What have I done?

Just to let everyone know Tea is feeling much better. She didn't end up having to go back to the doctor and whatever it is that she came down with seems to be over. On the other hand this crib to a bed thing is killing me. The first night went awesome. They both stayed upstairs, fell asleep at a decent time and I enjoyed my good fortune. Every night since then has gotten progressively worse.

Allow me to clarify. This has nothing to do with them sharing a room. They don't fight and they are sweet to each other. Tea is just exploring the ability to get in and out of bed. To the point of absolute exhaustion. Chiggie just falls asleep amidst it all. I went up a few minutes ago to check on them and Tea was wearing a turtle neck and a wool skirt. Obviously not the pajamas I put her in. "My cold....brrrrrr," she said. Unfortunately nap time is going equally as rotten and she fell asleep this afternoon around 4:30 and slept for a couple of hours so any hope of tonight going well is pretty much shot.

Last night she woke around 2 am crying and saying "my had a good dream." I am assuming she had a bad dream, but she would not stop the crying. I finally brought her down to our bed where she asked to color, for bubble gum, and to play outside. All requests were promptly denied and shortly we were all back in dream land. Please let this phase be short.

Gotcha!

Chiggie has become quite the little prankster lately. She has an obsession with practical joking. I don't really know what brought it on, but she takes sheer joy in her new hobby. So far she has thrown cold water on the King in the shower, put toys down in our bed, and watered down cups of Kool-Aid. I am afraid she is advancing in skill though. Today she asked me where she could find a shovel, a bucket, and the rope her Daddy tied the Christmas tree to the car with. When I asked her why she needed these things she just snickered and said "you'll see." Hmmmmm....maybe I don't want to know.

Update

Poor Tea. Everytime I think she has kicked this nasty bug it sneaks right back up on her. She had a pretty good day up until dinner time when she wouldn't even come to the table. She hadn't eaten much all day so I was disappointed. She continues to drink fluids so I know she is not dehydrated and she hadn't lost any weight at her appointment on Saturday so I try not to worry much about this.

Last night went better than I had even expected. Both girls did fantastic and I am so proud of them. Tea woke at around 5:30 am and came and got into our bed. She felt very warm to the touch so I gave her some medicine and a glass of water. Luckily she fell back asleep until 9 and we all got to sleep in a little. The rest of the day she was pretty active in comparison to the last few days. She laughed and played, really seeming like her old self. Then it snuck back up. She felt warm to the touch again after the rest of us had dinner and sure enough she had a fever.

I gave her a nice bath and we cuddled before bed. Hopefully she will get a good nights rest. Most likely we will be returning to the Ped tomorrow to get this thing figured out.

Everyday Life

If someone was to ask me what I thought the most difficult aspect of parenting is I would have to say the redundancy. In order to maintain some organization and sanity every day consists of mostly the same thing. It's just like school or a job outside of the home. If you slack off for a day or two, or maybe even take an unplanned day off due to illness or just lack of interest you pay a heavy price. Things can build up and get so out of control so fast.

At the end of most days I feel a sense of accomplishment. The kids are all in one piece, the dishes are done, the house is presentable, and sometimes there is even time to relax. The hard thing is it all starts over the next day. New dishes to wash, fresh crumbs on the carpet, a sick kid or two, and errands to run. Sometimes staying focused can be hard. I know the rewards are great and the satisfaction of having happy and healthy kids makes it all worthwhile, but sometimes an exotic vacation sounds pretty nice!

Moving In

Along with administering antibiotics and fever reducers we also spent the day combining Chiggie and Tea's rooms into one. We have talked about it for a long time and decided that if the new baby was a girl than that is what we will do. With the eventual plan being to have two girls in each room leaving one room open as a playroom with a bathroom.

Thanks to my Mom's generous neighbor we also put together a new canopy for Chiggie's bed so that both girls would have one. I am pleased with the results. All that is missing is some new curtains and then the room will be complete. This will be Tea's first night in a bed so wish us luck.

Still Sick

Tea's fever has been coming and going on and off for over a week now. It's never gotten any higher than the 104.5 that I posted about last weekend. On Thursday she was completely fever free, looked a little tired, but we figured she was finally on the mend. She woke up well on Friday and was fine all morning. When she woke up from her nap around 3 it was back up again. She felt very warm against my skin. I gave her some Motrin and she livened up a little. She wasn't much interested in her dinner but she was drinking so we didn't push it.

Later that night I noticed that areas of her skin were starting to blister. Not little tiny chicken pox type blisters, but big blisters. I was mortified and called the Doc on call. She said to bring her in this morning to be evaluated. I took her in around 10:30 and we waited forever to be seen. Apparently everyone in town is dealing with a sick child or two. Finally we saw the Doctor and unfortunately she was as baffled as we are. Tea was given an antibiotic ointment for the open blisters just to prevent them from becoming infected. She wasn't running a fever at the time as I had given her more Motrin when she woke up. We were advised to keep an eye on the blisters, her fever, and if she got worse have the Doctor paged. If she stays the same she will be seen again on Monday, and if she gets better hallelujah!

She seemed in good spirits when we left the office so we went ahead and filled the prescription and grabbed some lunch. Not too long afterwards her fever rose again to 102 axillary and she was in need of more Motrin. This afternoon she is extremely irritable and obviously not feeling well at all. The rash or blisters haven't progressed at all and look a little better actually. It's just so frustrating to see her not feeling well and not really knowing what's wrong. Her throat, ears, and lungs are all clear so it's really baffling. Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully she will be feeling better.

In Due Time

My OB office called today and my due date was changed to August 2nd. We really didn't have anything more than a good guess before and after reviewing the sonogram that's what they came up with. If she really comes in August than just our family alone will have May, June, July, and August covered as far as birthdays go. If we have another baby in the future we will have to try for April and then we will be celebrating from February to August!

I have been feeling pretty good lately. I feel a lot of movement, mostly at night. I haven't felt nauseaous in a while and I am so happy to put all of that behind me, for a bit at least. I am starting to wear maternity clothes as much of my regular clothing no longer fits. I haven't been exercising for a while because I had been feeling so awful, but I am considering going back to the club that I had been going to now that I am doing so much better.

After much discussion the King and I decided on a name that we both love. We have decided to keep it a surprise just like we did with the other girls. It's nice to have something to share after the birth when the gender isn't a surprise anymore. We also decided to do some room swapping. We are going to move Tea into Chiggie's room, Midge into Tea's old room, and have Midge's room be a new play/game room. This will help a lot with toy congestion and Tea is needing to transition from her crib anyway. We'll see how it goes but we're all pretty used to change around here!