Mama said...

Jack woke me up this morning at 8:20 (good news, being that normal wake up is 7-7:30). As I sat there (in what could easily be the most uncomfortable rocking chair in the world) nursing him, I thought I could hear Henry crying. I stopped nursing half way through, and laid Jack in his crib to investigate...

Sure enough, Henry was crying... hysterically. I went into his room, scooped him up, and started rocking him (in the good chair). I noticed he had been laying with a good sized wet spot around his head in the crib, but figured it was drool and that he was cutting molars. He has been chewing on EVERYTHING this week, drooling, etc. Classic signs of teething. So we're rocking and he seemed to be settling down when Jack started crying (probably still hungry) again.

I set Henry down, and he starts to cry (any why wouldn't he? *sigh*). I go get Jack from his room and bring him to Henry's room to finish nursing, while simultaneously trying to soothe Henry as he stood next to me sobbing on the floor. No luck. So, Jack went to the bed and Henry got back on my lap. That worked for all of 40 seconds, and then Jack was crying again. Fantastic. Now what?

I scooped Jack up, took Henry by the hand and shuffled the lot of us to our master bedroom. Jack went in the middle of the bed, with Henry on one side of him and me on the other in the hopes of finally finishing that nursing session. Mercifully, it worked. Jack was content, Henry was restless. Jack finished up and fell asleep in the process (God bless him).

30 minutes has now passed, and Henry is still crying.

I grabbed the phone and took it and Henry into his room to call my husband in hopes of some explanation (maybe Henry was up during the night? That's his watch, not mine...). I started dialing as I entered the bedroom and the phone died (who left it off the hook? Oh yeah... me. Grrr.). Back to the master bedroom to hang it up and get the other phone. Aaaaaand then Henry vomited. Thankfully he waited until we were on the hard wood floor. I clean up the mess, get the phone, call hubby (baffled), call grandma (helpless). And Henry vomited again - this time on carpet. Fabulous. I need help, and I need it quick... but who to call? As I sat and contemplated how weird it would be for me to call the retired parents of various friends (Cathy, Dave, and Martha were all at risk) and the daughter of the man next door who is in town for a funeral I realized there was only one option.

If grandma couldn't come to me (she doesn't drive), I needed to go to her.

Wait? What's that sound? Oh! Jack's crying! Hurray!

*DEEP BREATH!*

Next, I grabbed Henry (still crying, by the way) and get his diaper and jammies changed (both were wet) and go back to the master bedroom to get Jack. I set Henry down to carry Jack and he SCREAMED. Hmph. So, I stood him up on the bed, pick up Jack, then pick up Henry, and schlumped down the stairs with their combined 45 pounds in tow. Five minutes later, we're in the van. And in case you're wondering, oh yeah... I had to carry Henry AND Jack (in the carrier) AND my purse AND the diaper bag to the van all at once. There really was no way around it. And to add injury to insult, Henry vomited a third time on the porch.

I called the Ped's office on the way to Grandma's house and asked to speak to a nurse. "Sure, I'll have her call you back." Umm, no, you won't. "No, I need to talk to someone NOW." I get the nurse on the line, and she wanted me to bring Henry in. Two hours later, we found out it's a double ear infection and a virus. His ear drums have so much fluid behind them they are buldging (poor baby :o( ). They gave him a dose of Ibuprofen in the Dr's office and sent us to the Pharmacy to pick up prescriptions for Amoxicillian and Lydicane drops to numb the ears. Aaaand, Henry vomited the Ibuprofen in the Pharmacy. *sigh*

Thankfully, by the time we left and got back to Grandma's he was feeling a little better so some of the medicine must have stuck. We spent the afternoon over there, and then my Mom watched him so I could take Jack to the Dr. at 4pm for his 6-week check-up (which of course included shots/screaming/etc.). When I left that appt., the girls at the Dr's office chuckled as they wished me a Happy Mothers Day. Nice.

I left the appt., went back to Mom's, picked up Henry, and came home. Hubby was able to leave work early and was there waiting for me. I gave Henry a light supper, a Motrin/Amoxicillian/Lydicane cocktail, and took him up to bed at 6:20. He was out like a light (no nap today and lots of drama, so no surprise there) and is still sleeping.

Mama said there'd be days like this...

The silver lining is that Jack was an angel today. I'm so thankful for my two good babies, and I really can't complain too much because this is Henry's first major illness in all of his 22 months. But man!! I'm glad every day isn't like this!