Rough Week

I'm glad this week is nearly over. It was rough. No one thing. Just lots of little stuff (mostly sickness) that kind of added up and left me feeling overwhelmed.

Last SATURDAY I felt a sick. The feeling intensified SUNDAY, but I powered through it.

MONDAY I woke up feeling horrible. I'm sure the three hours I spent up with Ellie in the middle of the night (Drew was up for much of this too) only served to worsen my health. I had body aches, a day-long Tylenol-proof headache, and nausea, though mercifully no vomiting. Needless to say, we stayed in and as the time drew near for me to fetch Lizzie from a birthday party I called Drew and asked him to come home early because I felt too dizzy to drive. When Andrew arrived he took over with the little girls and put me to bed. I'd been having cold chills so, as he tucked me in, he also slipped socks on my feet (saying, as he did, "hmmm, I may have already worn these").TUESDAY I felt well enough to take Lainey to dance class, but we didn't get much more done. Much to Lizzie's disappointment I postponed our Valentine celebration yet another day (and it's still postponed). Much to my disappointment I had to miss book club (and I had actually read the book!).Laina loves, loves this puffy blue skirt. She wore it for at least part of every day since Friday and slept in it many nights.WEDNESDAY I started to feel better, but Ellie seemed worse (or maybe I was finally well enough to notice how sick she was). She was wheezing. A lot. The pediatrician prescribed breathing treatments which are beginning to feel routine. THURSDAY started for us around 1 a.m. which is when Lizzie started vomiting--on herself, on Andrew, on our bed (and the sheets I washed two days earlier), on our floor, on a large pile of clean clothes that Andrew had not gotten around to putting away. Ugh. Cue massive amounts of laundry for me, and middle-of-the-night showers for Drew and Liz.

I figured the bulk of my day would be spent doing laundry and breathing treatments, but in the end there was much more. The pediatrician couldn't find anything wrong with Liz, but she suggested I keep her home from school just to make sure (after puking Lizzie had started crying that she didn't want to miss school). We ran to Walmart for the components of the BRAT diet and carpet cleaner, then headed home. The girls are pictured below in the pediatrician's waiting room.

Back at the apartment, Alaina refused to walk up the stairs, preferring instead to play in the dirt. I had Ellie under one arm so I half carried, half pushed Laines up the two flights of stairs. Once inside I noticed that Alaina wasn't using her arm. She cried when I tried to move it and whimpered when jostled. I panicked. I had picked her up by her arm just like I knew I wasn't supposed to, but had done dozens of times with her and with Liz with no issues. I called Drew and through his questioning it became clear that he thought maybe I had managed to dislocate Lainey's arm. I dissolved into tears and Drew raced home. He later told me that I needed to learn to "keep it together" better so I can actually help during emergencies.

.

Once home Andrew quickly ascertained that Laina's shoulder was just fine, but that something was definitely wrong with her lower arm so he splinted her and we all headed to the ER (I didn't want to wait for an appointment at our regular docs).

I felt lower than dirt when I had to explain to the ER intake people what happened. Things got better when we got back to the nurses and doctors. Our nurse explained that it was probably Nursemaid Elbow. Turns out it was. It is also not uncommon. The nurse even explained that she had done the same thing to her toddler which made me feel a little less awful.

I felt less awful still when the doctor said he saw several of these a day and quickly fixed Lainey's arm. But first he complimented Andrew on his excellent splint which the doc had already heard about from his colleges. Seriously every medical personnel that we ran into was impressed and wanted to know what Drew did for a living. One nurse even left the room and brought back another nurse just to see the splint and the doctor said it was the best splint he had ever seen anyone come in with.

TODAY my goal was to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather and have fun with my kids. In the morning I took the little ones to the zoo. After school we met up with a bunch of Lizzie's classmates at a local park.

Over-bundled on top and bare-foot on bottom. That evens out, right?