An Earful and More Fun...

The past week at our house has been busy. James spent one whole week being sick with one thing or another and I can safely say that I have now crossed over into an elite group of mothers who sacrifice themselves in hopes of making their babies feel better.

Last Wednesday started off fairly normal, though James did seem a little out of sorts and extra tired. I figured he was still short on sleep from our busy day at the Mall of America. By the end of the night I had a literal ear-full and we knew something was up with our little guy. We did our usual crazy Wednesday night routine. Ella was dropped off at gymnastics by Mark, James and I picked her up and headed to church for children’s choir, and then I went off to adult choir. Mark picked the kids up after choir, brought them home and gave them their bedtime snack. Usually when I get home from choir the kids are tucked into bed and are trying to stay awake for a goodnight kiss from me. Last Wednesday night the kids were still up when I got home and James was firmly parked on the potty. It seems that James had announced that he had to go poopy and the poop just didn’t want to come out. This happens sometimes for our poor boy since he doesn’t eat as much as he should. By the time I got home, James had already been sitting on the potty for twenty minutes. We sent Ella off to bed and tried to convince James that maybe he could go potty later, but he was very adamant about staying on the potty.

(Warning!!! The next two paragraphs contain a lot of potty talk so stop reading if you don’t like that kind of stuff!) James tried and cried and cried and tried, but the poop just didn’t want to come out. Still he sat upon the potty and minutes turned into hours. He did not want to get down. We removed him anyway and he begged to sit back on the potty as soon as we took him off. By the time we were nearing the two hour mark this very tired and pregnant mommy was camped out on the bathroom floor keeping the little boy with tears in his eyes company. We finally convinced him that maybe his tummy would feel better if he just got down and tried again later. Again, we helped him off the potty and again he claimed to really need to get back on it. This time there were results.

As soon as I had him settled back on the potty, he sqeezed out the biggest turd of his little life. Unfortunately with all his effort, James also squeezed out a good amount of pee and it shot straight in my ear. It was a direct hit to my right ear canal and the side of my face. An experience that I do not want repeated. Ever. James was relieved to have finally made such a big poop, but was concerned at all my commotion. When I explained to James what he had done he said in a very concerned little voice, “At least it didn’t go in your eyes or mouth…or on Daddy!” And, Mark piped in that at least pee is sterile… Thanks honey, that instantly made it all better...

As if getting pee in my ear wasn’t enough to make our lives as parents interesting enough, James woke up in the middle of the night and puked all over. He continued to vomit through the day on Thursday and by the end of the night became “unconstipated” as he was sick out both ends.
Poor little James didn’t eat for 72 hours and refused most liquids too. We were getting pretty concerned about him by Saturday evening, but he perked up a bit on Sunday and most of Monday. Round one ended just as round two began. By Monday night his eye was looking funny and he was still having trouble sleeping. Tuesday brought with it a trip to the doctor and a diagnosis of pink eye. James has lost a pound or two in the last week, but is finally getting his appetite back. The poor little guy looks pretty thin as he didn’t have any extra cushion to begin with.

There are silver linings to James’ sick week… No one else caught his stomach bug or pink eye virus…yet. The doctor thought if we made it this far without getting it that the rest of us might be in the clear. I sure hope so. I think I’ve done my fair share of vomiting in the past six months and I don’t think it would be fun to lose more sleep with a sick little girl or husband. I did come down with a cold on Saturday, but I am starting to improve already, so hopefully my cold will be a quick one.

In baby news, I am starting to feel a little better. Some days still aren't great, but on other days I don’t feel sick all day long anymore. On those days I finally have somewhat of an appetite, though it is still kind of limited. I’ll be 31 weeks along on Monday and will have another level II ultrasound on Wednesday to look for the kidney problems that Ella and James have had. Hopefully no problems will be found. Since Ella was born just after 38 weeks and James arrived during my 37th week, we realistically can expect this baby in about six weeks or so. The countdown is on! I feel like there is a lot needs to get done before we become a family of five and I am afraid the weeks are going to go by too fast.

Ella had a snow day from school today and she was pretty excited to have a relaxing morning at home. Though the morning weather was just fine, the snow is really coming down now. James has had his nap interrupted by some “Thunder Snow”. There have been some pretty big cracks of thunder and flashes of lightening, but I am hoping the wild weather has passed. James could really use a nice solid nap…and so could I!!