago my stomach was bothering me soooo much. Everything I ate came out watery and a lot at once. It was gross. Mommy and Daddy held there nose a lot when they changed my diapers and we had to wash a lot of sheets and clothes. NOW, after all that I got a huge fever yesterday. Mommy and Daddy came into my room every couple of hours all night long. I got to eat a lot of mango popsicle and frozen banana and I took a bunch of cold baths. I feel better today but not great - of course, that doesn't stop me from wanting to go outside.

I'm not so hungry but I think I'll ask Daddy if I can go upstairs for a 2nd nap. Hopefully by the time Mommy comes home I will feel better she looked very worried about me.

It looks like we have a busy summer and I can't wait! World Cup!! Massachusetts!! Atlanta!! Swimming Pool!!

The First Cold/Fever

Julia inherited my constitution, or so it seems. She can eat anything without adverse effects, she's hot-natured, and she doesn't get sick. Of course, I have to throw in that studies show babies who are breastfed for their first year are less likely to get sick which makes the timing - 1 month after she weaned - of Julia's first cold interesting...

About 2 weeks ago she got really congested but it didn't seem to have much affect on her. We started with the humidifier and eucalyptus infused steam baths combined with J/A/S/O/N Cooling Mineral Gel Tea Tree Pain Reliever (essentially the same as Vicks Vaporub). The congestion seemed to clear up and then Tues night I put Julia to bed at 6pm and she slept until 8am, which was a little unusual - about 2 hours longer than normal. The morning progressed as usual but at lunch she was crankier than her usual "Feed me NOW!" cranky. She eat as much either. I put her down for a nap, she slept 2 hours but seemed tired still so I left her. She slept for another hour and woke up really hot to the touch. I took her temp with one of our thermometers. It read 103.1 but she wasn't acting that sick - she was a little slower than normal but happy and chatty and playful none-the-less. I didn't think to take it a 2nd reading. I laid her back down and she tried to doze off while I called Tara and Bonnie (left a message). I looked it up on the Internet and didn't see any reason to be alarmed and since I haven't gotten really sick in years I wasn't too worried. Tara got home, held Julia and she went back to sleep. B/c of all the sleeping I started to get nervous. We watched TV but I couldn't concentrate and I was hyper alert listening for her.

She woke up at 8:30pm and seemed much perkier. Her temp was closer to 100 so we brought her down for a dinner of oatmeal and milk. Then we gave her a bath and took her back to bed. She was quiet but I had horrible dreams all night.

This morning Julia woke up at her usual 6:40ish, her temp was 99.8 (which is apparently 98.8 orally) and she had some oats, banana and milk, as usual. I let her play a little in her room and laid her back down for a nap. She slept for 2 hours, her first morning nap in months.

Julia has given us no worries (other than the slow weight gain) in these past 14 months and I now have an idea of that knot in your gut when something is wrong and you can't do anything about it. This incident again reminds me of what a carefree baby I have; she's inquisitive, healthy and happy. I am also reminded that I am an extremely fortunate man.

Misery Loves Company

For anyone who has been paying attention to my blog entries you might have noticed that I haven't written much in the last few weeks. Actually my sister said something about there not being anything new; it's nice to be missed : )

I was sick, very tempted to get some traditional meds so you know I was really miserable.

It's not really surprising considering the time of year and change in weather as well as my vocation. Germs have been flying around. Combine that with a month of little sleep created by this heartburn phenomenon (oh my goodness!), then this congestion that happens in the 7th & 8th months [maybe next month, too : ( ] and constant trips to the bathroom. Plus I got the flu shot which is recommended for women who are pregnant and I always get the shot because of having asthma. Voila, a cold is in the making! Then I got a vicious cough which is not good with a large belly, especially when the baby decided to start a full-court press on my chest. It was not good times. I missed work most of last week which is difficult for me to do, but I had no choice - I wasn't going anywhere.

Funny side story:
My co-worker was out 2 days for a conference and then discovered she had pink-eye. Thankfully I didn't see her until after she started treatment and was permitted to return to work. I told Jai that if I'd gotten pink-eye after all of the other ailments, I would have said "take me to the hospital and take this baby out now. I am DONE!"

Fortunately I have a wonderful husband; Jai continues to pick up the slack, keeps the house running and takes care of Johnders. I feel blessed to have an equal partner who loves me and the baby dearly.

I discovered some natural remedies that really work and saved me.
1. licorice (liquid extract I put in my water) - helps with congestion AND heartburn
2. papaya extract (yummy chewable tablets) - helps with digestion AND heartburn

I felt so much better today. We went for a walk at Shelby Park, ate dinner out and saw a movie. I told Jai we have to take advantage of any burst of energy! I anticipate a return to exhaustion soon enough. There is limited time to do anything we want to do before the baby's arrival really changes our lives forever.