Sick, Sick, Sick...

Well, the kids and I have been sick for a long time now.  I am going on my 11th day of having a head cold.  I haven't had a fever, but the congestion and coughing are enough to prevent me from sleeping well at night or napping.  I often feel the worst in the morning, gradually get better throughout the day and then start heading downhill again around 7 at night.  This makes it really difficult to keep up with two almost 2-year-olds.  I am very thankful for my parents who have been incredibly helpful in keeping the kids entertained and giving me some down time to prepare for the new baby and try to recuperate a bit.  I keep avoiding going to my general practitioner, because I figure that he probably won't give me anything for it, and I don't want to waste time on unnecessary appointments.

If my own illness weren't enough, the kids have both been sick as well.  Today is their 7th day of illness.  They started with mild fevers last Thursday, which went away after about a day.  But they still have congestion and coughing.  Vivienne is clearly on the upswing, but Miles seems to be having a harder time with it. 

I called the pediatrician earlier this week, and the advice nurse said that unless their fevers return, it probably isn't worth bringing them in.  I'll probably give them another call tomorrow if Miles isn't looking much better, though.  I'm not one to rush my kids to the doctor, but one time previously I waited too long before calling the doctor and it turned out that Vivienne had "a little bit of pneumonia" (eek!).  I don't want to risk something like that happening again.

With the kids being sick, they have had some trouble sleeping at night, and their naps have been virtually non-existent.  The first couple of nights, we actually tried sleeping with Vivienne in our bed.  It's so hard to hear her calling "Mommy!  Mommy!" in a raspy sick little voice.  Heartbreaking.  Well, it became quickly apparent that none of us were going to get any sleep that way, and we ended up putting her back in her crib where she cried herself to sleep pretty quickly. 

Naps have averaged about 45 minutes over the past week.  That's challenging for me, because I'm sick and exhausted and it has been over 100 degrees every day for the past week, meaning that we can't spend any time outside.  It's hard to entertain two sick kids inside all day when you're a snotty mess yourself. 

I should consider myself lucky that me and my kids are very rarely sick.  Maybe that just makes me whinier when we do get hit by something, though.  =)

Thanks to Mom and Dad for helping out so much during this particularly tiring time.  I might not have survived without you.

Here's to hoping that we're all feeling much better before Baby C arrives.