Of thunderstorms and puke

My parents are here for a few days while Charles is out of town. They're helping me put more stuff in storage so we can fully declutter the house and hopefully sell it! (We have had a few people come through over the last week -- yay!)

So last night we went out to dinner at a local seafood restaurant that pretty much sits on the water. A storm rolled up while we were sitting there, and it was a lot of fun to watch. The power went out for a couple of minutes, but we already had our food. So, whatever. There was a break in the storm for our drive home. When we got back here, there was a limb on the deck rail and our trash can was halfway down the neighbor's yard. There were limbs down all over the neighborhood too.

A couple hours later it started up again. We couldn't do movies on the Roku, since it needs internet to work, so we started watching "Silent Movie." It was actually a decent "Steph Netflix" pick. (Those words are usually associated with seriously crappy movies.) 1/3 of the way through, or so, the TV just cut off. I could intermittently get a red "standby" light to come on, but that was it. Charles' computer was beep-beep-beeping like it was on battery power. It took us half an hour to figure out it was a brownout. We had partial power, but not enough to power a TV or computer. Overhead lights flickered and clock lights were dim. Not long after we figured this out, everything turned off. I think the flashlight is in my car, and it was still storming hardcore. After a few minutes of using cell phones for light, I remembered I had a bunsload of candles around.

Mom and Dad and I headed to bed (and I slept in Adia's bed because the dark was scaring her.) When I woke up at 7, we had power again.

I went to nurse Francesca (who was wandering around the house) and found chunks of something in her hair. She told me it was chicken nuggets. I checked her bed and... ew. I came back up to the living room and told her "You threw up in your bed!" Her response? "I did?!" The sheets are drying, the comforter is in the wash, and Miss F now smells like body wash. She seems fine this morning, and she's had a bowl of dry cereal.

Inauguration

It was tough to get out of bed this morning after having slept on the couch, again, because of illness. (Francesca this time -- she had to be propped all night for congestion, so Charles slept on his back. And snored. While she snored too.) I did finally get moving and called to confirm that our inauguration party was still on. It was, and so I got the girls dressed. We got out the door almost a half hour after we meant to, but I managed to get both of them, extra clothes, a diaper, and all of the supplies for the food I was going to make. Oh, and Checka went diaperless.

We got to J's house and unloaded. We started watching the coverage and C (female, not Charles) showed up. We didn't have pizza sauce or pepperoni for the pizzas the kids were going to make for lunch, but nobody wanted to miss the beginning of the ceremony. (Or go back out in the sub-freezing air!) Shortly after deciding not to go, we decided we wanted Buffalo Chicken Dip* anyway, so C went to get the ingredients. She got back pretty quickly, and it got started on the stove. We busted out the hummus while that was cooking. C & J's mom was at the inauguration, so we kept joking "Look! There she is!" whenever they'd pan over the (huge) crowds.

Time seemed to fly by, and before we knew it, the swearing in of Biden was going on. We brought the chips and dip over in front of the TV to watch for a bit. The bigs came down to ask about lunch, so we set all of the kiddos up at the table to make pizzas. The bigs were chased off to play while the pizzas cooked, and the littles bummed tortilla chips from us. (I warned Checka that the dip was "picy," but P decided he wanted a bite. It was adorable and awful once the kick hit him.)

Aretha Franklin's motown "My Country 'Tis of Thee" was beautiful. From what I could concentrate on, I thought Rick Warren's invocation wasn't too bad. I recognized the scripture he used (except I know it in Hebrew. Deut 6:4, for those who are curious.) The John Williams arrangement freaked me out a bit. It was very "movie" (yes, duh, John Williams) and made me think of a scene from a political thriller. Totally not what I needed with the worry I did have already. During that song, both NBC and CNN announced that Obama was now the president anyway. The swearing-in was so cute! You could totally tell he was nervous, and then the chief justice messed up the words. We were all "awwww-ing" over the Obama girls and their fidgeting, as well as Michelle's attempts to keep them still and/or quiet. The benediction was really good too. Particularly noted at the party was the phrase "in our churches, our synagogues, our mosques." Then we watched the Bush helicopter fly away, but none of us realized what it was, as some crisis or another had popped up.

At some point in there, the bigs and a couple of the littles ate their pizzas. Once they were safely back playing, we busted out the Giant (as in, from the supermarket chain) brownie with red, white, and blue sprinkles. Straight out of the box, with forks. I'd intended to make broccoli (or is that Barack-oli?) cheddar popovers, but we were too full from the chips and dip for more food-food. We also toasted with sparkling cranberry juice and took pretentious-looking pictures. :)

A little later, C took her girls home. J and I tuned back in at 2:30 to watch the parade, but the luncheon was still going on. After confirming that it was running over, the announcement about Senator Byrd was made. And then it was Byrd and Senator Kennedy. And then it was just Kennedy. We were totally thinking the worst, especially with the revelation that a moment of silence had been held.

Eventually they announced he was conscious and talking. The parade started too. I was a bit disappointed, because it was like 2 hours of the motorcade, with 15 minutes of the Obamas walking down the road. Apparently the "real" parade started after I left.

The kids were so good today! P and Checka were a bit clingy (esp. Checka) at times, but the bigs were off and playing together happily most of the day. Adia dressed up in a green dress and red heels. (Which she soon ditched because they weren't comfortable -- that's my girl!) S wore a black dress and black heels, and M wore a red and white polka dot shirt and brown wedges. Later they all came downstairs (without the dress-up clothes) and went shirtless for the afternoon. Oh, preschoolers. At one point while the mamas were on the couch eating brownies, Checka was sitting on the floor watching the inauguration festivities and chanting "O-ba-ma! O-ba-ma!" to herself.

Charles watched the inauguration at work. (For some reason they had tv's tuned to the event. ;) His impression was good, although he agreed with me on the movie score. He was the one who pointed out to me that the chief justice had screwed up the words to the oath. He also left after the poet, so he didn't see the rest of it. (Though, to be honest, I mostly tuned out the poet.)

I talked to my mom this evening, and I asked her if she had anything new in her world.. like a president. ;) She said she was optimistic that this was going to bring about good things.

O-ba-ma, indeed.

Illness update

Things seem to be on the upswing. Charles took Advil for his throat this morning, but he said it was tolerable before that. 28 hours into round 2 of antibiotics for me means I can swallow without painkillers without crying. It still hurts a little, but much improved. It took forever for me to fall asleep last night and to wake up this morning, but a huge cup of coffee and a bottle of tea helped me stay awake. I'm taking the lazy way out and making a frozen veggie lasagna and garlic bread, but it's still an improvement on our diet of late.

Tonight a bunch of my friends are going out to play pool and drink sans kids, but I'll be at home with my cough syrup and Heroes on DVD. Woot woot. Doesn't get much more exciting than that.

Antibiotics, take 2

Urgent care was pretty awesome. I was in and out in less than 30 minutes AND the doc faxed my prescriptions to CVS. I took the babes through the Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru (see pictures of snowflake doughnuts below -- although that's about all the doughnut Checka ate!) and then through the CVS drive-thru. They offered to flavor my cough syrup too, so I took them up on it. (Watermelon.) Now on Zithromax.

We swung by Rite Aid on the way home for Mucinex and nebbie refills, and now I'm home and drowsy on antibiotics and Mucinex. They're totally cancelling out my coffee from Dunkin'. This is normal for day 1 of antibiotics for me, but I think the Mucinex is magnifying it.

I'm definitely not driving anywhere else today. I can barely type! (I'm having to backspace almost every other word.) I foresee lots of TV this afternoon.

Also, I might get to sleep in the bed tomorrow night. I haven't done that in at least a week. Laying down made me cough too much, which felt yucky AND woke up Charles and Checka.

Still sick

I finished the abx on Monday, and within 12 hours I was feeling crappy again. I put it off and put it off, expecting to feel better, but my sore throat and green mucus have returned. So I'm off to urgent care again.

Greaaaat

Adia now has a fever of 102.6 (ish)

We'll be at home until June, if anybody's looking for us.

On the good list, the flavored Zithromax is going well.

Good and Bad

Bad: Adia has a sinus infection. She's on Zithromax for 5 days. I seriously want to move now.* I didn't sleep last night, because the Benadryl I took must've been expired and I couldn't stop coughing.

Good: Adia's lungs sound good, so we're doing good on the nebbies. The pharmacy offered to flavor her medicine, so we made it strawberry. Also, she was freaking awesome at the doctor's office. Francesca sounds and looks clear, so the doctor said to keep an eye on her over the weekend.

I suppose I can't complain too much -- the goods currently outweigh the bads. And now we should all be well enough to go Madi's birthday party next weekend. :)

*So we can be closer to good pharmacies. The CVS we went to today was fast, friendly, and has a drive-thru. I've never done that before, and it's so much nicer than dragging two kids (one sick and I'm still sick) through the pharmacy. Rite Aid has never even presented the flavor thing as an option, and I'm wary of using them for anything with the constant screw-ups they seem to have.

So, it wasn't hives

It's another form of eczema. They're sending her home with two prescription creams (probably steriods, Gramma :P) one for her body and a gentler one for her face.

Still sick, now F is off to the doctor

I spent last night violently coughing, and I wound up sleeping sitting up on the couch. I have broken blood vessels in my eyes and my throat. I'm a lot better now that I'm up and about, but I'm still occasionally coughing. My throat feels better, as long as I'm not coughing. I sent Charles back to work for the first time in almost two weeks.

Over the last day or so, Checka's hives have started covering her entire body. Seriously, she's about as bad as I was when I had the thyroid craziness last summer. Chest-to-toe hives. I called the doctor's office and they wanted to see her today, so I got Charles to come home to take her. I feel better, but not "drive two kids to Fred." better. This is the first doctor's appointment I haven't been present for, and it's a little weird.

Three cheers for modern medicine

I went to the walk-in clinic at the doctor's office here this morning. I have a sinus infection, so I came home with antibiotics, saline, and soup.

Of course, Rite Aid read the prescription wrong and had me taking 1 pill a day for 30 days. I called the dr's office when I got home, and the prescription was written as 4 pills a day for 7.5 days. Argh.

I think if I hadn't gone in today, I would be hating life (more) right now. My throat is getting progressively worse. And I might've gotten 2 hours of sleep last night, because Advil wasn't touching the pain.

I should be asleep

But I'm not, because my throat is screaming and I have at least another hour before my next dose of Advil. Also, my nose is running and I have a cough. Both of which annoy Francesca and interrupt my ability to sleep.

This really, really sucks. I am not a fan of 2009 thus far.

Uggggggghhhhh

Zombified is probably the best way to describe how I feel at the moment. I started with a headache on Monday (Sunday too? I can't remember) and assumed it was allergies. It was the usual pounding headache.

By the time Charles got home last night, I was just glad that the girls were playing nicely enough that I could lay on the couch and read. He thought I felt warm, but the thermometer said pretty much normal (maybe a teensy bit high for me.) After dinner, though, it was around 99.5, and by bedtime it was over 100. I finally figured out that the Advil I'd taken for my headache must've been the reason my temp wasn't any higher when he first got home.

This morning I thought I felt better. I even begged to go with the girls on the LLL berry farm field trip, but I have my "laying on the couch" orders. Sigh. I'm kinda glad now though, because my eyes feel watery and my forehead feels warm again. And there's that whole "can't fully breathe" feeling, but that's been there since I woke up this morning.

Maybe I'll have some cute pics from the berry farm to post this afternoon after Charles brings the girls back. (He has to go in for a meeting this afternoon.)

Dear Britax,

I love your carseats. Seriously, I have one for each of my girls, and I recommend them to anyone I can.

However. You really need to come up with some design that allows for the removal of the cover that doesn't require Mama to get covered in whatever it was that necessitated removal of said cover.

Signed,
A covered-in-the-foulest-vomit-imaginable Mama

Overwhelmed

Today's horoscope:
As your life becomes more complicated, you may be longing to get back to basics. Nevertheless, you are drawn into a complex and tangled web. You might want to complain, but you also realize you have to handle any situation -- even if it makes you crazy. Be determined and push your way through the intensity, and if necessary, make it up as you go along.

Right now, I'm taking things one step at a time. If I don't, I'm going to sink. At the very least, I'll start thinking too much about how life is going at the moment, and I'm trying to avoid that.

This morning I focused on getting Adia a pediatrician appointment.

After that, I focused on surviving until the appointment.

After that, I focused on getting through the initial part of the appointment.

After that, I focused on giving Adia a breathing treatment in the exam room while Francesca did her best to climb on things and fall.

After that, I focused on getting a treatment plan.

After that, I focused on driving to the pharmacy. (Although I made a wrong turn and decided to swing through Starbucks drive-thru. I literally had nothing but caffeine until Charles got home and made me drink water with dinner.)

After that, I focused on driving home.

After that, I focused on eating dinner.

After that, I focused on getting to school orientation. So much so that I didn't give Charles and Adia hugs or kisses goodbye. (Francesca came with.)

After that, I focused on driving to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions.

After that, I focused on the idea of driving to Richmond tomorrow for Francesca's dentist appointment.

I had to backtrack and focus on school for tonight. I got school off to a fab start by not buying one of my labs for BIO and then forgetting to attach files to an email to my stats prof. A+!

Now I need to go try to fall asleep so I can drive to Richmond, then to the farm to pick up CSA goodies, and then to the coffee shop for breastfeeding cafe night.

Home again

I'll (try) to post a full account tomorrow, but we're home. :)

Here's a picture of little miss awesome from the first room (trauma, which we were moved from because they had a more critical patient.) She did amazing.

ER....

Don't panic, but we're off to the ER for Adia. She is still coughing and her fever has spiked again after mostly going away a couple of times. We're thinking that it might be bacterial at this point, but this never happens on weekdays so the pediatrician is closed. The urgent cares all close at 5, also too soon for us to get there. (The fever didn't spike until about 20 min ago.)

We're getting ready to head out the door. We packed an overnight bag, just in case. Fingers crossed that that's overkill.

Acceptance

There comes a point near the end of pregnancy where a woman accepts the fact that she is going to be pregnant forever. That's also usually about the time she goes into labor.

I have accepted the fact I am never going to sleep again. Maybe it will work the same way.

The girls are still sick. Adia woke up needing to pee in the middle of the night, which woke me up. When she got back into bed, she lay there coughing. I was nursing Francesca, so I couldn't do anything about it. Finally, she let got and I went in and offered to set up the nebulizer. Charles said he hadn't planned to, but that I could if I felt like she needed it.

By the time he brought her up here, she was doing that cough where you know she's on the brink of puking. She took it pretty well, and I'm almost certain that she fell asleep several times over the course of the treatment.

For the second time last night, I had trouble falling asleep. (The initial sleep was slow to come too.) Long after Adia finished her last coughs, I was still laying there awake.

Today was long, in that both girls felt better enough to run and play and FIGHT. They were not at 100%, though, and they really needed not to be doing any of those. It took 2.5 hours to get Francesca down for a 1.5 hour nap. If she hadn't been so sick the last few days, it would've been a no-nap day. (Also, I'm not feeling my best so I needed the break too. Selfish, maybe, but true.)

Charles brought home the year's first box from the co-op. We got bok-choy, arugula (which I say in my best Steve Martin imitation), strawberries (!!!), head lettuce, salad mix, garlic scapes, French breakfast radishes (mmmm!), and a bonus carton of eggs. I can't wait to have a big salad tomorrow night. Which reminds me that I need to make a grocery list so I can go later or tomorrow or something.

Adia's done with her treatments now, so I suppose I'll be done with this. (Francesca requested I get on, and then she ran away.)

Random

Francesca is going to the dentist I wanted her to go to next Tuesday. (She could've gone tomorrow were it not for the illness of doom.)

Her temp is around 103 at the moment, and A's is back below 100, I think. Looking to be another Motrin night. Also, a take-out night. I don't think I can safely set F down anywhere to cook without her falling over. (She's weeeeeeeak. In good spirits, but weak.)

School for the fall is going to suck, because the online speech class that I wanted to take is full. Also, there are no online history classes, and I can't take college chem because I would need middle-of-the-day childcare MWF. So it's looking like I get to drive to the nearest campus twice a week for Calc OR drive to the next nearest campus once a week for speech. What my other class is going to be, I have no idea...

Bless the makers of Motrin

Neither girl wanted to sleep long last night it seemed. They apparently wanted to give me a great Mother's Day present -- both of them woke up with some illness this morning! They were congested and feverish and Francesca had puked three times by the time I got up. (They let me sleep in. :)

Both girls have been slightly out of it all day, but the fevers were staying pretty low. Adia's never got above 100.5. Francesca's was climbing above 103 before dinner, so once it was over, Charles went to the drug store to get Motrin. (Ours expired last month.) She went to sleep nursing in my lap before he got home, and I firmly believe in not waking a sleeping toddler for meds unless it is literally life or death. When she finally woke up after Adia went to sleep, we took her temperature again and it was around 104.5-105 with the ear thermometer. Definitely a med situation. A few minutes later, her eyes bugged out and she twitched around a bit. I thought she was having a seizure. Until Charles took her, and she puked on him. (HA!) She's done that once more, but that was after chugging half a sippy of water.

Now she's zoning to the creepy Singing Babies DVD and leaning heavily on my arm. (CREEPY, I tell you.) Her temp has come down over a degree, so I think Motrin was warranted. ;)


In happy news, the girls got me The Sims 2 for my Mac. They also got me a cute card that Adia spelled her name on AND "Mommy" on the envelope by herself!! :) I always forget the awesome things she says, but they are pretty awesome. (Even when they're obnoxious at the time. ;)

And to be a bad unequal Mommy, I'll now relate a Francesca story from earlier in the week. She was sucking her thumb for some reason (which she's never done) and I asked her what was on her thumb. Her answer? Mouf! Smartaleck.

Sick

Don't read this if you're eating. Or plan to soon.

Poor Adia now has the tummy bug that Francesca had last week. We heard her coughing, so Charles went back and found her covered in puke. It's not so bad with the under 2 crowd, since it's mostly breastmilk. And I thought the picture of partially digested ham sandwich in a stomach at the Science Museum last week was pretty cool. Partially digested turkey sandwich in a four year old's bed? Nowhere near as cool. She's laying on the couch right now going between the lands of asleep and awake. In an annoying twist, her striped sheets are dirty. Luckily, I just cannot get rid of the sheets that were on the bed when Francesca was born, so we had clean sheets for her. The flower sheets are in the wash, and we're up until at least that load goes into the dryer.

She was fine all day. They spent a good chunk of it outside, because it was nice and warm.