A New Year...And a Whole Lot of Sickness!

I'm telling you what - this new year has brought us nothing but colds, germs, and major sickness! Starting with the first weekend in January, Ethan came down with a 24-hour flu bug. It really came out of nowhere and he just got up from the dinner table and started throwing up. Poor little guy got sick about five more times that night and each time Eric and I were right there with towels and blankets =) There was a lot of cuddles and a lot of Bob the Builder that night! I went to bed that evening feeling pretty crummy, but thought it was just nausea from the pregnancy. Little did I know, I caught the flu and spent the next 13 hours (literally) throwing up. It was so, so brutal. I couldn't even keep one tiny sip of water down. By mid-afternoon Sunday, I had called my OB and she prescribed some medicine to stop the vomiting, but I was throwing that up so she directed me to the ER so I could get an IV and get pumped full of fluids.

I think we were healthy for about a week before Emerson started getting sick - but from the other end =) She had some sort of gastrointestinal virus which caused her to have non-stop diarrhea/fever for probably 8-9 days. Whew. So much information, right? Poor Eric was home all weekend with both kiddos while I was away for a girls weekend in Washington, DC and I felt like I needed to come home with Lysol and baby wipes!

The past two weeks has been a real doozy though. Eric took Ethan to the Wonderlab and he picked up lovely pink eye while there. So not a big deal, but his poor little eye was so red and watery and you could tell it bothered him. We had to put drops in his eyes three times a day and it cleared up around day four.


 

Fast forward a couple days and Emerson came down with a fever pretty much all day. She was really fussy and wanted to be held all the time and by the time she went to bed that night, her fever was 103.2. We gave her the appropriate dose of Tylenol and put her to bed. She was asleep about a hour or so before she woke up and started crying. I was gone, but Eric gave it a few minutes to see if she would fall back asleep. He knew something was wrong when she started crying, "daddy! daddy, daddy!" in the saddest little cry ever. He went in to grab her and she was soaked to the bone in sweat - clearly her fever had broke so he took her down on the couch with him for awhile. I walked in and she was just laying with her daddy...right where she wanted to be =)

The next morning I woke her up and discovered she was covered in a red and bumpy rash. I called the doctor and they said to bring her in and they confirmed she had Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease (HFM). HFM is a viral illness that is common in children and shows up in the form of bumps/sores/blisters on their hands, feet, in their mouth, legs, bottom, etc. Unfortunately, there's nothing you can do for it except make them comfortable and give Benadryl if they're itchy. She was definitely bothered and irritated by all her bumps and we just felt so terrible for her. Thankfully, only one boil has blistered open and the rest have seemed to just scab over which is a sign of healing. We are on day four of the virus and hopefully it'll be all out of her system in the next couple days!

 

Pictures don't do it justice!

Needless to say, we've been spending a LOT of time at home the last couple weeks! The kids have been so great though and love playing with their toys, reading books, chasing each other around, jumping on cushions, coloring, painting, and any other fun indoor activity you can think of. Warmer weather is in store for the weekend so we are very much looking forward to getting out in the fresh air!







Dr. Ethan checking out baby sister

Thank goodness they were washable crayons!