The Creeping Crud: March 30, 2014

We kind of knew March would be a rough month.  Third month in a new house is always kind of a bummer.  The euphoria settles down into a realer kind of house love, the kind with long neglected repairs and big bills and oh-no-looks-like-it-needs-a-roof unpleasant surprises. 

The honeymoon is over in the new town, too, as you have had a few genuinely unpleasant experiences.  Like the very visible tantrum in the YMCA for which you had to drop the girls back off in the childcare and march number one son to the Family Restroom for painfully obvious reasons.  Or the time you drove 9/10 of the way to Baltimore to pick up Craig's prescriptions, decided to go the rest of the way to pick up some Caribou Coffee, and spent $22 in tolls getting lost and finding out that your favorite beans are 20 feet away but you can't get any because it would be murder/suicide to park and get out with three kids on this particular block of the dirtiest, nastiest, most crowded city you've ever been to (and you're from California).

Old friends have stopped sending housewarming presents and touching little how-are-you-doing notes and your new friendships are still too shallow to risk a get-it-off-my-chest gripe conversation.  So in the middle of all the newness you're tired and kind of lonely.

In the middle of all this, the miraculous bubble of wellness that sustained us through the past six months and nearly the entire flu season went POP.  First we thought it would be Melina, who had an inexplicable hour of fever/chills on Tuesday morning.  That ended up being just a little teething fever, as she was well by naptime and never developed other symptoms. 

This dynamic duo has been the most well of all of us.  They're over the moon to be in underwear and have taken to them much like their shoes.  Which ones will they wear today?  Dora?  Princesses?  Kitty-kitties (hello kitty)?  Will that do it, or will they want different ones after naps?

No, it was actually Birthday Boy who's been coughing this week.  We even cancelled his playdate on Friday to make sure we weren't a contagious household. 

We made our chicken soup and ate it when Craig took his first sick day from work.  He got what Devon had with a high fever.

It helped, to a point.  Mommy had the high fever, the cough, and a houseful of people to take care of.  I finally broke down and saw a doctor today when I finished my large bottle of Mucinex severe cough and cold and could only wear a sports bra because my chest hurt so badly.  The diagnosis: sinus infection and bronchitis.  The prescription:

1.  Antibiotics for the infection.

2.  Prednisone for the inflammation.

Doctor: It may make you feel like you have a lot of energy.  Take Benadryl if you need to fall asleep.

Mommy: Lots of energy?  Bring it on!  You'd be appalled at the hours of television my kids have watched this week.  I am!  And don't worry about me falling asleep.  I spent twelve hours in bed last night. Before that the Cats made it to the final four but I only saw seventeen seconds of it (actual seconds, not seconds of regulation play) because I was chasing two well kids and one only mildly sick kid up and down the stairs....

3.  An inhaler for the airway narrowing.

  

4.  Rest

Mommy: Bwaaaaahaaahhaaaahaaaaaaah!  That's a good one!  Please don't tell me another, though.  It hurts too much to cough!