the plague and the stay at home mom.

last friday morning when we went in to get emme up, there was vomit all over her bed.  awesome.  i took her temp, bathed her, stripped the bed, and asked her how she felt.  great, she said.  she even ate breakfast and did some laps around the house squealing to prove it.  i figured it was related to congestion or something, but decided to send her to school because she didn't seem sick in any capacity.  saturday morning was the same scene, but she again acted totally normal.  i started thinking maybe it was psychosomatic - like she was waking up with bad dreams and vomiting?  who knows.  i called her doctor's office and they said not to be too worried about just two nights in a row, but maybe only give her clear liquids the last hour or two before bed...just in case.  at this point, i check facebook and a boat load of her classmates are down for the count with a stomach bug.  bummer!  but, considering how she was acting all day saturday, i thought we'd already seen the worst of it.

sunday morning we woke up puke-free.  great success!  she wasn't eating much, but she was in great spirits and all was well.  we decided to take a sunday afternoon drive to look at houses and this is when the poop hit the fan.  or the car seat, as it were.  from the back seat, we hear a little voice say "my tummy hurts".  so we start motoring to the nearest establishment with a bathroom.  before we could get there, though, we could smell the accident.  poor kid.  so i get out of my seat to go check the situation and it is NOT good.  emme was completely distraught and her seat/pants/etc. were a mess.  so we head home, get her out of the car.  justin hoses down the car seat and i strip her in the front yard and bring her inside to get cleaned up.  jb comes inside, gives her a bath, and everything looks to be going a little bit better.  i was nursing hollis and i hear her ask to sit on the potty and say her tummy hurts again.  she coughs twice and i was about to tell jb to have the garbage can ready when she projectile vomits all over him and the bathroom.  so, back in the tub and pull out the clorox wipes and the hot water wash.  she was puny the rest of the afternoon and went to bed early, but we had no more incidents.

then, around 2 a.m. monday morning, i wake up puking.  super fun.  i manage to nurse hollis a few times between bouts and justin (smartly) headed to the couch.  ek wakes up at 7:45 and feels awesome, but i'm feeling like death warmed over and jb starts feeling badly too.  great fun.  monday was spent trying to hold down small sips of water and ginger ale while tending to hollis and trying not to feel overly guilty for letting emme watch 352 episodes of thomas the train on demand.  oh my how that girl loves thomas.  anyway.  we made it through the day, somehow, which was amazing.  by 7:30 at night or so, i was able to eat a piece of toast, but i had a screaming headache and my whole body just hurt.  i hate stomach bugs.  jb was out of it as well, so we crawled into bed around 8:30.  hollis was up a few times, but he is (thankfully) really easy at night, in that he will wake up, nurse, then go right back down.

so, yesterday was back to a state of normalcy.  ek was looking good and i thought she was fine to go back to school.  over half of ek's class was out on monday, but it seemed to be a relatively quick bug, so we brought her.  i began the slew of laundry and dishes and wiping down everything - i feel like i want to bleach my whole house when we have a bug like that.  and hollis decided he wasn't napping at all.  i get a call from e's school at 12-ish saying she'd had a loose stool and i need to come get her at 2:30 after nap.  so i do.  the afternoon was better than anticipated - she helped me make soup for everyone for dinner, we spent some time outside, etc.  but, her school's director asked that i not bring her back to school today.  AND...school is closed for a half day tomorrow and all day on friday for some conference.

so.  i am exceedingly thankful that i am on maternity leave right now.  i'm also acutely aware of how hard it is to have two at home by yourself.  it makes me feel like a terrible mother...like i could never be a stay at home mom.  i know that's not really true - i am just not used to it.  this was sprung on me, so i have no plan, no agenda.  and i'm still recovering from being sick myself.  i feel like each part of the day is me neglecting one or the other of them.  hollis has to be relegated to his bouncy seat with his pacifier so i can make lunch for ek or pay attention to her for a minute.  emme has to fend for herself while i rock hollis to try to get him down for a nap (or else he screams and makes everyone upset).  the day goes from fabulous child-centered bliss to intense chaos minute-to-minute.  is it like this for everyone?  anyway.  i want to relish these unexpected days with both of them - they are really so few and far between.  but i'm so concerned about trying to do everything perfectly that i end up fast forwarding through the good parts of just being with them.  i'm working on that.  and right now, they are both asleep at the same time, so i should grab a bite to eat while i can...

cardiologist update.

i brought hollis back to the cardiologist on tuesday.  they did another EKG and did an ultrasound of his heart this time (we've previously only had echocardiograms).  everything looks great!  his SVT is not presenting, and his heart function is "perfect" according to our doc, so we are thrilled.  we go back in two months this time, so that's great as well.  our doctor is moving to san antonio in may, and i am SO sad about it.  he has been really great and i get attached to people, but he assures me the other doctors in the practice are all very good and hollis will be in good hands.

he did say we will have to keep hb on the meds for his first year.  apparently, once they start, they don't like to stop.  sigh.  giving this baby medicine is a task.  i have all his meds lined up on his window sill.  in the morning, he gets heart med, probiotic, and anti-reflux.  they are all liquid and he HATES having me squirt stuff down his throat.  mostly, he spits everything back out at me.  he scrunches his face up like winston churchill and just squeezes it out of his mouth and stares at me with disdain.  i find myself blowing in his face/mouth, kind of like giving a pill to a dog.  it's pretty ridiculous.  surprisingly, he takes the meds best when he is crying.  it's so stupid to sort of want your baby to cry so that you can give them medicine, but the meds will often shoot straight back and actually make him stop crying (probably out of surprise and righteous indignation).  anyway.  at noon i only have to give heart meds.  then in the evening we do heart med, anti-reflux, and vitamin D.  sometimes i skip the vitamin D if we've had a sunny day and he and i have been outside quite a bit.  but still.  that is a LOT of stuff to be squeezing down a little man's gullet.  i'm so grateful there are meds available that clearly help our sweet boy, but it would be nice not to have to think about dosages and having a burp cloth on hand to wipe up the syrupy mess he can spew.

as an aside, we're on day three of the anti-reflux meds and they are REALLY helping, i think.  he's going to sleep so much more easily and doesn't seem agitated and uncomfortable all the time.  of course, he is still showering me with spit up a few times a day, but he's doing it without arching and crying, and that is all i need.

hollis at two months.

yesterday was our sweet boy's two month appointment, and i really think he's doing much better.  we are now on the path to fighting his reflux.  our doc thinks it's the reason h is so fussy and cries like he's in pain.  she also thinks it's why he is so big - he has been eating to try to quell the pain.  that made me feel pretty horrible - to think my baby has been hurting all this time!  but we are giving him prilosec now, so hopefully this really helps. it's so ironic that i hate giving my kids any medication and h now gets three different things a day...ugh!  i also have always hated the reflux diagnosis - it feels like a cop-out.  but, if it offers him some relief, i'll take it.  and, i'll take the cute chub, too, even if it's just a side effect of the reflux.

anyway, other than that, we are plugging along, trying to develop some semblance of a routine before i have to go to work.  it's tough - the different moods and levels of exhaustion impact each day.  but hollis's good periods are getting longer each day.  he is getting super smiley.  he's sleeping a teeny bit better/longer, but still nothing more than about 4 hours or so, on occasion.  we'll get there.

two month stats:
height: 23" - 60%
weight: 14 lbs - 90%
head: 40.5 cm - 60%