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 Stay-at-home Rash

Doing nothing in particular. If you look closely, you can see the rash around our toddler's mouth.

There are many different types of rashes, and in fact many categories of rashes. For the sake of this blog, I will divide them into infectious and non-infectious. Unfortunately, our girls had the infectious type. And so the last week of March saw us stay home.

I would later find our that there had been two other cases at my toddler's pre-school. The parents of both had failed to advise the teachers, and one child actually continued to attend school!  The baby showed signs of infection two days earlier than her sibling. She had a fever for two days, followed by a very non-specific rash. A few pink papules on her cheeks, but mostly on her elbows and knees. The evening the rash appeared, I took her to see her paediatrician, who diagnosed a very non-specific"viral exanthem", meaning a rash due to a virus. It wasn't until her sister developed a rash around her mouth two days later that I knew what we were dealing with. After inspection of her hands and feet, it became clear that they had "Hand-Foot-Mouth disease", an infectious rash usually caused by a type of Coxsackie virus.

Our toddler missed an entire week of school. But because the girls were infectious, our activities were limited. We went for a walk with the double stroller every morning, usually ending up at what my toddler calls the "sticker store" but is in fact the local Dollar store. The afternoons we spent at home, doing a variety of activities such as reading, singing, dancing and arts and crafts. Thankfully our girls got along quite well during our week in quarantine.

Just when I thought I could not handle another day in quarantine, two things happened. The paediatrician  confirmed that the girls were no longer infectious, and I remembered that my husband was off for Good Friday.

We all managed to sleep in in Friday morning, something very rare as of late. We also enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of pancakes and bacon (for the non-vegetarians). We then headed to the Biodome, a Montreal-area family-friendly facility that allows visitors to walk through replicas of four eco-systems. There are apparently over 4,500 animals from 250 different species, and over 500 plant species.

Both girls were very intrigued. The baby seemed to be looking at everything and everyone, quietly taking in her new environment. Out toddler seemed a little frightened by some of the animals, but overall seemed to enjoy herself.

All in all, it was the perfect end to an imperfect week!

Entering the tropical forest

Watching the fish?

Enjoying the slide adjacent to the otter slide