"The Plague".....

PLAGUE: "A contagious disease characterized by fever and delirium".

After what has been in our house for the past 10 days, I think the use of this word might be appropriate!     Very rarely does Elijah Brooks get sick from Ellison - it's usually the other way around. However, our sweet little girl brought home a lovely virus from the pediatrician's office last week while at her 1 year WELL CHECK!!  That's right, she got sick from going to her "well check". I would like to now make the case for doctors doing house call's like the "good old days".  Initially I thought she was experiencing side effects from her whopping round of vaccinations, but after 48 hours, I realized that she was indeed sick - quite sick. Fever for 5 days, wicked cough, pools of congestion, not able to sleep etc.....  I had my suspicions of what I thought it was. On day 5 of her illness, Elijah Brooks started coughing, and within hours, he was also running fever. His symptoms were identical to hers, except his fever was "sky high" - 104.6 on Thursday night (he was so sick that he wasn't making any sense, talking crazy, shaking violently, and had no recollection of the night the next morning). SCARY. In my heart I knew what they had, but an evening visit to the pediatrician confirmed my suspicions....., RSV. Both of my kids had the dreadful respiratory virus known as RSV, and it had been contracted in the doctor's office. Makes me not want to step foot in a doctor's office again with them!

We have been quarantined for 10 days so far, and have not left the house - except for putting them in the car each afternoon and driving through the country looking at horses, cows, and tractors through the windows!  Ellison's fever broke on day 5, but she continues to cough and has alot of congestion - to be expected for awhile, even after the "contagious stage".  Elijah Brooks is on day 5 of his round and he still has a fever - praying it will break tomorrow.  The doctor said RSV is more rampant than the flu right now, and it has really done a number on our kids. Elijah Brooks had this virus at age 2, but I think this is a worse case (which I am surprised because it is not supposed to affect the older ones quite as bad as the babies, but this one has knocked him down flat).

No treatment per say for this virus - just treat symptoms as they arise. It is a very serious virus and very frightening - so thankful that we may be turning a corner.

To say that this momma and daddy are tired might be abit of an understatement.  As we lay awake in the bed each night, we wondered why they couldn't ever synchronize their coughs so we could at least get alittle sleep!  He would cough, she would cough, he would cough, she would cough....., ALL NIGHT for ummmm, 10 nights and counting!  I might need to detox my body from caffeine.

I will say, they have been troopers through it all. Ellison cried alot the first few days, and then was back to her happy little self even through the coughing/congestion.  Elijah Brooks is the sweetest little sick boy you would ever meet - which makes it even harder to see him sick. Last night at 4:15am, I had gone upstairs to give him some Tylenol/rub his chest with vick's vapo rub, give him some water, and some cough medicine. On my way out of his room, he said, "thank you so much mommy". He also told me several times during the week that I was the, "best mommy he had ever had".  He never complained - NOT ONCE. When we would ask him if he was okay, he would say, "sure mommy, I'm okay". Bless him, I knew he felt awful. Oh, I could learn alot from him.

And as a sidenote, as I was rocking him tonight before bed, I kissed his foot. He said, "that kiss just went from my foot straight to my heart"! 

He does love her. She was feeling pretty bad here, but enjoyed having her brother love. 

She learned to climb on her horse during quarantine days - and the chair, and the table, and the ottoman....,  oh my!  Yeah, she's only 12 months. I am in trouble. 

This sweet boy's eyes are the first to clue us in that he is sick or coming down with something. They always look so weak.  Still such a cute picture, weak eyes and all. 

Still felt like alittle Star Wars action 

Okay, so what's a mom to do with 2 sick kids in the house for over a week?  I tried my hand at making, "soap dough".  I think it might be my new favorite - even liked it better than playdough. Had a better consistency I thought. I initially set out to make it darker green, but it turned out this color, which was actually perfect for Yoda. Elijah Brooks was thrilled with the color. I honestly just thought he would play with it like playdough, but when I mentioned that it looked like Yoda, he ran to get his Star Wars figures and his own creativity took over. 

Star Wars friends on the "green planet" 

Alittle fresh air in the stroller did us all good

They crack each other up!  And this picture makes me laugh. EB is HUGE in this stroller. He never rides in it, but he was too puny to walk or ride his bike so this was our only option for some fresh air!  And for some reason, he found the bear that was on his hospital door when he was born and he wanted to carry it???  

Well, some dear friends of ours came into town this weekend from our former church in South Carolina. We were so excited to get to spend some time with them (hadn't seen them in 2 years), and the plan was that they could come over for dinner Friday night. Well....., that didn't happen. I was so sad as I had planned a nice menu and we were really looking forward to their company.  I decided I would still make the dessert anyway - I hardly ever make dessert unless we are having company. Thought it would be a nice little treat for EB and might cheer him up. 

This was the face I got when I said, "well, you didn't eat your dinner tonight but......, SURE, you can have dessert anyway"!  He was not expecting that answer.  When you're sick, it's okay to break rules right?  

My friends that I was supposed to have playdates with this week, aren't you glad now that I cancelled on you??!!!!   You know who you are :)   We'll reschedule soon!

Here's to a healthier week!!