Having a sick kid is terrible, having two is downright miserable. We used the "divide and conquer" strategy, my husband sleeping on the floor with Keegan, and my poor snotty baby girl in bed with me. Keegan's fever kept spiking and he would wake up screaming a blood boiling scream, so shrill and heartbreaking it almost killed me. Addy was congested and coughing and gagging on her snot, which put me into mommy freakout mode. I dug out her breathing monitor I used when she first came home to the hospital, just to make sure she didn't stop breathing in her sleep (neurotic, I know). And on a Sunday night around 2:00 in the morning after three solid hours of screaming, we made a trip to the emergency room only to find out that Addy's congestion had caused a double ear infection complete with a ruptured ear drum. The plague. It really was the plague.
I spent almost two weeks cleaning sheets, spraying Lysol, and dosing out medicine to the kids and the husband who toughed it out and never missed a day of work. Needless to say, I was exhausted. And once everyone else was finally feeling better and getting back to normal, I succumbed to the plague.
Now that we are all finally back amongst the living, we've been able to enjoy our time together so much more! It felt like I hadn't seen my husband in weeks, especially since he was working crazy hours and sleeping with Keegan when he was here. We had a visit from my parents which was wonderful, and celebrated Easter with coloring eggs, and candy for breakfast!
We have scheduled Addy's one year appointment with her specialist at Cincinnati Children's in August. I am looking forward to this visit, because the day after her appointment is the Helping Hands Midwest get together! We will finally be able to meet some of the families we have been keeping in touch with via social media that also have children with limb differences. I am so thankful for the limb difference community, they were such a help to me while I struggled to wrap my mind around everything that happened when Addy was born. I've been able to spread the word about The Lucky Fin Project at our nearby hospital (where Addy had her follow up after her ER stay), and put myself out there as a contact for anyone who needed to talk. I can't wait to be able to finally hug the founder of the organization and thank her for everything she has done for not only my family, but families everywhere!
Hopefully, with the plague behind us, I'll keep up with the blogging more regularly. With the weather improving, we will be venturing out more and making new memories in our new city! We have a list of places to go and things to do, and I'm anxious to start crossing things off the list. Fingers crossed for a zoo trip this week...our zoo has dolphins. Keegan will lose his mind!
