Sanitized For Your Protection

**Please pray for Sarah!** Please continue to lift Sarah and her family up as she comes to your mind. Angela, Sarah’s sister-in-law, is blogging updates, and Sarah’s husband Pat is updating their blog as well.

Friday we woke up to warm weather. Compared to last week at this time, it was positively hot…a nearly 90 degree temperature swing from one week to the next is crazy. But it made for a great day for playgroup at Sara’s house. Caedmon and I managed to finally get it together and head over for some fun.

I’m so glad our group has a “come as you are” kind of attitude. Because I needed it that day. We barely got out of the house as it was and if I’d had to dress up, it probably wouldn’t have happened. We even went to lunch together in our “come as you are” attire. And no one cared. I love my friends.

Friday afternoon, Caedmon started complaining of his ear hurting, so I took a peek. I was shocked. Definitely working on another ear infection, and I couldn’t believe he’d waited that long to complain about it. But as this would be our 3rd infection in as many months (we just finished antibiotics less than 3 weeks ago), I decided we’d tackle it another way this time. So we hit up the natural food store for a different remedy. I figured I could always take him to the doctor Saturday morning if I had to.

He woke up at 5am Saturday. Not complaining of his ear, but his stomach. Which isn’t entirely unusual, because that generally means he’s hungry. He also said his head hurt so I gave him some Motrin and he went back to sleep. So did I. Husband got up with Caedmon (who actually slept late) and I slept until 9:30. I haven’t slept that late in a long time. This pregnant girl needed some sleep.

But Caedmon had a fever. A low-grade fever, but still fever. He said his ear felt better, and it looked much better, so I decided we’d just wait it out. Caedmon played and hung out, but you could tell he wasn’t feeling all that great. But since he was happily putting puzzles together and playing with his trains, I figured he was on the mend. I worked in Baby Sister’s room during the day and we generally let the rest of the house get out of control.

(I am proud to say we have found a home for almost everything somewhere in our house. At this point, if we don’t have an obvious place to put it, I’m ready to chunk it.)

I thought Caedmon’s nap might help him, but it didn’t. He still had a low-grade fever and when a three-year old tells you his brain hurts, you can probably bet he has a headache. But he put puzzles together most of the afternoon and didn’t complain of anything else until after dinner, when he said his tummy hurt. Right about the time I was getting ready to put him to bed, we kicked it up a notch. With “yadda yadda.” Red “yadda yadda.” On the carpet.

Husband made a great sacrifice and went to Lowe’s to buy a ShopVac (why we didn’t already have one, I do not know) because I knew I’d need lots of help getting that out of the carpet. He hates home improvement stores, but especially that one. He can never find anything and it’s like the people who work there hide from him when he walks in the door. I’ve seen it – it’s a rather spectacular thing to watch.

Anyway, he took care of Caedmon while I worked on the carpet. Caedmon ended up going to bed a good hour and a half later than usual. But before I put him down he was jumping on the bed. So I figured he felt a little better and was hoping we were still just dealing with the ear issue.

Sunday morning, the boy slept until 8:20am. If I hadn’t been in at 7am to turn his CD alarm off (before it came on) and check on him, I might have panicked a little. But I was happy to let him sleep and he woke up with no fever. We did have another problem, though. A problem that necessitated 3 changes of undies by the time he’d been up 30 minutes. Poor guy.

Each time he had an accident, he’d apologize. “I’m sorry, Momma.” It was so sad. Definitely not the ear thing causing all of this. Or if it was, it’d be some pretty bad ears.

By 10am, Caedmon was asking to watch Curious George. This was serious. He could choose from any of our DVDs, and he picked not only George, but the same George DVD he’s watched millions of times over while sick. So we sat on the couch together and lost some brain cells enjoyed a curious little monkey.

(I called and left a message, canceling his dentist appointment for today. I know they have to think we’re terrible. His last cleaning appointment had to be rescheduled because he was sick. And now we’ve had to wait over a month to get a small cavity repaired and have to cancel…because he’s sick. By the time we finally get this thing fixed, it might not be a “small cavity” anymore.)

And as the day wore on, so did his fever. It kept creeping higher throughout the afternoon and early evening. But he asked for dinner, chocolate milk, and wanted to play games on the iPad. (He’d been asking when Daddy was coming home…I finally figured out it was because he wanted the iPad, not necessarily Daddy.) I let him play games and put him off on the dinner and chocolate milk idea and offered a few sips of Pedialyte and/or water. Then he started begging for popcorn. Even though I thought that might not be the best idea, I let him have some. I figured he’d eat two bites and quit. He ate a lot.

And by the time he went to bed last night, he seemed to be feeling better. But the night was a bit bumpy. his fever was up and down again. Want to know the most pitiful thing in the world? It’s 4:15am, your 3 year-old tells you he needs to throw up. So you run in & grab the trash can. He dry heaves, lays down, looks at you and says, “I’m done. You can go back to bed now, Momma.” Did you hear my heart break into a million pieces? Because it did.

It’s 8:20am and he’s still asleep. I’m hoping he’ll feel better when he gets up. However, I’m predicting we won’t do a lot today except sit on the couch and lose more brain cells watch more George.

Now go wash your hands. I’m pretty sure you can’t get his germs through the Internet, but it never hurts.