Three Sick Girls

Three girls: during less sick times...

I thought I was sleep deprived until this week..
I thought my girls were whiny until this week...

I had read recently about the Enterovirus D68 making it's way through the United States, causing mild to severe cold-like symptoms, and sometimes respiratory symptoms leading to an unusually high rate of hospitalizations amongst children. I didn't think much about the article until my three girls came down with a fever on the same day!  S1's woke up Monday morning with the sniffles. By Monday night she was febrile, and very tired! S2 woke up from her afternoon nap on Tuesday with hot cheeks and a temperature of 38.4. I remember thinking how fortunate it was that the baby was so well and energetic...until bedtime when she was excessively cranky and hot!

Thank goodness for antipyretics! By Friday morning they had all recovered.

I no longer think my girls are excessively whiny...
I now appreciate the interrupted sleep that I normally get.
But most of all, I am thankful that the girls did not need to be hospitalized!

the sick week

Sucking her thumb

In their new Hello Kitty clothes

All five of us had just barely gotten over our cold of the month when our oldest started tossing her cookies. It began Wednesday at 2am and continued for 10 hours. My husband attended to her while I stayed with the baby.

On Wednesday, my husband worked from home. I try to limit screen time to 1 to 2 hours per week for our toddler, but we made an exception, and allowed our toddler to play with her iPad for a few hours on Wednesday. She hung out with her Papa, and I headed out with the younger two. After a 4 hour nap on Wednesday afternoon, our toddler was almost like new. But I found myself very anxious. Would the rest if the family get sick? I actually felt nauseous at the thought...

My husband felt nauseous as well. In the early hours of Wednesday, he was by our daughter's side while she vomited over a dozen times. When he did manage to sleep, he dreamed of her vomiting!

As I write these words, the rest of the family has somehow managed to stay relatively healthy. I found out while at work on Saturday that #2 had vomited once the evening before, but had since shown little signs of illness other than a decreased appetite...

Where our toddler picked up the bug remains a mystery. Was it the money she put in her mouth before depositing it in her piggy bank? Possibly. Was it something she ate? Unlikely as her middle sister ate the same food. Was it a book she touched at the public library on Tuesday? Maybe.

I  suppose we will never know. The important thing is that they are feeling better, and the baby has shown no signs of illness...

Sick week!

Eating raspberries the fun way, prior to getting sick

Actually, that should read two sick weeks. Over the course of the last 12 or so days, we all got sick.
Here is the timeline:

-First our toddler came down with her first cold in November. Nothing out of the ordinary.
-Next our baby caught our toddler's cold.
-Then I came down with the same virus.
-Nothing worrisome until mid week last week, our toddler developed a 48 hour fever. 2 visits to the pediatrician confirmed the diagnosis of a virus.
- I was thinking how lucky we had been that our baby, at 9 1/2 months, still had not developed a fever or a serious illness...and then last Sunday morning, she started vomiting. By Tuesday she had improved, but still slept a lot, and her appetite has just now returned to pre-sickness levels.
-Next, my husband developed a cold. Both he and I felt nauseous, but thankfully produced no vomitus.
-And just when I thought we were on our way to normal health, our toddler started vomiting Thursday morning of this week. Starting at 3AM, and for every hour for a total of 6 episodes. And as quickly as she got sick, she improved...

Were these all pre-school bugs? Perhaps the cold virus... but what would explain our baby developing a gastrointestinal virus before her big sister? Had I unwittingly brought it home from the hospital, and simply didn't get sick myself?... In all probability, we will never know... but one thing is for certain, there is nothing like appreciating the mundane after 2 weeks of sickness!

Return to Normalcy

CC walks on our terrace for the first time

I would have never imagined that the return to normality would have been blog-worthy.  But after two long weeks, I have a new appreciation for the normal state. The baby's cough has finally subsided, her sleep is less disturbed, she is not as cranky during the day, and her appetite has returned. My cold (which I caught from the Brat) is also improving.

Now if only those May showers would make way for some May sunshine!  I am running out of ways of entertaining the Brat indoors. We are somewhat limited as I have opted not to go to any germ-infested indoor playgrounds.  We do roam around the hallways of our condominium complex, throwing and then chasing the baby's ball (once the neighbours have left for work); but we are inside our condo for the most part.  She skims through and alternately chews on her books, boils a pot of water on her play kitchen, presses the buttons on the large variety of plastic musical toys, pushes her cart around, and builds and then knocks down towers. Her newest activity is climbing up on everything and anything.  She quickly mastered our couches, and has now moved on to the side tables, her play kitchen, her crib, and even the horizontal handles on the kitchen drawers.  Her repertoire lasts approximately one hour before boredom settles in.

Desperate, I googled indoor activities for rain days; a plethora of activities came up geared towards older children, but nothing for 1-year-olds.  I yearn to teach her to colour, but realize that at this stage she would be more interested in eating the crayons.  I look forward to teaching her to read, so that she can sit quietly for longer than one minute.  But mostly, I simply wish the sun would come out so that we can get ourselves some natural Vitamin D!

April Showers

CC's acrobatics occasionally get her into trouble; see right forehead bump

While familiar with the proverb April showers bring May flowers, its origin was news to me.  I found out recently that originally a poem, it was written by one Thomas Tusser in 1557:

Sweet April showers
Do spring May flowers

The baby and I had an excellent April, despite some 137mm of rainfall in Montreal.  We ventured outside on most days, rarely requiring a rain-cover for the stroller.  But more importantly, the Brat did not get sick; not one sniffle for the entire month of April!  I attribute this to me ceasing all playgroups, in addition to eschewing contact with daycare attendees.  Instead, a few neighbouring friends and I started a home-based playgroup.  We meet once a week in our homes, alternating between the three of us.  The toys are always clean, and the runny noses scarce.

The night of April 23rd was also one for the books.  Our Brat, after 14 long months, finally decided to sleep through the night!  She fell asleep at 20h:45, and did not stir until 5:45 the next morning.  After nursing for ten minutes, she then slept for an additional hour.  Her mother, on the other hand, did not sleep through the night.  Her body had grown so accustomed to waking every three hours; and the night of April 23rd was no exception.  She checked on the baby many times that night, shocked that she was still sleeping.  How do I train myself to sleep through the night?  The countless articles and books I consulted on sleep for babies made no mention of that.  Although this sleeping through the night thing appears to have been an isolated incident, the Brat has made a lot of progress. Since the 23rd of April, she wakes on average once, and occasionally twice per night.

I certainly look forward to seeing what May has to offer, as I could not have asked for a better April!

As I prepare to publish this post, I hear the Brat stirring from the other room, only a few hours after putting her down for the night.  She woke up multiple times last night as well, and I expect much of the same for tonight. She woke up this bright May morning with a runny nose and a fever of 39.2C.  So much for May flowers!