This post has been written so I don't lose my mind

So I know I have several 'real' posts I want to write. Posts about all the wonderful things we did this summer, and the Perry parade, and more info on my poor Little Cat who has gotten hardly any space on this blog except as a reason for my vomiting. However I lost that do-hickey that takes picture off my phone and puts them on my computer so now I'll have to go to the Walmart and get a cd made at one of those kioskes etc. BUT I needed to write this post this exact minute.


Paenut has been sick since Thursday, not Thursday the day I'm writing this post, or Thursday just before that , but Thursday the 6th, two weeks ago. That evening he had a low fever. I didn't think much of it and since it was gone by the morning we went ahead with our trip with Grammie to the zoo and science museum. Peanut was kind of grumpy but that was it. Oh and I noticed a spot on the top of his foot where his sandal had been rubbing. Note to self: switch shoes for a couple of days.

Over the weekend he got worse, spiking a fever up to 103 a couple times. Still I was not concerned (he gets fevers pretty high very easily) and decided to wait it out and see if his body could kick this itself. However, Monday evening he was complaining that his skin and his leg hurt. We felt his leg, where the thigh meets the body and found his gland there was swollen to the size of a children's candy bar and rock hard. So we made a doctors appt.

The doctor asked about bug bites, Gibson didn't have any. So he checked out all the usual suspects and found that Peanuts ears and sinuses were pretty red. A slight possibility it was a bladder infection and since a virus should have cleared up by now, and all the options had the same treatment, I gave in and we started antibiotics.

Throughout that week (as with the initial weekend) we had spiking fevers that required cool showers with Peanut screaming as if it was amputation, periods of intense clingy-ness unseen since he stopped nursing, times when he took his medicine easily and times when we had to hold him down, constant worry about him getting enough liquid to stay hydrated, all interspersed with just enough moments of him telling me he loved me and I was the best mama ever to keep me from realizing we already have another on the way and he is now pretty much expendable. PS As is necessary, most of the bad moments came between 11pm and 3am.

After some more concern about the size of his gland, and Ox saying he thought the thing on his foot looked like a bug bite, we went back into the doctors and found out that Peanut probably had a spider bite causing most or all of his symptoms. The treatment was still antibiotics so we chose to stay with the stuff he was already on.

Now, let me note that at this point in the week I was really doing ok. Yes we were getting up a lot at night and Peanut was much more demanding during the day but I had adjusted my expectations of what could be done in a sick household and so, meals were simpler, only very basic chores were accomplished, I ignored the piles of dishes and I just spent a lot of time cuddling my baby boy, who often doesn't allow that nonsense. I was zen.

By Sunday Peanut was still grumpier and more tired than usual, but doing so much better, that we decided to go to church. We went the first hour and then I said I thought we should go home instead of taking Peanut to his nursery class. Ox disagreed. He has responsibilities at church and wanted to stay for his classes, and possibly he thought I was being a bit overprotective and/or using my sick son as an excuse so I could go take my pregnant body home for a nap. I will not deny any of those possibilities. So we stayed. In an uncharacteristic show of helicopter parenting I went to nursery class with Peanut.

***Even though I have certainly not said this aloud, and never would, and knowing Ox will read this, I am still going to take a moment to shout I told you so!!!!!!***

Now I wasn't really worried about him falling down in illness or spiking a 180 degree fever the second my back was turned but he was sick and grumpy and I just wanted to make sure he and/or his poor nursery teachers weren't overwhelmed. About a half hour in , when Peanut was throwing his 3rd or 4th tantrum about something like having to share the dinosaur toys or cleaning up for snack, I decided I was done. I took Peanut with me, we tried sitting in the adult class for about 30 seconds, and then we headed home. Peanut and I skipped family dinner at Ox's folks house and I prepared for a week of 'Nut slowly getting better as I kept our schedule light.

Monday he started vomiting. And then it was coming out all over. I washed him, I washed sheets, I washed blankets, I washed stuffed animals. There is literally not a blanket in this house that has not been washed since Monday. This lack of control of his digestive system lasted through yesterday (Wednesday). At first I thought it was just his body overwhelmed with antibiotics so I slipped probiotics into his juice and gave him yogurt whenever I thought he could keep it down.

However it turns out this was not caused by antibiotics...a little flu bug has hit half his nursery class this week. Yes a virus, not able to be taken out by the antibiotics he was already on. A virus ravaging his already worn out body. A virus that could have been avoided had he not gone to nursery class- hence the 'I told you so' above.

I'll be honest, this week I have not been so zen. I am tired. We were on the upward path and I was mentally moving out of 'sick kid' into normal routines. Peanut also has been unbelievably grumpy this week. He's never been sick this long before and has shown his disappointment in many wonderful ways such as: demanding one caregiver and refusing to deal with any other person (this preference can switch at a moments notice and is especially fun when Ox is at work), repeating anything you say to him, at the top of his longs prefaced with the words "it's not", refusing to eat all day and then being starving around 11pm, and letting us know often he doesn't like and/or love us. Now I take very little personally in these scenarios but Ox, and everyone else Peanut has encountered, seem to take these temper-tantrum words to heart and are honestly offended. Thus I get to deal with a screaming toddler and the hurt feelings of those who should really know better. Dear World, get over it.

So as Peanut's digestive system is mostly back on line (he had an egg and oatmeal for breakfast), why would this morning be when i needed to post? Because Ox just came home sick with the flu. Even as a model patient (who is cuddling with Peanut as I type this) he has thus far needed: water, a bendy straw, a puke bucket and his radio. Thank you for reading I'm going to go decide between dishes and laundry in the rest of these 'spare minutes' I have.