Cabin fever, with some pictures to distract

We are STILL stuck at home with an absolutely miserable stomach bug--probably norovirus.  I've barely left the house in a week and a half.  First, Robert woke up puking in the wee hours of Wednesday, April 17.  Then I picked it up the following Sunday, had a horrible couple of days, and am just now eating regular food again today.  I think it was Monday morning that Ivey woke up sick and she is still throwing up, occasionally and unexpectedly.  Poor thing is so hungry, and I feel terrible for her.  We told her to stay away from her sick little brother but she's such a cuddle bug, she couldn't help herself.  Suzi hasn't gotten it yet and is staying with Grandma and Grandpa for a couple of days.  Jordan hasn't had it yet either, and it'll be a miracle if he doesn't come down with it, because he's been thrown up on numerous times and is the chief vomit-cleaner around here.

For unrelated reasons, I could really use a playdate right now.  We all could.  But we can't have one and are stuck here indefinitely, just waiting to see when the vomit will end.  I am starting to wonder if people think we are lying when we tell them yet again that we can't make it somewhere because of the stomach bug.  We aren't making it up!  This evil virus is very, very real!

I miss going places.  Playdates, trips to the park, even taking all three kids to the grocery store by myself.  I miss baking cookies for the kids, Friday pizza nights, ice cream, and candy.  I normally enjoy being a bit of a hermit, but right now I want OUT!  Thank goodness my parents are helping us with the non-sick kids, taking them to their house and on outings so at least they don't go nuts.

I can't wait for this to be over.  It sucks.  And now, some photos I've been meaning to post from more cheerful days:

We dyed our Easter eggs after Easter.  Seems like it always sneaks up on us.

This is a blown-out egg Suzi painted with Sharpie markers.  It was for Grandma.

Relaxing on the hammock in our front yard!

We got to ride a bus shuttle to our Spring Jubilee, and it was a big thrill for the girls.

The same view Jordan and I had riding the buses to college classes a decade ago.  It's the same kind of bus we rode.

Jordan's parents took us all to Riverbanks Zoo for Robert's second birthday.

Once it started going up and down, he decided he didn't "yike" it, so Jordan took him off and sat on the bench with him that doesn't move at all.

I love this guy.

Robert's birthday morning.  He is saying "CHEEEEE!" and thinks he is making a pretty face for the camera.

My mom made him a Raggedy Andy, which is the two-year-old tradition.

This was Robert's big gift for us.  It spins and the kids love it.  We put it in the backyard.  My only complaint is that the weight limit is too low for me to ride  :-(

Awesome yard sale find!  I used to play with one of these at daycare, cramming two or more records under the arm to see if it would still work.  It's a wind-up toy made in my birth year, 1984.  It was still kind of expensive for a yard sale find but oh well, I love it.

My parents took us to the Cabbage Patch in Georgia to celebrate Robert's birthday.  Sadly, we have figured out that this is probably where we caught the stomach plague.

It's such a cute place, though.  I love the fuzzy-headed babies best.

Robert picked out a baby girl named Casey.

Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

His doll came with a little baby sling!  Isn't that neat?  I love to see a little boy taking care of his baby.

That's all for now.  I am just hoping and praying that we will be done with this nasty sickness and back out having springtime fun by next week!

Just eat, child. Pleeeease.

Ivey has decided she hates to eat dinner.  It doesn't really matter what it is.  Jordan makes various kid-friendly, reasonable dinners, and the only ones she'll consistently eat a halfway decent amount of are things like macaroni and cheese.  Obviously we can't have that every night!  Some nights, like tonight, we have to beg her to take every bite.  And then beg her to chew and swallow.  It's exhausting.

I don't believe in forcing a kid to be a "plate cleaner."  I don't think children should be forced to eat foods they hate, and I'd be completely willing to make a sandwich for her on nights when we're having something she truly dislikes.  But it's almost every night, and there are already plenty of foods Jordan and I like but don't even bother to make because they aren't kid-friendly.  We are being reasonable!

I am also not above saying "fine, go on to bed then" if she refuses to eat.  Sometimes kids just aren't that hungry, for whatever reason.  But here is the terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad part:  If Ivey goes to bed without eating enough, she'll wake up at 4 am vomiting.  I don't have to tell you how miserable that is.  Ivey suffers, obviously.  We have to leap out of bed, take care of her, change her clothes, move Suzi to another bed, change the sheets, and wash any stuffed animals or other casualties.  It's an instant Mount Washmore.  We all start our day tired and out of sorts, and we have to be careful what we feed Ivey for a few hours or the whole thing will happen again.

I worry about her teeth.  It's not good to so frequently expose them to stomach acid this way.  However, if we cave and give her candy bars for dinner every other night in a desperate bid to get calories into her, we are compromising her dental health and general health!

It's a really crappy situation, and we are working to find the answer(s).  I think the most likely cause is hypoglycemia, which she could get from either side of the family.  I used to wake up sick so often at slumber parties and overnight trips that for a while, my mom picked me up from events before bedtime.  I needed late night snacks so I wouldn't wake up nauseous with low blood sugar.  We are also trying to give her a longer stretch of time between dinner and bedtime, in case it's a digestion issue.  This is not easy to do, because it takes her 45 minutes to eat five bites of food.  Finally, I read online that reflux sometimes presents in a similar way, so we are propping her pillow up a bit to help with that.

Tonight after dinner--she ate maybe five bites of shrimp and rice--I gave her yogurt for dessert.  I'm hoping this easily digested, easily absorbed food with protein will get her through the night.  And I'm also praying this is just a temporary phase she's going through and not a serious problem!

Stay in a little while longer, baby

Friday was the best day. My midwife came over and everything was great. The baby was head down and well engaged and we were all set! We figured we'd finish up our to-do list over the weekend and maybe have a baby Monday or sometime. We went to the chiropractor and stopped by Publix on our way home, feeling great. I had a few pre-birthing waves in the store, probably just from excitement. Woo-hoo! Things couldn't get any better. We drove home and put up all our groceries.

Then after dinner we made my belly cast. That was fun. We've done these with all three babies and it gets easier each time. This time the pressure waves kept pushing the cast off my belly as it dried, so I took it off a little early and finished reinforcing it on the counter. Four rolls of plaster strips later, we were done!

Because of the pressure waves, I had to lie down about 9:30 and I took a nap on and off until about 1:30. When I woke up the waves had mostly stopped, but I felt like we had to finish the cleaning, especially in the kitchen and living room and laundry and stuff. Jordan did not share my sense of urgency so after a few, um, words, I sent him to bed and stayed up really late cleaning. About 4:00 I went to bed and tried to sleep but couldn't. I figured it was no problem. The cleaning was almost totally finished, and all we had on the schedule for Saturday was to go and have fun at the Spring Jubilee, our community's annual arts festival. I could just take a nap after that.

But then Ivey woke up vomiting at about 5:30. On the day I turned 40 weeks. It was on and off, and she wasn't acting sick at all, so we wondered if she hadn't just eaten something that didn't agree with her the night before. We even went on to the jubilee, where she puked all over Jordan's back in the Ergo and he had to drive home with no shirt on. Sunday afternoon, just after we thought she was almost better, she started puking again! Last night she got worse, but right now she and Jordan are sleeping in the recliner. I'm glad to see she is resting and that her noodle soup (mostly just soup) is getting a chance to settle. She is feeling miserable and I don't want her to get dehydrated. She either refuses or can't keep down the remedies we've offered to make her feel better, so it looks like this thing is just going to have to run its course.

As you might imagine, we have been running our butts off all weekend trying to keep things sanitized so Suzi, Jordan and I don't catch this. We've been running the washer and dryer nonstop with pukey clothes, towels and blankets, and dashing around with a washcloth and a spray bottle disinfecting doorknobs and faucet handles and countertops. We are getting tired.

Jordan is the greatest dad ever. He has been holding Ivey almost nonstop because that is how she can sleep best, and because we don't want her to get me sick right before the birth. I've been working hard to get everything else done, but poor Jordy. Last night Ivey threw up in his face. It was horrible.

So yes, even though we are at 40 weeks and 2 days now, it is totally cool with us if Robert stays in for a few more days. Last time Ivey was sick like this it lasted about a week on and off and then Suzi and I had it (glad I wrote a long, boring post about it now so I could refer back!). We are just hoping and praying that the rest of the family dodges that bullet this time. We don't want Robert to be born into a house of yuckiness.

But now the poor little girl is up and wanting to eat, so I guess I better go.

When we get sick it takes at least two weeks to recover

Jordan came down with a horrible cold last Sunday. I am guessing it probably came from work. He does computer support, and people's keyboards are disgusting as you probably know. So he stayed home from work Monday with a fever and all, and slept until 11:00. I tried my best to keep the kids off him. He had it all week long and is just now starting to get over it. His grandmother died last week and it was awful for him having to go through that loss, and the funeral and everything, feeling awful with a cold and fever. We probably would have stayed at his parents' longer but because he was sick and I wasn't feeling great either we decided to come home Friday night. It was good to be home and we didn't really do anything Saturday.

I realized yesterday that Ivey and I definitely had it and today we both feel disgusting. Suzi is coming down with it too, but right now it's just a bad runny nose. This morning we went to get our taxes done (which cheered me up, I must say!) but then I dropped Jordan back at work and picked Suzi up from my mom and dad's and at that point it was only about 10:00 and I have the whooooole day to look forward to snot, snot and more snot. Sneeze-rocket snot from Ivey. Plus grumpiness. Plus fighting sisters. I usually put a movie on for Suzi when this happens, like I just did, but Ivey doesn't watch TV. She does, however, love to turn the TV on and off so that while I am in the kitchen trying to heat up some chicken and rice soup, Suzi is yelling "Mommy! Mommy!!! The TV is off! Okay now it's on! Ack! It's off! Help help!" And then Ivey leaves the TV alone but doesn't waste any time finding something else to get into.

This is our third crappy week. Week before last we weren't sick but we had to waste a bunch of time at the DMV on two different days doing paperwork on our cars. I'd really like to get back to our normal schedule, and get my normal stuff done. Since I am now 32 weeks pregnant it's time to start working on things for the birth! I'd even love to go to a playgroup, but quite honestly, once my family is feeling good again I'll be afraid to attend too big a meeting. There are always seven or eight sippy cups sitting around at those and Ivey thinks it is her duty to have a drink from all of them. As fun as it is for me to chase her around making her cry by snatching other kids' cups away, boy oh boy is it easier to just stay home.

And I know most everyone is going through this same type of thing, and it is just this time of year. I am so sick of winter. It sucks. And on that note, I'm off to see how little I can get away with doing until Jordan gets home at 5:00.

Update: Suzi has it bad. Poor little girl! Fever, hoarse voice, puffy eyes, snot. Jordan is putting her in bed right now, and I just hope she feels better in the morning :-(