Monday, March 26, 2012

I try not to complain much here. . .

but I am sick, sick, sick of everyone at my house being sick!  We've had someone sick with something pretty much every other week since we moved here (stuck inside a lot of the time in close quarters, constantly surrounded by lots of people under 12, it happens), but the last six weeks, its been constant.  The second to last week of February, Keira had a miserable cold/cough, which she shared with Dylan, and then my sisters three little girls stayed with us the next week, and two of them and Keilana and Kylie all had some sort of stomach bug--there was vomiting and diarrhea and multiple loads of laundry every day just to keep the house from smelling horrendous.

I got the bug in a minor way (stomach and body ached, but no major stomach issues for me, thankfully) halfway through the week, but still had 7 little people to cook for, clean up after and get to school and appointments and what not.  The next week, just as I was finally starting to feel better from the stomach thing, I got Keira's nasty cold and was sick with that for a week--coughing, completely stuffed up and with an achy, congested cough.  Dylan got it as soon as I started to get better, and then Kylie caught it while he was still sick.  The next week, Doug got it, and has spent the better part of every day for the last three weeks sleeping or laying around because he hurts and coughs constantly, so he doesn't really sleep much/well at night.

Last Tuesday, Dylan came home early from school with a headache and a fever--I knew he had a few cousins that had the true flu, so I figured that was probably what we were in for.  The next morning, Keilana woke up the same way.  So Wednesday and Thursday, they both spent all day on the couch with fevers, chills, body aches, nausea and head aches.  Friday morning (they had no school on Friday) Keilana seemed to be better and her cousin Maysa had asked if Keilana could go to her house, so I let her go, looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.  I sat at home Friday and most of Saturday with Dylan and Kylie, both a bit better, but still very tired and achy.  I finally just had to get out of the house Saturday so I didn't got bat-guano insane, and Doug (still sick) decided he wanted to go, too, so we put our three littles in the van and started driving. Within 15 minutes, they were all out. We ran to Walmart and picked up a few things, and just that wore everyone out, so we headed home.

Keilana had been dropped off at home while we were gone, and she excitedly told us about her weekend picking out baby chicks to be raised at Aunt Gwen's house, and going swimming at Hot Springs. 20 minutes later, she crashed.  Doug, Keilana and Keira all stayed home from church yesterday.

I saw a little glimmer of hope yesterday afternoon.  It was 60* and sunny, so after church my sister pulled her baseball stuff out of the car and the kids played a little softball out in the field, and played on the rope swing.  After most of the cousins went home, my munchkins played outside in the sunshine for hours, climbing trees, helping Yaya make a leaf pile for burning, cutting fresh chives, riding tricycles. Good stuff.  Keira gleefully enjoyed the independence of wandering around outside on her own two feet, but it was becoming apparent that her fever and runny nose were getting worse. And everyone was getting pretty grumpy by the time I got them bathed and PJed up.

So when Keilana woke me up at 5:30 this morning with that terrible, grating whiny tone and told me that her head hurt and her tummy felt funny, I grimaced.  When her whining woke the baby, who immediately started to cough and try to breath through her terribly runny/stuffy nose, which frustrated her and made her cry, I nearly cried, too.

I was literally on my feet nearly constantly from 8am to 9pm almost every day last week, and somehow there are still mountains of laundry to do and beds to be made and carpets to be vacuumed and dishes to be washed. I had finally started to actually lose weight, but this week all the fatigue and stress and whining got to me, and I've been using food as my drug of choice and gained back every ounce I'd lost, despite working out pretty hard every day last week, which just adds to my frustration.

So, sitting her at 7am debating whether or not to send my coughing children to school, I'm thinking I'd rather just go stay in a hotel someplace pretty with no children and eat delicious food that someone else prepares, go to a good movie and get a massage.  Spring sunshine needs to come and stay awhile.

1 comment:

Mel McDonald said...

Sounds terrible! I really hope it all passes soon. No one should have to go through that much illness for such a long time!