Why is everyone sick? I'm sick of sick!
We have been so sick for the past week and a half. At least someone in our house has had a cough, runny nose or ear infection. I thought it was all ending, and then Luke got sick. A few nights ago he fell asleep on the couch and Josh picked him up and took him upstairs. He woke him and had him go pee before he put him in his bed. Well, Luke didn't like this a bit and started crying. He was so upset that he started that seal-barking cough and stridor that kids with croup get. At first it wasn't a big deal. We've dealt with it enough to know it sounds words than it usually is (usually). I say "usually", because last January Livea was admitted to the hospital when we were in Phoenix for croup. It was very bad. When we got her to the hospital her pulse oximeter reading was 80. It was scary. We waited too long. So, Luke starts this stridor sounding stuff, and it dosn't calm down when he does. He swelled up those vocal chords in just a few minutes of crying and a few minutes of calming down wasn't diminishing the effect. So.....I took him outside in the cold night air for ten minutes. Wrapped him in a blanket, although he was still shivering, and sat on the front porch at 11pm with him. Josh turned the hot shower on and steamed up the bathroom and then I brought him into the bathroom for 10 minutes, although we should have probably tried for 15. Then I put him back outside for 10 minutes. He was still having trouble breathing but it was sounding much better so I layed him on the couch and we just listened to him, and he slowly got better. There was a period of about 10 minutes that we were worried it wasn't going to stop and we'd have to take him to the hospital. He's fine now.
Livea was sick with a horrible cough for about a week. Livea gets coughs easily and they linger. Any time she's ever had any kind of cold or illness, she has always had a cough with it. Which is strange because our kids almost never get any sort of coughing problems. Livea coughs so much that she chokes herself, or vomits. So when she was sick, all she did all day was cough. It is hard not to give her cough medicine, because after listening to her cough all day long, I just want to sleep in peace. But she wakes up all night long coughin and hacking and choking or vomiting because she coughs so hard and much. The last time we went to the doctor her doctor prescribed her an inhaler because of a lingering cough. He said to keep the idea of "asthma" at the back of our heads, but to not let the idea dissipate because kids who get coughs easily and keep them longer are more likely to be diagnosed with asthma later on. And oh - here's an inhaler, but we're not diagnosing her now or anything. Uhh, yah - weird. Half the time she takes the inhaler well and the other half she fights me on it. It has a little mask on it so she can just breathe normally. We only give it to her when she is hacking and choking.
We went to the mall yesterday. The mall is about 30 minutes away from us. And it is really small. It isn't even as big as Christown mall in Arizona. It's pretty small. It has the major stores, like JC Penney and Sears. We really went to Manhattan to go to Home Depot but we wanted to go to the mall and figured it'd close first. We'd told the kids we'd go to Cold Stone but then we took so long at the mall that Josh and I were hungry for real food, so we detoured (much to the chagrin of the children) to Buffalo Wild Wings, I think it is called, and shared a meal and some wings, and let the kids share some kids dinners too. It took forever though, and then Cold Stone took a while too, so by the time we went to Home Depot they were closed. It was after 7pm. So we went to Target instead. Target is always fun. I could spend a thousand dollars in there at one time. Easily. I tried too. Just kidding. Not really. Adam started complaining at Buffalo Wild Wings that his ear hurt. Adam can really complain too. But at Cold Stone, he was fine, of course. Then at Target his ear hurt him again. He cried the entire time we were in Target. I'm sure everyone thought we're bad parents. I was almost thinking we were. Our children go to bed at 8pm pretty much every day. So to be out still at 8 o'clock was just strange for them. This morning he said his ear was fine and not hurting at all, but I took him to the doctor and it is infected. Ear infections can go away without antibiotics, but sometimes we have to hold him down to drink the sweetest berry flavored medicine anyway. The doctor prescribed 10 days of antibiotics. Adam took antibiotics once when he was a newborn, I think like a week old..... we thought he may have had a UTI, and weren't sure, but he was running a fever and the doctors wanted to play extra safe because it isn't normal that newborns have a fever, so they dosed him up. Since then, I honestly don't think he's ever had antibiotics. Which is normal for us. We rarely take the kids to the doctor, and when they have sore throats or ear infections we give them grapefruit seed extract in orange juice. I don't know if I could get Adam to take a good enough dose though. He is so picky about tastes. He cried all the way to the doctor, at the pharmacy and all the way home because he didn't want to take medicine. But it tastes really good so once we got home and he tasted it he was fine.
When we left the pharmacy I started sneezing and didn't stop until halfway across the parking lot toward our car. I think I sneezed at least 10 times. I've sneezed 4 times since beginning typing this. I feel like I am having an allergy attack....my nose is so itchy and my eyes are watery. It started last night inside of Cold Stone.
Everyone else is getting better though.
Josh is on 24-hour duty tonight. I hate 24-hour duty. But I appreciate that it is on a work-night and not a weekend night. So I should be thankful. I should also be thankful he's here and not on 365-day duty (yet). Soon enough. Tuesday there is a PT test for Ranger School. Sucks that he's on duty all night before the test.....but good that he is not enlisted anymore and he can sleep most of the night! =)
It's after noon and we haven't done a drop of school yet. The kids are studying ancient Egypt right now and starting the book Understood Betsy, today. It looks like a really great book and I can't wait. We just finished Henry Huggins. I think we read it for two weeks, and I'm glad it's over. Although it was very child-like and the kids loved it.
It is windy today and was pouring pretty good this morning. Windy for Kansas means really.really.extremely.a.lot.of.wind. Not just a breeze. Windy. I don't understand how people farm so well here. I am afraid my veggies are going to get blown out of the ground. Okay. I should go start our school day since it's practically nap time.
Livea was sick with a horrible cough for about a week. Livea gets coughs easily and they linger. Any time she's ever had any kind of cold or illness, she has always had a cough with it. Which is strange because our kids almost never get any sort of coughing problems. Livea coughs so much that she chokes herself, or vomits. So when she was sick, all she did all day was cough. It is hard not to give her cough medicine, because after listening to her cough all day long, I just want to sleep in peace. But she wakes up all night long coughin and hacking and choking or vomiting because she coughs so hard and much. The last time we went to the doctor her doctor prescribed her an inhaler because of a lingering cough. He said to keep the idea of "asthma" at the back of our heads, but to not let the idea dissipate because kids who get coughs easily and keep them longer are more likely to be diagnosed with asthma later on. And oh - here's an inhaler, but we're not diagnosing her now or anything. Uhh, yah - weird. Half the time she takes the inhaler well and the other half she fights me on it. It has a little mask on it so she can just breathe normally. We only give it to her when she is hacking and choking.
We went to the mall yesterday. The mall is about 30 minutes away from us. And it is really small. It isn't even as big as Christown mall in Arizona. It's pretty small. It has the major stores, like JC Penney and Sears. We really went to Manhattan to go to Home Depot but we wanted to go to the mall and figured it'd close first. We'd told the kids we'd go to Cold Stone but then we took so long at the mall that Josh and I were hungry for real food, so we detoured (much to the chagrin of the children) to Buffalo Wild Wings, I think it is called, and shared a meal and some wings, and let the kids share some kids dinners too. It took forever though, and then Cold Stone took a while too, so by the time we went to Home Depot they were closed. It was after 7pm. So we went to Target instead. Target is always fun. I could spend a thousand dollars in there at one time. Easily. I tried too. Just kidding. Not really. Adam started complaining at Buffalo Wild Wings that his ear hurt. Adam can really complain too. But at Cold Stone, he was fine, of course. Then at Target his ear hurt him again. He cried the entire time we were in Target. I'm sure everyone thought we're bad parents. I was almost thinking we were. Our children go to bed at 8pm pretty much every day. So to be out still at 8 o'clock was just strange for them. This morning he said his ear was fine and not hurting at all, but I took him to the doctor and it is infected. Ear infections can go away without antibiotics, but sometimes we have to hold him down to drink the sweetest berry flavored medicine anyway. The doctor prescribed 10 days of antibiotics. Adam took antibiotics once when he was a newborn, I think like a week old..... we thought he may have had a UTI, and weren't sure, but he was running a fever and the doctors wanted to play extra safe because it isn't normal that newborns have a fever, so they dosed him up. Since then, I honestly don't think he's ever had antibiotics. Which is normal for us. We rarely take the kids to the doctor, and when they have sore throats or ear infections we give them grapefruit seed extract in orange juice. I don't know if I could get Adam to take a good enough dose though. He is so picky about tastes. He cried all the way to the doctor, at the pharmacy and all the way home because he didn't want to take medicine. But it tastes really good so once we got home and he tasted it he was fine.
When we left the pharmacy I started sneezing and didn't stop until halfway across the parking lot toward our car. I think I sneezed at least 10 times. I've sneezed 4 times since beginning typing this. I feel like I am having an allergy attack....my nose is so itchy and my eyes are watery. It started last night inside of Cold Stone.
Everyone else is getting better though.
Josh is on 24-hour duty tonight. I hate 24-hour duty. But I appreciate that it is on a work-night and not a weekend night. So I should be thankful. I should also be thankful he's here and not on 365-day duty (yet). Soon enough. Tuesday there is a PT test for Ranger School. Sucks that he's on duty all night before the test.....but good that he is not enlisted anymore and he can sleep most of the night! =)
It's after noon and we haven't done a drop of school yet. The kids are studying ancient Egypt right now and starting the book Understood Betsy, today. It looks like a really great book and I can't wait. We just finished Henry Huggins. I think we read it for two weeks, and I'm glad it's over. Although it was very child-like and the kids loved it.
It is windy today and was pouring pretty good this morning. Windy for Kansas means really.really.extremely.a.lot.of.wind. Not just a breeze. Windy. I don't understand how people farm so well here. I am afraid my veggies are going to get blown out of the ground. Okay. I should go start our school day since it's practically nap time.