Sick, Sick, Sick

I swear I used to have other mom-friends. Sure, not many, but a few. This winter it seems impossible to meet up with any of them. Adding another kid to the equation not only makes it harder to physically get out of the house (consider the packing, hauling, and sleeping/feeding schedules involved), but I swear I haven't had two healthy kids at the same time since Paige was born. I've been joking that it may be spring before everyone has kids that aren't quarantined for one reason or another...it's only half a joke, though.

I don't think there's been a single week in the last two months that I haven't had one or the other child at the pediatrician. Just when I thought the family had recovered from the miserable cold virus of a few weeks ago, Reese started to run a fever. Unlike myself who barely registers as breathing if you take my temperature (I tend to hover in the 96-97 range), Reese seems to run high fevers easily. This time it was 102+ beginning last Saturday night. Fearing an ear infection I took her to the after hours clinic on Sunday when her fever continued. They did a strep swab, a flu swab, and pricked her finger for a blood count. Two hours later the verdict was a virus. Not that you want something to be wrong with your kid, but hearing they have a virus that you can do nothing about is frustrating.

When Reese's fever showed no improvement three days later and she kept complaining of tummy pain I took her back in. After a urine sample and exam they concluded that she had an ear infection and a UTI. Ten days of antibiotics are underway.

Which leads us to...explosive diarrhea. We're giving Reese yogurt daily, but the antibiotics are killing off her stomach bacteria and she's now pooping no less than 3-4 times a day. Combine this with her covert pooping, and our potty training success has almost completely been erased. And, since Reese loves new vocabulary words (the bigger the better), she loves to tell everyone about her diarrhea--since we're not leaving the house much these days that means I hear about it more than anyone.

It all inspired me to create my own Reese-themed verse to the famous "Diarrhea Song" (from the movie "Parenthood.") :
"When you're supposed to take a nap, but your pants are full of crap: diarrhea."
Snappy, huh? Just trying to keep my sense of humor about these things.