Baby E woke up this morning still without a fever. Keeping him in solitary was harder today, as he felt so well and kept arguing that he didn’t have ‘the flu’ and that he wasn’t sick. Tim took the big kids out so that we wouldn’t have to try to separate them quite so much. Baby E watched tv, took a bath, and we went for a walk and played with bubbles. We are pretty bummed that the flu fell during the Easter weekend as it means that we are missing out on a lot of family activities. The kids missed a cousin’s birthday party this morning, and it looks like we will probably miss celebrating Easter with all the cousins tomorrow.

I made a trip to the store this evening and got a few things for their Easter baskets and I am looking forward to putting them together once the kids are asleep. I’m actually typing this in my bedroom because Baby E will not let me out of his sight. He has been clinging to me constantly since he got sick, and especially today.

I wanted to give you a heads up with the situation with C. The school counselor called me the other day and we got the chance to discuss what had happened. There was a little girl at school that thought C was being mean to her one day. C said she wasn’t trying to be, but I don’t know the exact circumstances of what happened. However the little girl told C that she was going to go home and tell her mom about C and that her mom was going to kill C. This is a girl that C is friends with, but often has problems with the girl treating her badly. Anyway, C honestly thought that the girl’s mom was going to kill her and was worried about it, until one day when the girl’s mom came to school and C figured out that she was nice and wasn’t going to kill her. Naturally we as adults know that is a metaphor, but C didn’t and it breaks my heart that she was scared like that. The counselor talked to both C and the other little girl and I am waiting to hear what the outcome is. Apparently this happened awhile ago, and I stressed to C the importance of telling us things like this so that they can be dealt with immediately.

Baby E woke up from his nap shortly after noon today with his hair plastered to his head and sweat droplets on his face. The fever was gone.

I didn’t get much sleep last night. I spent half the night worrying about him and everyone that had come in contact with him. Around midnight I gave him Tylenol and throughout the night I checked on him and the other kids. When Tim got up for work before 5, I was up as well.

When Baby E woke up this morning he felt a little warm. I gave him his meds and let him watch TV pretty much all day. When he woke up sweaty from his nap, I think that’s when the fever broke. He was fever free the rest of the day. I gave him some Tylenol before bedtime to help him sleep, but he didn’t feel warm.

I’m praying the worst is over for him, and thankfully it wasn’t bad. As I laid awake in bed last night I researched what Tamiflu actually does. When a virus is in your body it begins to multiply, making you sicker and sicker as it does so. Anti viral medications slow down the multiplying virus, so the sooner you start taking them the sooner that process begins. Since Baby E was only a few hours into his symptoms, the Tamiflu worked as intended, keeping the virus from multiplying like it otherwise would have, meaning his reaction to the flu was less. At least that’s what seems to be happening.

I’m still quarantining him and keeping an eye out for symptoms in anyone else, but I’m so very thankful he’s sleeping peacefully on a bed on the floor in our room. Thank you for your continued prayers. ☺️☺️

“I’m so sorry, this is probably a case of me clearly overreacting,” I said to the pediatrician as he walked into the exam room. “Baby E woke up this morning with a fever. I’m not sure how high because I couldn’t find the thermometer, but his cheeks were red and he wasn’t acting right. I gave him some medicine and called and made an appointment. But as you can see, he seems completely fine right now,” I said as I gestured to a very happy Baby E sitting on the exam table. “It’s just that I know he was exposed to the flu on Monday by a kid at daycare, and since Baby E has the seizures, I decided to bring him in.” The doctor politely listened to me as I rambled through my excuse.

“I’ll take a look at him.” He did the routine of listening to his lungs, looking in his ears, and down his throat. No fever. No signs of anything. “He looks great. No concerns that I can tell. I’ll run a flu test just in case, but he looks fine,” he said in a tone that indicated he was running the test more for my peace of mind than anything else.

I sat there with Baby E as we waited for the results. He was playing games on my iPad, laughing, and talking up a storm. He had been talking almost nonstop since we had left home an hour earlier. For all intents and purposes, he was acting normal.

After about ten minutes the doctor came in with a slight look of surprise, “Well, he tested positive for the flu!”

“What?!?” I really hadn’t expected that at all. The more I had been around him, the more I imagined if he really had the flu he would be miserable. The doctor prescribed Tamiflu and I asked him what I should be expecting over the next few days. He said, “Well, you caught this very, very early, so that’s really good. He might not get much worse than what he’s dealing with now. I thanked him profusely.

Since I knew Baby E had been exposed to the flu earlier in the week I had spent the past few days hovering for symptoms. When he crawled into bed with me in the middle of the night last night I knew his temperature was fine, so when he woke up with a fever I knew it hadn’t been there for long. I’m grateful they could see him so quickly and that I didn’t have to re-enact the great Tamiflu hunt of 2017. The first pharmacy had it, and since Baby E has taken it before, I knew he would tolerate it just fine.

Throughout the day he was been alright. Towards the end of each dose of Tylenol/Ibuprofen his temp raises a little and he acts slightly uncomfortable, but for now the meds are keeping it at bay.

I would greatly appreciate prayers that he recovers quickly and that, Lord willing, no one else gets it. I was all up in his face last night with cuddles, so there’s that. We decided to let him recover out at the new house, so I drove the kids out after school this afternoon. He’s asleep now, but I’ll check on him throughout the night. Please pray also for no febrile seizures with this illness. Those things really, really freak me out.

Thank you so much dear friends for your prayers!! Sleep well!.

When we lived in the townhouse, it was a very easy thing to go for a walk. The stinky bridge was only a short distance, and we were often outside on pleasant evenings. The grandparents live off of a side street from a very busy road with no shoulder, so going for long walks around here just isn’t an option. This evening, however, I decided that we would at least venture to the nearby cul de sac. After dinner, we got our shoes back on and headed out. The weather was a little chilly and slightly drizzly, but it didn’t keep us from walking up the hill and to our destination. When we got there, the kids enjoyed running around and having fun. They started re-enacting scenes from Mario Odyssey, a sure fire sign they’ve been playing too many video games at the new house, and Baby E did his rendition of Moana… again.

As I stood there watching my children it occurred to me that it was the exact same cul de sac their father had run around for the majority of his childhood. I imagined him there with his siblings, and I smiled that my kids were doing the same.

They ran hard until they were exhausted and we headed home for homework and bedtime. Little did they know what a special thing had just happened. 🙂

C came home this evening after a rough day at school with some of her ‘friends.’ She’s had problems with these friends on and off all year. They are the kind that are nice when they feel like it and cruel in their turn. As we talked to her this evening we realized that things have escalated since the last time she mentioned these girls and we found it necessary to involved the teacher, so I emailed her this evening. Hopefully it will be resolved quickly. In the meantime, it breaks my heart that there are mean girls in the world and that they have crossed paths with my daughter. It was bound to happen, but seeing her tears, and feeling her body heaving with the sobs made me very sad indeed.

I survived day 10 of this irritating sickness and I am quite ready for it to be over! Despite feeling incredibly overtired the entire day, I thought I was making some progress- I could even smell my coworker’s lunch! Yay! But as the sun started going down, I started to feel worse again. Why is that? Why are nights always the hardest when you are sick?

This evening was a little bumpy with the kids. My commute was super long and by the time we got home everyone was cranky, mommy included. 😦 It wasn’t in me to settle arguments, wipe bottoms, and referee bedtime. I was annoyed that they were begging me for food every 30 seconds as I prepared dinner, or that I was washing a poop mess out of underwear. But no matter how my kids misbehaved this evening, I didn’t do a good job at how I reacted to it. I snapped a lot. I was angry. I was impatient. So after they were tucked in bed, I made a point to get their attention and apologize. It’s always been important to me that my children understand that even grown ups need to say “I’m sorry” sometimes and tonight was one of those nights. 😦

This morning I caved and decided to go to the local Urgent Care near the new house. I took Big E with me because he had a slight fever on Friday and was sharing the rest of my symptoms. We got seen quickly, and the doctor prescribed me an antibiotic because I have been sick for so long. He told me I should just treat Big E with over the counter meds for now and keep an eye on him. So after the office visit, we headed over to Rite Aid to pick up some Dimetapp. I had promised him a stop by Dunkin Donuts, so he wasn’t very happy about the detour to the drug store. I told him we would be quick. I found the meds after a little searching, picked up the box, and turned to him.

“This is it. We can go now,” I said to him.

“But Mommy!!!” He responded with a very loud voice and a worried look on his face, “You have to pay for that!!!!” He said it as if I was in the habit of pilfering from local drug stores, and I looked around to see some customers staring at me, and an employee eyeing me suspiciously!

“Of course, I’m going to pay for it,” came my awkward response, which made it sound like I was just covering my tail. The nearby employee that was staring at me asked me if I had everything I needed and then she guided us up to the front register. I wondered as we walked if she thought I might make a run for the door with a purse full of contraband. I paid and we walked out, me making a mental note to use the drug store just down the street the next time we visit!

A little while ago, my sister purchased a VR headset. I had never used on before. The only VR experience I had was when we purchased a Google Cardboard set that you place your cellphone in. While I enjoyed it a lot, I couldn’t play with it long until I would get so motion sick. I was wary to try the new set this evening for fear it would sent me to bed with a tummy ache.

When we had gotten here last night, Tim and C played on it for a little while and it was adorable to watch her interact with it. She laughed and giggled as she explored this brand new way of seeing the world.

Since she seemed to enjoy it so much, and Tim had really talked it up, I decided to give it a try. We started off with a simple game of looking around a coral reef. And then we did a game where you were in a cage and it descended down into the ocean to look at a sunken submarine. I was really impressed with the detail in the graphics and they way that it made me want to touch everything in my environment, even though it wasn’t real. The manta rays and the fish drifted around the cage, as you could turn around and explore. Towards the end of the game, however, a shark makes an appearance. It was the strangest sensation to have your eyes tell your mind that something is real, when you know in reality that it is not. I stood there watching that shark bust its way through the cage trying to eat me, and it caused a physical reaction of alarm. I kept backing up away from it, or trying to hit it in an attempt to save myself.

I remember the old story about how one of the first films that ever played in a theater was a train that drove straight toward the camera. The theater goers were so scared of this train approaching them that they panicked and ran from the theater.

I think what I felt tonight is what they experienced- the dichotomy of what your eyes see and your mind knows to be true. The immersive nature of it was exciting and a little unsettling.  The really surprising thing about the entire experience was that it did not make me queasy. I think it was because the headset made it so immersive and the graphics were so well done. At the end of each game, I would take the headset off and let myself stand there for a few minutes with my eyes closed to ground myself again. I tried a few more games, and ended on a car racing game, which did make me a little nauseous, probably because I kept running into walls!

I don’t think it is something that I would want a steady diet of, but it was very enjoyable and I would recommend it!

As for the rest of our day, Tim and I went on a date to see the Black Panther movie, which I liked a lot and we ended our evening with a sushi date at a local restaurant.

I’m including a picture of C playing on the VR headset last night. 🙂

I’m going on four days of very little sleep and I can’t tell you how tired I am. After a comedy of errors getting on the road this evening we finally got to the new house at 10:30. I snagged some Advil PM in hopes that it will knock me out. ☺️ I’m so thankful it is the weekend!!!

Baby E- I have a secret for you. You’re the prettiest, prettiest princess I’ve never seen!!

BabyE gave me his cold at the end of last week and it is kicking my butt. Along with other symptoms, I have a scratchy throat, which always gets worse at night. So, I’ve gotten barely any sleep in the past few days. Hopefully it lets up soon cause I am exhausted!!