Case of the Sickies..

Heres a litte rundown of how our Fabulous Fun on Thursday  transformed into sick babies Monday..

Thursday was absolutely beautiful outside,we played in the backyard all morning. Karter and I did a little snuggling on the swing, catching some sunshine,

while Kanyon did the whole boy thing...playing with all of his outdoor toys, but mainly asking Mommy to please turn on the water hose so that he could make a muddy mess. But, mean old Mama said it wasn't hot enough (the temp was 70s) and that we'd wait until the afternoon. He loves pretending that he's "Kanyon the Fireman" and "spray-sprays" everything down to save the day.

Little Karter was ready for a morning snooze, and what better place to nap than Mommy's shoulder. This picture made me smile because she was sleeping so hard while I was chasing Kanyon around the backyard, her little head just bobbling all around, but never made her wakeup.

She slept a little more comfily after I placed her on the swing beside me in the shade.

Lollie brought Kanyon a Happy Meal from McD's and visited for a bit before she had to get back to work. Looking back on how he didn't even eat his meal, I should have thought he might be getting sick, but I thought he was simply too distracted to sit still and eat while Lollie was there. He was happy, energetic, and being silly, playing drums for Lollie.

After Lollie left, Mimi called and asked if I wanted a sweet tea from Sonic, and while we were sitting in the rocking chair waiting to hear her car arrive, Kanyon looked a bit tired, even though it was only 1:45 (he usually lays down around 3)...

both babes crashed out before Mimi even got there, and she decided to come another day after I sent her this pic...

so, naptime began, I moved two sleeping angels to the bedroom for a snoozefest, but Kanyon only slept for an hour, when he usually sleeps at least 2 hours, if not 3. I didn't think anything of it, and was actually ok with his short nap since he woke up happy and was excited when I asked if he was ready to go play in the sprinkler. It was around 80 degrees outside, still a bit chilly for the water, but hey, I'm not one to break that morning's promise.

After getting splashed by the caterpillar sprinkler a few times, he would yell "ow!" each time the ice cold water hit his body, and decided it'd be okay if Mom turned off the water and we just played in the mud instead.

Little Miss Polka Dot and I chose not to participate in the water or the mud and just watched and giggled at Bubba.

He worked up a thirst and was ready to go in after Daddy got home. We played outside a good two hours, all the way until dinner, I bathed him, did the whole winding down of the evening routine, and noticed he felt a bit hot around bedtime.

We had a rough night of fever, grumpy-cuddliness from the Little Man. So, he got to sleep with us, minus Daddy, who knew if he was going to get any sleep that it'd be best to move it to the front room. Kanyon woke up Friday morning with a fever, followed by vomiting, and an extremely sore throat.

Everytime he would try to take a drink of milk or water he would start crying. Saddest thing ever! I had a bad feeling that he may have gottten strep, and decided we better go to the walk-in clinic to get him checked out, hopefully with a prescription in hand so that he'd be on the mend for the weekend.

Kelby came home around lunch to watch Karter, while Kanyon and I went to the doc. He was super pitiful, crying and letting his spit pool in his mouth and just pour out instead of swallowing it. Oh,and he puked over my shoulder in the parking loat at the clinic. I hate it when my kids are sick! I'd trade them spots anyday.

Waiting on the doc. She ordered a strep test.

Poor boy was sooo lethargic and cuddly, he kept saying "bye-bye, mama". All we wanted to do was hurry up, go home and snuggle the day away.

He fell asleep waiting on the results of the strep test, which came back negative. Our diagnosis was a 24-hr virus, vomiting bug. But his throat was red and tonsils swollen. How frustrating to leave with no meds to help ease his throat and anticipating more vomiting episodes. They recommended Tylenol for the pain of his throat and to keep the fever down.

I got him a "special drink" a vanilla milkshake to help soothe his throat. Look at his sad eyes, poor kid. He never did vomit anymore, yet continued getting sicker with the whole throat issue. No appetite, which was to be expected, and the fever remained.

The most challenging issue for me was getting him to consume his medicine!! Kelby went to Walgreens to purchase chewable tylenol tablets so that we could try a different way of getting pain reliever in Kanyon's system. Every single time I tried to squirt the liquid med in his mouth he was already crying, saying "no! Daddy!" meaning get off of me Mama! and then as soon as the med hit the back of his tongue he would gag and spit it out, wasting it all.

 I was so upset, in more ways than one. Sad, because I wanted my baby to feel better and not be miserably ill. Mad at myself for not being able to get his med in him that would do multiple tasks...make his fever go away, relieve a little of the horrible throat pain, and enable him to get some much needed sleep. I wanted to be SuperMom and make it all better. I felt helpless watching him cry.

I also felt thankful. Why thankful? Because my kids are usually very healthy. We rarely deal with health issues. No ear infections. No diseases, no cancer. So, although I was getting overwhelmed, and caught up in the moment of chaos that was crouding our house, I took a deep breath and prayed a prayer of Thanks to Him for the health of my babies. And a prayer of Strength not only for this time of (small) trial for me as a Mama, but for the other Mamas who are enduring bouts of extreme sickness with their child daily, weekly, yearly.

In the middle of the night on Friday...as in 3am on Saturday, Kanyon was up and crying, feeling way worse than Friday morning and I was glad when he wanted to eat something...Ice Cream. We had an ice cream party in bed, turned on the TV and he finally fell back asleep around 5 Saturday morning. (Daddy was smart again, he had decided he's rather catch some shut eye and slept in the front room again.)

Kanman slept in til about 9:00..

Sideways in bed, meaning feet in my back, but hey, a sleeping boy equals happy Mama. When he did wake up, his breathing sounded pretty wheezy, his throat was extremely painful. He wasn't talking very much, wouldn't eat, wouldn't take med, and had also developed a cough. This Mama knew things would only be getting worse as  the day went on and decided we better take him to the doctor once again.

 I called his pedi's office at 11:07 and they said we could get in at 11:30. Hmm...not much time for preparing to go out in public. The things we do for our babies! I went makeup-less, with my bedhead hair, in the clothes I slept in (I did take a moment to put on a bra, ha!), with a sick boy who cried all the way to the doctor. 

My guess was correct...CROUP again. bleh. Finally, we got meds for the croup, but they said the throat issue is a virus accompanied with fever that lasts 5-7 days, maybe even 10 days!! Jeez. I was happy again that they ruled out strep, but was feeling very weary when they said the virus is EXTREMELY contagious, especially to the 6-month old at home. Crap!

We went home, snuck in medicine via his milk cup. Why had I not tried that before. He ate Tylenol "candies" and finally got a good nap in on Saturday afternoon. He was willing to eat Pancakes by 11Pm Sat night, thank goodness. but his mood was Sensitive, Mean, and overly grumpy. The Croup med is a steroid, and I'm guessing that's what made him so aggresive and winey. I almost rather him be sick than horrid. More prayers of Thankfulness that he doesn't always act like a crybaby.

here's a random pic of when we rode with Daddy Sat evening to return a movie (I HAD to get out of the house, even if we were all together, I was tired of being cooped up!). I just thought it was funny that the guy on the motorcycle pulled up on the sidewalk and stood in line without ever taking off his helmet. Maybe it's only funny to me.

No pics of Sunday..but Kanyon is on the mend. As of Sunday afternoon he was gaining more of an appetite, and by dinner he inhaled chicken drumsticks that Kelby cooked on the grill, and couldn't get enough of the corn on the cob either.

 At night he started the coughing, wheezing business again, so we snuck in another dose of the attitude altering Croup med, which works wonders on his cough and breathing but makes him a little sh*t to deal with. At least he can breathe. Although the breathing allows lots of yelling at Mommy and Daddy!

But the poor kid finally fell asleep after 10 last night and slept all the way until 7 this morn without waking up crying which hadn't happened since Wednesday night. Hallelujah. I didn't even care that he woke up early, as long as he's happy!

His day has been kind of mellow today. Still has a cough, and begs to go play outside, but that would just get his wheezing going and aggravate the coughing situation, so another indoor day it is. He was super snuggly come about 10 this morning...

 He played Doctor to us today.

 And as of 11:30, I bribed him into the bedroom to watch Shrek which I knew would allow him to get still, leading to a much needed rest and he did immediately fall asleep within 5 minutes of the movie playing.

 To conclude today's phone pics and Ramblings...the bright side is Kanyon is on is way to feeling better. I'd say he's about 70% himself today, let's hope for 90% by tomorrow!

But the downside is...Karter is sick. Oh, joy. What fun. She puked really big yesterday afternoon. Had a fever all day yesterday and this morning. She still has  an appetite and is willing to nurse, but has a bit of a dry cough and you can tell it hurts when she swallows. Also she's been crying today. Alot. Which she does not do.

So, my mommy diagnosis for the Princess is that she caught the virus. All we can do is snuggle, administer Tylenol for her fever and pain, and hope she doesn't get too sick. She has her 6-month checkup scheduled for Wednesday, we'll see if that ends up being an appointment to check on her sickness. Boo to viruses. Prayers for a speedy recovery for both babes is welcomed!

 I did this whlole post while they both slept/are sleeping through Shrek! Ta-ta for now!