I think I’m doing right now, what a lot of us have been doing this week – rocking and soothing a very sick baby. We had a great night, but today is worse than yesterday. My heart breaks for him.
Lunch plans? Cancelled.
Dinner date? Likely cancelled (I can’t leave my sick baby who needs us).
Unplanned snuggles? Bring them on!
I have just one more sleep as a solo parent. B has been out-of-town since Monday morning and this week has been hard.
So very hard.
Every time B leaves town for work, Matthew gets sick. That’s just how it is and I’m used to it. This week is no surprise, especially given that we spent a weekend with my sister who had sick kids, and when we weren’t with her, we were with 8 other bloggers whose kids all seemed to get sick right before or after returning home. I was just bracing myself for the snot, cough, and fever.
We got it.
Matthew has only had one fever prior to this week. The one he has today is low-grade – never above 101.3. No biggie, but it’s making him a tired boy. He woke up this morning at 2:15 and I brought him into bed with me. He slept off and on until 8:06 and that was nice… even if I didn’t sleep much. There’s something very peaceful about looking to your right, or left, or just below your chin (because your child insists on sleeping on you at times) and seeing your child’s sleeping face. I went to bed last night lonely and woke up completely fulfilled, even though I probably only slept an hour or two.
Matthew is a great “sick kid.” If you didn’t see the snot coming out of his nose or hear the cough that’s bothering him, you just wouldn’t know he’s sick. This is the sickest he’s been in a very long time, but he didn’t miss a beat. He was just as happy, playful, and joyful as he always is until just after dinner when all he wanted to do was snuggle. The unsolicited snuggles made my night.
Matthew is not a good eater when he’s sick – that’s the one thing that suffers badly when he’s not feeling well. To anyone watching him, they’d think he’s a normal kid who is just picky – but for him – it’s a total 180. Just yesterday, he ate everything I put in front of him for breakfast and lunch but by dinner time, he wanted nothing of substance and just wanted moist things. Today has been much of the same (aside from his banana and string cheese) and he wouldn’t even eat an avocado. So sad when my boy won’t even eat his favorite food in the whole wide world. We went to Chipotle thinking that maybe he wanted guacamole but all he would eat was baby yogurt. Good thing I brought yogurt with me!
We’ve been very busy this week with play dates, but nothing else besides that and his gymnastics class. We’ve hung low with B gone and it’s been nice. I’m ready to get back to our regular schedule, but I think the down time has been nice for Matthew, especially since he’s sick. Vera came over again this morning to play (she and her brother are both sick so we all figured it’s no big deal to mix the kids together) and Matthew enjoyed that almost as much as yesterday (he was pretty tired this morning and just wanted to watch her play).
But me? I’m exhausted. Being the only person in the house to do everything 24/7 is hard. I texted B tonight that laundry is washed, but I just can’t get myself to fold it. I’m just so tired. I just want to sit here. Well… I really just want to go to bed. But what do you bet I watch another episode of L&O SVU? It’s not like I can sleep well anyway since I’m worried about my sick boy down the hall.
Any bets on whether or not I’ll be sleeping alone tonight? It’s crazy to say it, but I sort of hope my little buddy comes into bed with me again 🙂
My neighbor asked me to watch one of her kids today – of course I said, “OF COURSE!” Matthew LOVES Vera and Weston. We only had Vera today because Weston had a doctor’s appointment, but Matthew and Vera had the best time (as always). Matthew plays so well with other kids and he’s as gentle with Vera as she is with him – so it’s fun to watch them play and love on each other 🙂 Just watching them play together, you can tell they’re great friends and not just two kids that get thrown together because of their moms (Matthew has another friend like this, H, who he got to play with on Monday).
There was a fit and tears when Vera left this morning. I’m not surprised – there always is!
Matthew tried knocking his teeth out again today. It was worse than yesterday.
We went to the YM.CA to meet a friend to go swimming and that went great until it was time to go. We swam, and played, and dunked ourselves for an hour and laughed the entire time. It was wonderful! We got out of the pool to get dressed to go, and I was very careful with Matthew the entire time because of the slippery floor. I got him dressed first and then anchored him between my knees as I got dressed. I even put on his shoes because I thought they’d be “grippier” than his feet on the tile floor. I wiped up the floor to dry it off as best I could before setting him down for a second so I could load up our bag. And that’s when it happened.
I heard the splat, then the thunk… and then the wail.
His mouth was bleeding again – and worse than yesterday.
I freaked out. It took everything in me (and a whole lot of swearing) to not start sobbing. The bleeding was terrible and his poor top teeth were covered in blood. A nice couple checked him out for me and said his teeth seemed fine, but to take him to the dentist if it would make me feel better.
It would.
So I did.
But first… I had an appointment I had to keep. We had our first ultrasound today. I felt like I was choosing between my kids for the first time ever. Take Matthew to the dentist right now and skip the ultrasound, or take him to the dentist after the ultrasound? I called the dentist to see when they could get him in and they said to come between 2:00 and 3:00 – so that was perfect. Our ultrasound appointment was at 1:30 so I could do both.
Thank God!
I drove around for 45 minutes as Matthew napped in the car before dropping him off at my friend’s house so I could go to my ultrasound. I was on pins and needles. To be perfectly honest, I’ve not had a good feeling about this pregnancy for the last 3 days. I started feeling sick just yesterday but today, I’ve felt fine, so I figured that yesterday may have been a stomach bug. Prior to not feeling sick, I just did not feel like things were going well in there. But it turns out – they are.
We have one perfectly growing baby! I am so thankful that it’s just one – that when the ultrasound tech said, “wait a minute” just before finishing up, I got really nervous. She thought she may have seen another sac behind the one baby – but she did not. Big sigh of relief! The baby is measuring 1-2 days ahead of schedule (6w4d today but measuring 6w6d) and the heart beat was a solid 126. We are thrilled, relieved, and happy!
When I took Matthew to the dentist, he was very happy to play with the Le.go table again:
It turned out that his teeth are just fine (again) but that his lower lip got the major injury this time. He has two punctures in his lower lip but was eating fine today. The dentist said that the damage from yesterday is already healing. She also said that he is a kid who needs to be wrapped up in bubble wrap.
B agrees 😉
The rest of the day was a blur. We had to get Lily Cat to the vet for her weekend at the spa (we board her so she can get her insulin twice daily) and stop at the store to get stuff for dinner and the trip to Chicago.
Busy day!
Matthew is asleep, we are now waiting for Steph, JJ, and Chloe to arrive, I have a Jackson Cat in my lap, and I have a growing baby in my tummy. My hard day ended pretty well!
He’s fine… We were told we were very lucky that he still has front teeth. He’s pretty sore, but seemingly happy.
All of my babies in one spot!
From the day Matthew was born, we’ve spiked his hair down the middle like a mohawk. One of the nurses in the hospital did it and we fell in love with it – it was so cute and gave his hair lots of volume when it would eventually lay down. Brushing Matthew’s hair was one of my favorite things to do when he was tiny, and he loved having his hair brushed. He doesn’t love it like he used to, but he still likes it plenty and lets me spike it after every shower or bath. The spike doesn’t last long now that his hair is filling in, but when it’s there, I just love it! I rarely catch it in photos so when I do, it’s special 🙂
This is part of PAIL’s Monday Snapshot….hop on over and check out the featured blogger….
B, Matthew, and I headed down to KC last Friday for the Micr.osoft Surface launch, which gave us another chance to meet up with Steph, JJ, and Chloe! When B asked if we wanted to make the trip with him, I told him to first let me check with Steph to see if they’d be in town that weekend. I have my priorities 😉
Matthew woke up on his own just a couple of minutes before we were going to wake him, so it worked out perfectly. He was in a great mood – I think he knew he’d be seeing Chloe later in the day! The drive was fantastic and Matthew danced in his chair the entire way.
We went to the launch and spent a couple of hours at the mall. It took a long time to get into the store to make the purchase, but they had a huge touchscreen out front hooked up to the Kinect which entertained the kids – specifically my kid! He and his buddy, Cade (the son of B’s coworker) had a great time together and Matthew tolerated his stroller the entire time. I still cannot believe that.
We ate at Fi.ve Gu.ys and Matthew had his first hot dog (all beef), which he loved. We love that place, even if it is a heart attack in a paper bag. B’s coworker then headed back to Iowa and we headed to the hotel for a nap. Steph and Chloe met us for dinner and we then came back to the hotel to swim. That was fun, but cold. It was so cold! Steph noticed that Matthew’s lips were a little blue right before we got out of the pool. The kids loved hanging out before and after swimming, listening and dancing to music and checking out the cars and trucks going by on the darkened street out the window. It was fun to watch!
We did have an accident after Steph and Chloe left. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and B was getting Matthew’s jammies on. Matthew was enjoying his naked time so B grabbed the camera to capture the fun. Matthew, for the first time, climbed onto an ottoman in the room and positioned himself to stand up. I had come out at this point and was surprised that this was being allowed (B is a “safety cop” – HA!) but figured it was fine. Just then, he fell off the ottoman from a standing position and landed on his back. He was not hurt but he was terribly frightened. I scooped him up faster than I’ve ever scooped him before and he was so shook up that he peed on me. Poor baby. But we both got cleaned up, snuggled before bed, and had a great night of sleeping in the hotel.
The next day we met Steph, Chloe, and JJ at a bounce place and the pictures tell that story 🙂 The babes had a ball! We had Matthew’s first incident of not wanting someone else snuggling his mom as I cuddled Chloe. He ran over and tried nudging her away. We don’t want him nudging other kids, but it was cute because he’s never possessive of his mom – it made me smile 🙂 He quickly got his hug and went on his merry way with Daddy. We spent 2 hours there! I’ve never spent 2 whole hours somewhere that totally entertained Matthew. We will be going to a similar place here in town soon! We then went to a place for lunch that had model trains deliver your food (no kidding) and even though the kids were tired, that kept them completely entertained the entire time. It was hard to get these two good eaters to eat with all the commotion!
It was a great little road trip for one night and it’s always super fun to meet up with Stepp, JJ, and Chloe! They’re lucky we don’t live near them or we’d probably never leave them alone. HA! 🙂
Cutest little dragon in the world! We “practiced” wearing this costume twice last week and by today, he was super excited to have it on. Not one tear!
At the neighbors’ – who really get into Halloween!
We’re Driving to KC to see Steph, JJ, and Chloe (yay!) and Gangn.am Style came on. This is Matthew’s current favorite song! He loves pop and techno! B is starting to get used to it. I’m in heaven!
All the Sun For You 