Daddy & the flu

It all started on a beautiful Friday afternoon in January...it was the last weekend of my full maternity leave (I worked from home, part-time, the month of February).  My littlest love had just turned one month.  I felt amazing.  My house was scubbin' bubbles clean.  The laundry was done and put away.  Beds all had fresh sheets.  I showered and applied a full face of make up.  I even squeezed my 5-week postpartum self into a pair of jeans. Mr. had been out of town and working crazy hours all week to catch up from our trip to St. Louis and we all missed our daddy.  We had planned a Friday family date night and I was more than ready for a night out with my family!

I called my hard-working Mr. that afternoon and asked where he wanted to go for dinner.   To my dismay, he sounded terrible.  He so kindly asked if we could just order-in after he ran by the urgent care for what he believed to be another one of his sinus infections. I was sure it was nothing and he was just run down from the hard week and little sleep.

No big deal.  I changed into my comfy clothes and nursed Mattie while soaking in the freshly cleaned house.  I dreamed big dreams for our last weekend of my leave.  Parks, walks, nothing but quality family time.  Romantic.day.dreamer.

I headed to Jackson's school to pick him up, excited to hear all about his day.  I was going to surprise him and let him pick what we'd order for dinner.  But, as I walked into his school I could hear him cough.  That dreaded cough that lets me know he's having one of his flare ups.  Lovely, just lovely.

Between unloading the kids from the car and getting Jackson started on a breathing treatment, I got a text from Mr.

"Just tested positive for the flu"

My response, "FUCK"

The next text from Mr.
"Doctor says that I cannot be around Mattie for 4-6 days.  I am really sorry."

Good news was that he had been out of town Tuesday - Wednesday and was home after the kids and I went to bed on Wednesday & Thursday.  We barely saw him Friday morning, so I knew our exposure was low.  However, Jackson was burning up and the breathing treatment was not helping his cough.  My next thought was that he may have the flu too...so much for our family trip to get flu shots!

We had two options - either he left our house or I did.  But first, we needed to get Jackson tested as well.  If he had the flu, he was staying with daddy.  If not, I was a single mom again...for the next week!

Mr. and I discussed the options and he thought it would be better for me to go to my mom's with the kids instead of him going to his mom's.  My parents would at least be able to help me out for a day before they left on business trips for the week. And if I stayed home, it was all me the entire time.

The next call was to my mom.  Before I could even get the words out of my mouth, her and Pop were on their way to my house to help.  Pop immediately took Jackson to get tested for the flu and my mom and I gathered the crazy amount of shit you need with a newborn and headed to their house.

Poor Mr. sat in his car in the driveway and just kept apologizing.  I felt so sorry for him, but I'm sure my state of panic outweighed my sympathy for my sick husband.  Babe, I am sorry too!

Jackson's test was negative, but poor guy was sick.  Our first night at my mom's was rough.  He coughed until he puked all.night.long.  On me. On my mom.  On himself.  In his bed.  On the couch...

Mattie on the other hand, slept in a crib, in her own room, all night.  At exactly 5 weeks, she slept 8.5 glorious hours while her brother and I didn't sleep at all.  I'll forever be grateful for those hours though.  Not sure how I would have managed them both!

The weekend was long, but a little more relaxing then I thought it would be.  I had strict orders from my mom to rest when the kids napped.  No excuses of needing to pick up or do laundry.  So I managed as best as I could.  And after a couple of phone calls in to our pediatrician, I finally got Jackson medicine to clear him up and he was able to go back to school on Monday.

Cookies, wine and redbox...what every single momma needs!

My parents flew out on Sunday, so it was just me and the kids until we went home on Wednesday.  I managed to get Jackson to school relatively on time.  I was thankful that he was able to go back to school, since I went back to work.  There's no way I could have managed working from home with both kids! Nursing, pumping, answering emails, holding a sweet baby and entertaining Action Jackson would have put me over the edge.

Momma's little assistant, sleeping on the job

Thankfully, Mr. recovered very quickly from the flu.  He was really fine by Monday, we just couldn't share air space with him until Wednesday night.  I tried to maintain my cooking every night, but was so happy when my mom's sweet neighbor brought dinner for all of us one night!  I had to leave dinner on the door steps for Mr. and just wave to him on my way to pick Jackson up from school.  It was pretty pitiful!

To say Wednesday night was Home Sweet Home was an understatement.  I hope we don't have to deal with the flu ever again...or for a very long time, at least! And sadly, my cooking (and everything else) has slowed down a bit since returning to work.  There just aren't even hours in the day, and when I do have a free minute, my arms are full of these kiddos!

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How to get your toddler to do a breathing treatment?

If you read this post, then you know that day one of Jackson's breathing treatments were terrible. Seriously, I felt like a failure as I sat in the pediatrician's office giving Jackson his first test treatment.

The nurses had me practice giving Jackson a treatment to see how we "handled it". I mean, how hard could it be, right?!? WRONG. It was a test, and we didn't do so hot. I'd say we failed, but they let us go home, so I guess we passed with a D.

I was not able to keep Jackson calm or even console him what.so.ever. When I say that Jackson lost his shit, he LOST IT! It took me and TWO nurses to hold down all 29 pounds of toddler. Talk about the longest 10 minutes.  I don't know who was more red at the end of it - me from utter embarrassment or Jackson was being so pissed off. When they turned the machine off, Jackson buried his head in my chest and passed out.

I thought for sure that Jackson would do better at home. In the quiet, with just me. We could do this, I can get my kid to do a breathing treatment, I know I can. Once again, WRONG. Mr. came in for back up, and well you saw that picture. It was torture. And I'm not sure why.  It's not like the treatment hurts in anyway.

So I called in for help, and help I got! Here's what worked:
• We let Jackson play with the machine, he turned it on and off. He played with the tube and pointed the air on us. He got comfortable with the loud noise the machine makes. I guess this made it all less scary.

• Instead of sitting quietly in his room, we sat on the couch and watched a show for distraction.

• Elmo was an awesome distraction, and we turned up the volume to drowned out the machine.

• We ditched the elastic strap around his head. It did nothing but piss Jackson off, so I just held the mask over his face.

• After the medicine was out, I let him play around with mask. He made the cutest fishy faces for us and thought he was such a big boy!

And with those little bits of advice, we had a happy boy that could breath again!

THANK YOU!!!

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Our lil monster/trick-or-treat

I can't begin to tell you how happy I am that Jackson was well enough Saturday night to dress up for Halloween. Yes, I said Saturday night, Halloween eve. Our neighborhood decided to do trick-or-treat on Saturday instead of Sunday.

Sunday nights are just too hard being a school night for most. Not to mention, there's just something about being home and nesting on Sunday nights that I need in order to function during the week!

Mr. and I were relieved when Jackson started to tolerate the breathing treatments.  I can't begin to tell you what a difference they made.  However, since Jackson was still sick we didn't take him trick-or-treating.  I don't think he knew the difference, and had just as much fun being dressed up as a monster!

The weather was cool and beautiful so my parents came over and helped decorate the outside of the house.  Mr. cooked a delicious chili and Jackson handed out lots and lots of candy to our trick-or-treater's. Truth be told, I think he ate more candy then he actually handed out.  I lost count after his 5th or 6th sucker of the night.  Before we knew it, our house was full of neighbors coming in from the cold to have a bowl of chili and visit.  I love these kind of nights, there's nothing better than a house full of life and laughter!

Jackson needed an extra breathing treatment from running crazy with all the sugar, but it was so worth it!  This little monster of ours just melts my heart:)

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Steroids, Antibiotics, and a Nebulizer for my Toddler

Well friends, it's never a dull life in the Wilson's. Last Friday sure proved that! It all started with a runny nose on Wednesday... of course that was because I scheduled Jackson's 16 month well baby visit for Friday. Every time I schedule these appointments, he comes down with something!

I didn't think much of the runny nose. Jackson slept great that night, so I figured it was just his allergies. Thursday night I gave Jackson his allergy medicine and had Mr. set up the humidifier in his room... well, let's just say we didn't get much sleep that night.  We've had a rough few nights, with not much sleep.

At one point Thursday night I thought about taking Jackson to the ER for his wheezing. I've never heard Jackson sound like this before.  I knew my baby was struggling to breathe.  My sister had asthma as a child, and this was all I could think about. Jackson sounded like a 90-year-old, chain smoker. It was terrible!

We went to the doctor first thing Friday morning, and I laughed as we checked in for Jackson's "well baby" visit. It was obvious that Jackson was not well!

Turns out that Jackson may have allergy induced asthma, we'll know more this week after they run some tests. The good news is that he responded well to the medication. I'm still not convinced that he didn't just have a respiratory infection, but it may be denial.

Jackson got a cortisone shot on Friday as well as antibiotics for another ear infection. On top of that, we were sent home with a nebulizer for Jackson to have breathing treatments as needed for his wheezing.

At first the breathing treatments were torture! They don't hurt, the machine doesn't scare him, I couldn't figure it out. His first treatment took me and two nurses pinning him down. Not fun! A few mom's recommended not using the face mask strap and distracting him with a show. Hello, genius mommas!!! Thanks to Elmo, his treatments have been successful.

Everything seems to be under control for the time being. Mr. and I are so ready for the steroid high aka Tasmanian devil, side effects to wear off. Jackson is like a ball in a pinball machine. Literally, he's bouncing off the walls and climbing everything!

We cannot thank everyone enough for the thoughts, prayers and advice! I'll be sure to update as we know more. Our weekend was relaxing, full of lots of cuddles and kisses:) We didn't trick or treat, but Jackson was as cute as can be handing out candy!

Sick Baby J

First treatment at home with Momma and Mr., not good...

Thankful for momma's advice, Elmo was the perfect distraction.  No more tears or fighting the treatment!

Big boy, fishy face:)

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