Mid-End August
The boys had seriously only logged a couple of days in daycare before we got our first nasty bug. On Wednesday when Sam picked up Max, they said he had thrown up a little earlier in the day. I figured that they were talking about a large amount of spit-up since no one at the daycare seemed to be concerned enough to call us when it happened. Later that evening, as I was holding Max and bouncing him on the counter, he had the biggest baddest nastiest throw up ever. I felt awful for him (and almost as bad for me, because I was totally covered in butternut squash/soy formula throw up). But it only seemed to be a one time thing, and he was his happy self the next day, so we sent him off to daycare. We were being so naive. Not only did he throw up a few more times that day, he started having awful diarrhea...like even worse than uncontrolled CSID diarrhea. It wasn't contained by any diaper ever invented, and smelled like rotten eggs gone all wrong. Max was still drinking his bottles, but I'm pretty sure everything was running through him from one end or the other. It was terrible.
On Saturday (something like three days later) Max was still pretty sick. My sister, who hadn't seen him in days, happened to drop by, and mentioned that it looked like he had lost some weight. At this point, Sam and I figured we would just all go in as a family to Primary Children's and get Max checked out. No sooner had we decided this than Jayson totally barfed up his breakfast. Now we were two for two. So I took Max up to Primary Children's all by myself--that kid wore me out! For a sick baby, he was sure interested in being mobile....it made for a long five hour experience in a small ER room. To make a very long experience short, they ended up admitting him to the recovery unit for the night. He had to get an IV because he needed to get/keep in some fluids so his little body could heal. It was so sad to see my little baby with a needle in his hand, but I knew it was necessary. The worst part of the whole experience was that he couldn't eat through the night because they wanted his gut to get a break. And I just can't swaddle him the way Sam does, so he lacked that comfort too. It made for a long night with not enough sleep. I was very excited when they let him start eating that next morning, and especially when they decided we could go home around 11:30. He had stopped throwing up, and the diarrhea had lessened. What I didn't know was that the diarrhea was quite lingering, and wouldn't go away for several more days. But one day, about a week after the illness, he was just magically all better. That was seriously a fantastic day.
I thought after Max's ER experience that we were over the worst of it. Unfortunately, Jayson took a turn for the worse on Monday evening, and I ended up dragging him into the ER around 10 pm after I got off work. (Poor Sam, this was all on his birthday!) By this point I was feeling like a pro with this stomach virus, and the doctor recognized me from a few days ago, so we both agreed to just go the IV route. I was SO proud of Jayson--he didn't even flinch or cry when they put in the needle (they even had to move it around a bit to get in the vein). When the labs came back, they showed he was quite dehydrated like Max was, so we stayed in the recovery unit overnight. The actual night wasn't so bad, because once we got into our room, he slept through it. But right at 7 am sharp, he was awake, and so ready to be off the IV. We did several wagon ride trips and played with big boy legos to distract him, until the doctor came around and said he'd probably be good to go home. His sickness was about a day shorter than Max's in duration, but it still seriously felt like forever.
The ER doctor theorized that the boys picked up a mutation of rotavirus that had been going around, and I'm sure it was from daycare. All I have to say is thank goodness for immunizations to the common strain of rotavirus, because it would totally stink to have that around all the time! Sam got a little bit sick from this weird illness in the long run, but it totally passed me over. This may very well be the only occasion I can ever remember in which my family got sick and I didn't!!
Early-Mid September
I'd say we had a week of general healthiness before Sam got a terrible cold. Sam doesn't usually get sick, so this is saying something. It was so bad that he lost his voice for about four days. Probably because he had such a hideous cough! Max totally picked up on the hideous cough thing too. Especially at night. Oh man, it was a drag every time Max coughed so hard that he puked all over his pajamas and crib sheets. It was sad for him, and way not fun for us to clean up (particularly when Jayson tried to help out with the cleaning). I was sick with all the fun colored mucus stuff (and still am), but no terrible cough, to which I have been incredibly grateful. Jayson seems to only have a slightly runny nose, which is great all things considered. As I learned with our last illness, two kids really sick at the same time is CRAZY, so it was nice to only have one down for the count this time. May you all avoid this cold, because it is the longest lasting thing I have ever seen. Almost one month out we still haven't entirely kicked it.
Mid-End September
My sister's moving date to Idaho was Saturday, September 20th. My main job in this was to watch the 7 kids the Friday night before, so the boys could move the Penske up that night and Autumn could clean the old house. Plus, I had make the five hour drive up there the next day to fetch my husband and check out their new house/town. This was a daunting task after 10 hours of work anyway, but then sickness made it way worse. My eyes had been burning all day (Friday) at work, and I thought it was just because I was really sleepy. Oh no. My right eye just kept hurting more and more as the day wore on. I went to bed around 11 pm and woke up with Max about 1:30 am. In that short 2 and a half hour time window, my eye made so much goop that it had sealed itself shut. Pinkeye had struck. I'd seriously never had pinkeye in my life before, so the timing was hideous! I had to drag myself down to St. Mark's ER at 2 in the morning so I could get a prescription for eye drops. Then I had to drive to a 24 hour Walgreens pharmacy at 3:30 in the morning to obtain said eye drops. 70 dollars later, I had what I needed.
I crawled back into bed around 4:30 with my cranky toddler (I still don't know why in the heck he thought it was time to wake up when I got home) and crashed until 7 am. Then I got two kids and myself ready, threw together our bags in a frantic hurry, and hit the road by 8:45. You can call me wonder woman now LOL :] Thank goodness my eye remained open enough (and not in terrible pain) so that I could safely make the drive. But man, I hope I never get pinkeye again, it was a nasty experience!
And just when I thought we couldn't get any sicker, we found a weird rash all over Jayson's bum, legs, feet, and hands on Sunday afternoon. It was really the last thing I wanted to see. I'm thinking hand/foot/mouth disease. Hoping he doesn't spread it to all his friends at daycare. At least it isn't bothering him all that much.......
Just for fun, since the post was so full of depressing stuff, here's a super funny picture of my kids being bad children/playing in the kitchen stuff--seriously, Jayson knows way better, and is already trying to teach Max how to misbehave!
Illness Update: Sam's cold is almost gone, hurray! Max is still trying to kick the nasty cough, but it hasn't made him throw up in like a week. Now we are just dealing with two teeth trying to come in lol. My pinkeye is getting better, and my cold hasn't gotten worse. Jayson's rash hasn't gotten worse since we discovered it, and his nose isn't any runnier either. Here's to hoping October is healthier for us!!!
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