I Should Have Known

I should have known when she threw the mother of all tantrums, the likes of which I have NEVER seen out of her, on Monday.

I should have known when she has been unusually obsessed with her paci.

I should have known when I heard the "funny noise" in the middle of the night, which I knew was her coughing.

I should have known when she had a temp of 99*, even though she ran around for a half hour straight, singing "The Wheels on the Bus".

I should have followed my gut and cancelled my plans, yet again. Instead I sent Chickie to my mother in laws so I could go to the dentist and go clean my aunt's house, which I had cancelled the previous two weeks (due to me being sick and the weather.) My little Chickie is sick. Croup. I knew it when I heard her cough at 5 am Tuesday morning. It woke both of us up. Matt didn't believe it was her coughing and went searching for the noise. It was just two little coughs, but I had a pretty good idea where it was headed. When she woke up she was coughing a little bit. She had a very low grade fever. I gave her some Motrin and got us ready for our day. I made the judgement call that many many moms make every day. Should I stay home? I don't often have plans. And I almost never have something going on that can't be rescheduled. Matt was due for a dental appointment. I could have sent him instead. And my aunt would have understood if I had to cancel for the third week in a row. But alas, I decided to push through. She didn't seem that sick. And my mother in law tells me she wasn't. She was just fine. Until about noon. Then she ran out of steam and spiked a fever. 101 something this time. She gave her some Motrin at the appointed time. But when I got there to pick her up, she was just resting on the couch, watching cartoons. One look and I knew. This was gonna be worse than I thought.
She slept a little on the way home. She seemed to pep up just a bit when we got home. Maybe she was just sleepy? I put on Bubble Guppies and gave her a popsicle. She had been complaining of a sore throat all day. Cough, sore throat, fever. I should have known. I asked if her nose hurt, her head hurt, her ear hurt. Nada. But that cough. That croupy cough. Croup is the inflammation of the vocal chords. It is not the inflammation of the airway, generally. And usually it sounds worse than it is. Or so I am told. But we have been there before, and by 8:30 pm when she was crying and coughing and getting herself so worked up and gasping, we decided to head to the ER for some steroids and a breathing treatment. We've been there before. After examining her, the doctor declared she had an ear infection (wha? she told me her ear didn't hurt!) and mild croup. There is a scale apparently. She was a one. She had the cough, but no retracting. We couldn't see her ribs when she took a breath. She wasn't flaring her nostrils. She was given a steroid and antibiotic. No breathing treatment. The nebulizer employees a stimulant, which is effective, but also can make little ones' hearts race (or really anyones!). I was okay with it. We were sent home and Lily and I had a slumber party in our bed while Matt bunked with the dogs on the couch. She slept pretty well, only waking up crying and coughing a few times. She snuggled right up to me. Sure, it is a queen size bed, but I was almost falling off. I hate that she doesn't feel well, but love how cuddly she is. How much she needs me. Most days are spent with her yelling for me to go away. She slept in and is currently back down for a nap.

And now Matt doesn't feel well. He is home sick today.

I was really hoping this was the week we returned to normal.

A Little of This, A Little of That

I haven't been around much lately. Have you noticed? I wish I had some big, exciting reason, but the reality is I have just been uninspired. And out of sorts lately. It started two weeks ago when I woke up with the worst sinus infection ever! Matt took pity on me and worked from home so I could get a little rest and go to the doctor, sans kid (which usually only adds to my headache!) The first dose of the Z-pack had me feeling good as new. Seriously, I am not so much a fan of medicine, if I can avoid it, but dang it works! Then, the next day Lily and I ran some errands. I hit up Target, Michaels, and the pet store. I was making conversation with Lily on the way home, asking what she wanted for lunch. As we were driving past McDonald's she informed me she wanted chicken nuggets. I knew we had some chicken tenders in the freezer so I thought we would pass on the fast food and save some cash. I was feeling so pround of myself the entire drive home. I should have known that no good deed goes unpunished. I bent down to get a cookie sheet out of the drawer under the oven and was immediately on my knees, tears streaming down my face, in blinding pain. Yup, I "threw my back out!" It took me about 15 minutes to get up, and then I called Matt bawling. He said he'd be home in 15 minutes and was darn close to the mark. For the record, it usually takes about 25 minutes from his office to our house. I took some advil and tried to lay down while Matt fed the kid and determined what to do with me. It seemed urgent care was the best choice. He got us into the car and over to urgent care and as soon as the doctor walked in the room he said "yup, you threw your back out." Honestly, this was a relief. I was so worried I had done something really serious, like herniated a disc or something with the amount of pain I was in. I left with a Rx for pain killers and muscle relaxers and all was right with the world. That is, until I was laying in bed and sneezed and my back started spasming and I was just laying there screaming in pain. Poor Matt! He looked absolutely horrified and couldn't do a thing! Eventually it was time to get up for dinner, which took about a half hour to get me out of bed. Thankfully we were able to make arrangements for my sister to come and take care of Lily/me the next day. Jackie was awesome, helping out with Lily, switching around loads of laundry for me, and just generally helping out. I was amazed how much better my back felt by Thursday. I no longer felt like I was going to die and I could pretty much take care of Lily and stuff. Seriously though, there were times in the week following my "injury" (and yes, it was an injury, but how I hurt myself is so ridiculous I feel stupid calling it an injury!) there were times that my back just like when I had back labor with Lily. Just a constant, super uncomfortable but not really limiting pain. I have started going to a chiropractor, and while I am amazed at how often they want to see me (3x a week for 3 weeks, 2x a week for 3 weeks, 1x a week for 6 weeks, 1x every two weeks, etc, etc) I do feel it may be helping.
Just when my back was starting to feel better and I was looking forward to being sprung from my week of house arrest, the predicted a major blizzard hitting the area. Now snow and wind in Chicago in the winter isn't really anything new. And the weather people have a tendency to over hype things. But for some reason, everyone took them seriously this time. And rightly so! The storm was supposed to start on Tuesday afternoon. Monday I went grocery shopping like I do every week. Me and 100,000 of my neighbors. I have never seen the store so packed! It was insane and everyone had lost their freaking minds! Everyone was rude and pushy. The shelves weren't bare as we would see on the news in other stores, but the place was a zoo. I decided to cancel my plans on Tuesday, even though I was hoping to be home by 1 pm. I just didn't want to get stuck if I was running late. Schools and businesses were already planning to let out early. Tuesday night Matt and I watched the storm. It was awesome! The snow! The wind! The drifts! Once I knew all my family were safely where they were supposed to be, I was a lot less anxious and more excited to see what mother nature had in store. We woke up Wednesday morning to about 20 inches of snow and four foot drifts in our yard. Matt went out to work on shoveling and I made breakfast. Since we were stuck at home, I decided to deep clean the bathroom. Man did it need it! Wednesday night the temperature dropped to well below zero and again on Thursday many things were closed due to the cold and people still trying to dig out. While the storm didn't eclipse the previous record for most snowfall/biggest storm, it certainly was not over hyped and I was glad to have my little family safe and cozy in our house. Friday morning we had MOPS and everyone was so eager to get out of the house!
And that is about that. I should also mention (you know, so I remember) that Lily is about potty trained. She almost never has accidents and even stays dry over night and at nap time more often than not (though she is in a pull up for them!) I was feeling like a bad mommy because she was closer to three, but once she was ready, she just got it and now I am fine with it. Now if I can only get her off the darn paci. She has been wanting it all the time lately, and our rule is only bed time of nap time. She will actually go and sit on her bed for a half hour, just to have her paci. Lily has also been a handful lately. I have always been a more, I am not sure, confident mommy, not thinking I needed to read every parenting book out there, but I am right now reading The Five Love Languages of Children. Next on my list is Love and Logic. I just need some tools to parent her more effectively and more importantly, keep my cool with her!
Oh yeah, one more thing. I am starting Weight Watchers again. I am just going to do it on my own, more of the older program since I know they just switched it up. I have to do something! Prior to my, ahem, injury I was going to the gym 3 to 4 times a week, and plan to get back into it, but I need more. I lost maybe 3 pounds in a month. Yeah, definitely need help in the diet department. And WW has worked for me in the past - until I stopped going and gained all the weight plus more back. The only thing is that it was so much easier when I worked full time! Anyway, we are going to Florida with my family in June and I need to lose weight! Come to think of it, my back will probably feel better to if I lose some weight!

Have a great week!