Sick Baby, Sick Mommy

I know I promised in one of my last posts that I would start writing shorter posts so I wouldn't fall so far behind... but... obviously that hasn't happened the past month.  I would like to promise that it won't happen again, but we have a trip home planned in a few weeks so I KNOW it will happen during that time as well.

First of all let me explain what's been going on in our house... two Fridays ago when I got Kerriann out of bed for the morning her poor little body was on fire!  I was surprised because I had accidentally left her ceiling fan on during the night.  I took off her PJ's and checked her temperature to find that it was 103 degrees... poor baby!  I decided to give her Tylenol and go for our usual morning walk because I thought the fresh air might make her feel better.  She was extremely clingy during the walk and would not let me push her in the stroller... so I had to carry her for 2 miles!  I know she is a tiny girl, but even tiny 9 month olds become heavy after 5 minutes of being in your arms.  She ended up taking FIVE naps that day... for those of you who know us well... you know that that is insane... because it is a fight to get this child to take more than one nap in a day.  Then she had the worst time sleeping that night... waking every couple of hours screaming and arching her back... there was nothing I could do to calm her down at one point.  I finally got her back to bed and she slept from 2-6am.

Saturday morning she still had a fever of 102 and also had a very runny nose.  And by very runny I mean we had to suction it out about every 5 minutes.  She was so miserable and so were we.  I decided to call her doctor because she had been congested for the 3 weeks before that (I'd called the weekend before and they said it must be allergies).  They told us to come in since she had been congested for so long.  They ended up finding fluid in her ears, so they prescribed an antibiotic and sent us on our way.  They said that the fluid had probably built up during the weeks of congestion before that, and the fluid was causing the temperature.  I didn't really believe this because it seemed like an all out horrible cold or flu... but what do I know?

So we continued to try our best to keep her comfortable for the next few days... she was fever free by Monday morning and well on her way to recovery.  By this time I was completely exhausted from getting up with her throughout the nights and taking care of her alone during the day (Kevin's classes had him leaving before we woke up and getting home after Kerriann was in bed).

I started to come down with a fever and cold symptoms Wednesday... and by Thursday morning I was just as miserable as she had been.  I've honestly never been that sick before (that I remember).  I rarely get fevers and my temperature was 102.  I had horrible congestion and a severe headache.  The worst part was that I couldn't take any medication other than Tylenol because I'm still breastfeeding (for those of you who don't know, cold medicines dry your milk up).  The second worst part was that I had no one to take care of me... so not only did I have to fend for myself... I also had to take care of an extremely active 9 month old alone.  It was honestly one of the worst weeks that I have had while living down here.  I felt so hopeless and depressed the entire time.  I don't do well with staying home alone to begin with, so throw being sick on top of that and the outcome is no good.  I was barely able to get any sleep during the night because I was so uncomfortable, and I wasn't able to lay down during the day because I had to take care of Kerriann.  On Saturday morning I was still miserable with a fever of 101 so we went to an Urgent Care place so I could be checked out.  We waited 2 hours which wasn't easy with Kerriann... but by the time we were done my nose had actually started to clear a little and my fever had started to come down.  I felt AMAZING compared to how I had felt the previous days, and I was actually able to get 6 hours of rest that night.

Today is Wednesday and I am just now feeling better.  I'm still blowing my nose every now and then and I have a slight headache, but it is nothing compared to how I was feeling a few days ago.  I'm sorry to be such a downer throughout this entire post, but I kind of need to brag that I actually survived the week.  There were times when I wasn't sure that I was going to.  My feelings the past week really led me to have an epiphany on Mother's Day... I'll write more about that in my Mother's Day post which I will be writing very soon.

So... that's my excuse for not writing the past couple of weeks!  Hope all of our friends and family are doing well and that no one else has caught the same horrible bug!