The Single/Double Sickness Nightmare

Ok so we all know how excited I have been for my sister to come visit.  Well she is here and I got to see my totally adorable nephew.  He has gotten so big and he does all these "tricks" that a 10 month old does.  He is so precious I can't stand it!!!  He claps his hands, shakes his head No.  Climbs and pulls himself up on anything that he can find (including his cousins), and is just too cute for words!!!  We were having such a great time with all the kids together and enjoying them and watching them play together.

And then...it hits....the Single/Double Sickness Nightmare!!!!  On Tuesday, my nephew had a cold and had been running a low grade fever, so my sister took him to my pediatrician just to have him checked out.  He was diagnosed with a cold and the pediatrician told her that he was definitely teething.  This poor little munchkin looks like he is about to pop 6 teeth at any minute.  So my baby nephew was not sleeping so great for his mom and was just a bit out of sorts, although I have to say he is the happiest little thing on the planet even with a cold and teething.

Then on Thursday afternoon out of nowhere J1 spiked a 103.5 fever!  The beginning of the Double portion of the nightmare.  Took her to the pediatrician and she tested positive for Influenza B.  So we got her home and set her up in my bed to keep her away from the baby and from J2.  Picked up a magnet dress up game, some coloring stuff and a little lap desk for her.  Poor thing has rubbed her nose raw from wiping it, even with the lotion tissues.  Poor thing felt so awful that she didn't even care about anything.   We had her set up in our bed, and I was sleeping in with her.  We set hubby up in her bed in the kids room with J2 for the night.  Little did we know what was to happen next.

Illness number 3, at 11:30 Thursday night I heard this horrific noise coming out of the kids bedroom.  I jumped out of bed (mainly because I thought that J2 was vomiting) to find her coughing like a seal and not being able to catch her breath.  It was very frightening she just kept coughing over and over and over.  So we started the shower and she finally calmed down and began to breathe but it was still labored.  So off to the ER we went.  Her and I got there around 11:00 and were quickly triaged and she was diagnosed with croup from there.  We had X-Rays of her chest which was quite funny because my little dress up queen was thrilled to "dress up for her pictures".  Then we had nasal and throat swabs which I would not consider fun at all.  This was all done in about an hour.   We were then moved to an ER cubicle and the nurse came in.  At this point J2 had started to run a fever.  The respiratory therapist came in and gave her a breathing treatment.  Even with her fancy (and very cute) "dragon mask" did not go over exceptionally well.  We sat in the ER for over 3 and a half hours before seeing a doctor.  All the while her temp climbing.  I finally had a nurse take her temp again and it came up as 102.2 so he went to the doctor and got permission for some tylenol for her.  So after all that time the doctor finally came in and gave us the official croup diagnosis.  She was clear for the flu and strep (AMEN).  I told the doctor about J1 and he told me that they had to be kept apart until J2's cough is gone.

Fast forward to 4:30 am when we arrived home (with an extra large Dunkin coffee for me and a large for my sister).  Put J2 to bed and J1 was already awake.  I crawled into bed with J1 and said "Honey, Mommy needs 5 minutes and then fell asleep for 3 hours.  J1 just stayed in bed and watched Sprout and snuggled with me.  J2 on the other hand at some point got up and went down to the couch and slept.  My amazing sister (who was also up all night between us at the ER and my nephew and his teething), took care of J2 so that I could get a bit of sleep.

Have you ever tried to keep 3 kids in the same house all separated?  It's would probably be easier to bring peace to the middle East, OK maybe not but it sure felt that way.  We had to completely rearrange the sleeping situations.  We moved my sister and the baby into the kids room, moved J2 into the guest room (it has a TV), and kept J1 where she was.  It's literally just been a madhouse here.  All I keep thinking about is the episode of the Brady Bunch where the kids get the measles and how crazy it was. I honestly feel like I am in some kind of twisted nightmare.  I have to keep my kids separated from each other and keep them both away from my sweet little nephew.  My house isn't that big for all this separation so I called the pediatrician to verify how long they have to be separated.  The news was not exactly stellar, they have to stay apart until J2's cough is gone.  Luckily J1 has been AMAZING and stayed in our bed and just been so good and understanding, I let her out of isolation for a little bit this morning and she went back to her "cage" with minimal drama.  J2 on the other hand had to be bribed with the Ipad to go back to her room but went back.

The worst part is that my sister and nephew are leaving today and they can't play with him, they can't even give him a hug goodbye!  My sister and I have been looking forward to this trip for so long, and were so excited about it.  Luckily I did get some quality time with my nephew.  In fact I am the first one that he ever "gave kisses" too!! It was the cutest, sweetest, most adorable thing!!! My sister and I got some time in the evenings to chat and while the kids were napping.  We didn't get out hardly at all but, I guess we will just have to have them come back this summer!!!!