A Storm Is Brewing

Metaphorical Storm: Caleb woke up this morning with a slight fever and a cough. We leave for Thailand tomorrow morning, and with those symptoms we will surely not be allowed to board an airplane with all the H1N1 fears. (And, yes, they will check his temp!)

And now? He's napping. This is the child who hasn't taken a nap since he was 2 1/2 unless he's sick. Aargh. His fever is down, but the cough is persistent. He's not congested; it's just the tickly, shallow cough. I tried the asthma inhaler, but it doesn't seem to have made a difference.

Justin is prepared to stay home with him and let me go to Thailand with Levi if we need to, but I really don't want that to happen!

Actual Storm: I took these pictures from our dining room window. I LOVE when it rains here because it's cools things down tremendously. Even though I forgot my umbrella when I went to meet a friend for lunch, it was glorious because I wasn't sweating!

When Will It Go Away

My kids and I are sick again. This time with a stomach bug. Caleb's still running a fever, but Levi seems much better today. I'm so tired of being sick and my kids being sick. We can't seem to shake it around here lately. On the upside, Justin was home today to take care of all of us. We watched lots of movies and just laid around all day. I'm hoping we're all well soon and that Justin doesn't get sick. For some reason being sick makes me much more homesick. I'm not sure why.

In other, more exciting news, we're heading to Thailand on Friday! I've resisted the urge to put a countdown on here every day, but we are SO excited!! It's been almost 8 years since I was in Chiang Mai--a life-changing 6 months for me. Justin and I were dating then (it gives new meaning to the term "long distance relationship"), so I'm ready to show him places I frequented and introduce the boys to our friends there. We love, love, love the Thai people and can't wait to be among them again. Great Thai food is just the cherry on top. We're praying against any sickness next weekend!

Here are some recent pictures. Caleb hardly ever is fully dressed when we're at home. Not sure why, but he refuses to have both a shirt and shorts on at the same time. Maybe it's the heat?
I made a little reading nook out of our bathtub one day. Really, I was just trying to keep the boys out of the way. ;-)
Caleb's sticker creation. That one, he keeps us in stitches.

We Found A Preschool

We looked at two preschools today for the boys. One was a local preschool, which was nice and very structured. It was a 5 days a week program. I just couldn't put Caleb (let alone Levi) in school 5 days a week from 9am-3pm. That's like real school! I'm not ready for that and neither is he.

So, we checked out one of the more affordable international preschools and really liked it. We got a very quick tour and some information to take home, which I was thankful for because I wasn't feeling well (more on that later). Caleb and Levi will be able to attend the same school, so I'm very thankful for that! I wasn't sure how I was going to manage getting them to different schools without a car. I'd lose my mind for sure!

Caleb's tuition is included as part of our "expat package" because he's school age here. For Levi to go we'll be paying about 4 times what we paid in the States for Caleb to go last year and that's still very reasonable by Singapore's international preschool standards!

So, I've had a stomach virus this week. It's been awful. For three days I only managed to choke down 6 saltine crackers, 1/4 piece of toast, 4 bites of Rice Krispies cereal, and 5 grapes. I drank enough 100 Plus (the closest thing to Gatorade here) to keep me just barely hydrated. I was finally feeling hungry this evening and knew my weak stomach could not stand the smell of local food, so we headed to Chili's. We had the skillet queso and it was awesome! I needed a little taste of home for my sick tummy. My stomach shrank quite a bit this week, so I only could eat about 1/4 of the chicken breast I ordered, but now we have leftovers. I lost 6 pounds in 2 days, so that makes my total since we've arrived here at 16 pounds lost. Not the best way to lose weight, but I'll take what I can get!

We drove to Chili's tonight! I cannot tell you the pleasure I had at taking the elevator down to the carpark in the basement of our building, driving to Chili's in the mall (of course it's in a mall!), parking in the basement, and riding the escalator up. Very little walking. No waiting. And NO sweating! It was glorious!! We definitely took our cars for granted in Texas.

My mom sent me a package that arrived today. It included Bounce dryer sheets, decaf family size tea bags, a Bible study workbook I wanted, some CDs for the kids, and a few other things. Everything smells like Bounce! Our whole apartment smells dryer sheet fresh. I'm hoping it didn't soak into the tea bags too much. One thing I don't want is April Fresh tea. :-)


Our first family outing in the car...

Chili's! Yummy!!
Check out these steak prices! They fly everything in from the US...

We get the keys to our place on Saturday and our stuff arrives on Monday, so we're really close to not living out of suitcases!!

I really need a laptop

I really would blog more if I had a laptop. That way I could be wherever the kids were and write about their happenings. But I don't have one and the computer room is a dangerous place for the kids to be (way too much clutter in here!). And they won't stay put anyway.

Caleb is getting pretty good at working a computer mouse, though. He likes to play the online toddler games like Little Einsteins. He's growing up so fast; today it really hit me that he's a big boy. Sad.

He was sick for a week or so with a high fever and pretty much no other symptoms. Don't really know what it was, but he was responding to Motrin so the doctor didn't need to see him. It finally went away Saturday night. Weird.

Well, I need to get to sleep if I have any hope of getting to the gym in the morning. That all depends on whether the boys sleep well tonight. One of them has been awake multiple times a night for weeks. Sometimes both of them several times a night. We're pretty tired around here.

Fun in a Box

Literally...

We're so tired around here. It's 8:21am, and Levi has been down for a nap since 7:45. Both boys were up for the day at 6am, and Levi was up eating twice during the night. I'm hoping it's a growth spurt!

We ALL had the stomach virus last week and over the holiday weekend. Not fun. I think we're finally over it, thank goodness. Now, if we could just get some sleep maybe we won't have a relapse!

One of Those Days

Have you ever had one of those days where nothing seems to go right?

Yesterday was one of those days. I've been running a fever of 101 for 4 days now (yes I'm now on antibiotics), I have a terrible sore throat and cough, and I've been generally feeling pretty yucky. I picked up Caleb and Angel (the girl I keep on T/Th) from Mother's Day Out and in my fever-induced stupor I rear-ended a lady at a stoplight. With 3 kids in the car, one of which is not mine. It was very minor, very little damage and no injuries, but highly annoying and frustrating. For an hour, we had to sit there while the deputy got all the information, input it into the computer, etc., etc., etc. Meanwhile, I have a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old in the back seats asking me constant questions about when we're going to leave and what is the policeman doing. Oh, and of course Caleb had to potty the whole time and I couldn't do anything about it. When I called the insurance company later, the guy asked me if my day had been going well before the accident. Ummm, no.

I'm having my gall bladder removed next Thursday morning. I need to get better before then!

I just dropped my kids off at a sweet friend's house for the morning so I can get some rest. I'm off to the couch!

A Visit to the Emergency Room

We spent ALL Saturday night, or I should say Sunday morning at Texas Children's ER with Levi. (I cannot remember the last time I stayed up all night long without sleeping a wink.) We took him to the doctor on Saturday morning because he is still very congested and having horrible coughing fits. (The poor guy has little red dots all over his face from all the coughing.) He has never run a fever, so it's just been "wait it out" because there was nothing they could do.

Saturday night about 10:30, I took his temperature and it was 101.2, so we called the doctor and had to take him to the ER. Then we watched for hours as they poked and prodded our little guy trying to figure out the source of the infection. They took his blood and urine for tests, did chest and abdomen x-rays, and did a lumbar puncture to test his spinal fluid for meningitis. His white blood cell counts were high, so they knew there was an infection somewhere, but they were unable to find it. At one point the doctor was concerned that it was either bacterial pneumonia or meningitis. Both of those options are scary. They put in an IV and gave him antibiotics before we left. So far, his fever has stayed down. When a 7-week-old runs a fever, they get pretty concerned. There were several other kids at the ER getting chest x-rays; it seems everyone is sick these days.

We're hoping they've knocked out the infection, but we're still not out of woods because he has so much mucus still in his chest that could become infected. He's been sick for about 3 weeks now and over a week with the bronchiolitis, so he has no idea what it's like to feel good. I've relapsed with the upper respiratory stuff (with two sick kids and little sleep it's not a wonder), so we really need some healing in our house.

It's Been a LOOOOOONNNNNG Weekend

This will be quick. And hopefully one day soon I'll stop posting about us being sick.

Both boys have been sick for over two weeks (and all of us in between). They also shared their germs with their Grandad, Aunt Kiki, Ava, mommy and daddy, Uncle Scott, and probably a few others. (Grandad, daddy, and Aunt Kiki all got the eye infection from the boys.)

Caleb has had a cough that would not go away. Finally Friday night it got really bad and he couldn't stop coughing. We called the pediatrician and she said it sounded like reactive airway disease, which we've dealt with before after he's had a virus. So, we started the asthma meds. Then, he spiked a fever of 103, so we called the doctor back and she said it sounded like he was trying to spring pneumonia, so we started antibiotics. He cried and coughed in his bed almost all night.

Saturday morning Levi woke up breathing very shallow and fast. I counted his respirations and they were 100 times a minute and didn't get any slower then 62, and I know from our experiences with Caleb that 60 is where they start to get concerned. So, we loaded up both kids and took them to the doctor.

We found out Caleb also has an ear infection, and the doctor does think he's had an underlying pneumonia, which is why it's been so hard for him to kick the sickness.

Levi got a breathing treatment, and the doctor almost sent us to the hospital with him because he was breathing too fast to eat, and she was concerned that he would get dehydrated quickly. After about 30 minutes, the breathing treatment helped and he was able to eat without stopping to cough and breathe, so she sent us home. She did tell us that if he got a fever above 100, it was serious and we needed to call right away.

Caleb is still coughing a lot, but the stuff in his chest is loosening up, so what we're doing is working. Now we're still watching them closely for fevers and breathing. I think they're both getting better, so hopefully soon we'll all be well.

Last night Caleb slept better than he has in a long time, so I was just up every two hours with Levi, which was a vast improvement over the last few days!

Sleep is a marvelous thing!

Levi Did Not Escape the Sickness

Poor Levi can't hardly breathe. The last two nights I've been up with him suctioning out his nose just so he can sleep a little. He can't lay flat and doesn't want to be anywhere but in someone's arms. And it's getting worse. I think he's also contracted the eye infection his brother had.

It's scary when your newborn baby can't breathe.

Justin is also not feeling well, so he hasn't escaped the germs in the house, either.

On the upside, Caleb and I are much better; now we're just dealing with the congestion. Thankfully my mom is here to help out. Now let's just hope she doesn't get sick.

We're Miserable

Caleb has a bad cold that turned into double eye infections and has had a fever of 101+ for four days now.

I have an upper respiratory infection and my throat hurts so bad I can hardly talk, eat, and/or drink anything. (And I'm not convinced I don't have strep...they didn't test for that when I went on Saturday morning.)

Levi is spitting up or throwing up multiple times a day and not just after a feeding. He's running a low-grade temperature, and I think he may have some sinus drainage that is making him gag and throw up.

Thankfully, we had company this weekend who were a huge help with the kids and keeping us all sane.

They're gone now, and Justin has to work tomorrow.

I just want to lay in bed all day and rest. But I'm the mommy, and I have two kids to take care of.

Say a little prayer for us, please.

One day this won't be a pregnancy blog...

This blog has been hijacked by a very sick pregnant girl. I'm hoping she's replaced by a very happy, able to eat anything she wants pregnant girl soon. :-)

I haven't had internet access at my parent's house for days now because of the weather, hence the lack of posting. Which could also be attributed to the nausea. And taking care of Caleb, who's been sick. All have prevented me from updating you guys since I got out of the hospital.

I'm staying with my parents this week while Justin's out of the country. Saturday and Sunday were still pretty bad days; I could only keep cereal down. I called the doctor on Monday and they said I could take the nausea pills every 4-6 hours instead of the recommended 8 because they weren't working at all. Right now I'm just functioning from nausea pill to nausea pill. I don't dare skip one yet. I'm still not able to eat much and nothing really sounds good. I'm eating a lot of cereal still and popsicles. I try to eat some fruit and other healthy stuff as I think I feel like it, but I usually don't get very far. I ruled out going to restaurants since every time I do, I lose my dinner in the bathroom. I'd rather take my chances in the privacy of my own home. :-)

We had to take Caleb to the doctor here on Monday because he wouldn't eat (he would just cry when he put food in his mouth) and wouldn't sleep. This momma and his Grandma were/are very tired from waking up multiple times a night with him! He has a really bad case of thrush. He's doing a lot better with the medicine they gave him and is finally sleeping through the night again. If it's not one thing it's 20 around here! (the dog is sick, too. *sigh*)

So, pretty much all I can think about these days is keeping Caleb occupied (which is easier said than done since it's been raining for days and he can't go outside) and trying to force any amount of food down my throat (and pray it stays there).

I hope one day soon to be back to "normal" and talking about something other than being sick. I know y'all are tired of hearing it, but this blog is functioning as my pregnancy journal for now. In a couple of years when I decide I want another child, I can look back at these posts and decide if that's really what I want to do! I told Justin when I was pregnant with Caleb that if we had any more children, they would have to come from his body. I now remember why I said that, and I wasn't nearly as sick that time as I am this time (and it ended about 6 weeks ago with Caleb!). I'm sure I'll conveniently forget all of this in the months to come; that mommy amnesia is pretty strong once you're holding your baby in your arms! ;-)

Until then, I have 2 1/2 more hours before the next nausea pill and Caleb is laying quietly in his bed, so I'm off to lay on the couch!

(Oh, I'm feeling the baby move a lot these days! It's finally big enough for me to feel the movements, and that is definitely a blessing!)