Boo to the Flu

Last week was Spring Break, which should have been filled with park outings, picnics, swimming, and basically anything where we could enjoy the slight warmth in our Iowa weather. But, unfortunately, it was anything but...and "but" meaning: fevers, snot, coughing and, of course, an ER visit with a confirmed Flu diagnosis. Yeah, Spring Break was spent a little more like this:

We've all stayed relatively healthy in our household for the last little while give or take a few sniffles and so forth, and more importantly, we've had a hospital-free streak for Beckham for almost 6 months (a record!). And I was hoping to keep this steak up, but, sadly, that was not the case. The whole family except myself (not sure how that happened) caught the flu bug, and was quite sick, but bounced back after 3 or 4 days. But when Beckham spiked a fever last Monday that would not go down past 103.8 with Tylenol, I knew that we were ER bound. Beck's fever lasted not 1, or 2, but 6 days straight. And I'm not talking about low grade fevers, but smoking hot fevers where we had to use Ibuprofen (for those that don't know, Ibuprofen is a "no-no" for transplant patients) to get them to at least go down to 102. Because of the fevers, Beckham, broke out if sores all over his mouth, chin, tongue, and up his nose. And, the blisters only got worse because they are on a 3 year old that will not keep his hands out of his nose because, in his words, "booger's are so yummy" (awesome). The good news is that we avoided a hospital stay, but only just barely.

As for now, Beck's fevers have finally broken, but he still looks pretty rough and is still achy all over his body, which his doctor believes is from Synovitis - accumulations of fluid (from his flu virus) around his joints, causing severe pain. But, so far, we have not noticed any signs of him bouncing back into his blood disorders - Evans Syndrome or Glannzman Thrombathsthenia - and we are crossing our fingers that it stays that way.

Here's to hoping that next year's Spring Break will have a little bit of a different outcome, and that we might get a flu shot that covers all the forms of the flu. Hmm...I can hope, right?

Being their mommy.....

I know it has been a while since I have posted, and I know that the blog is due for a update about our family of 5, but that is going to have to wait because tonight I have a little something else on mind, something that I won't be able to get off my mind until I type it out. Here goes:

Most of our - our, meaning the kids and I - days are spent inside our little house in Iowa, stir crazy, and waiting impatiently for this long, cold winter to end. And, sadly, it seems like Mother Nature is bent on making it so that never happens, torturing us with constant cold, wet weather, making our short 24 hour days, seemingly endless. And, as you can imagine, the kids and I are more-than-ready to go outside and spend time doing anything but indoor activities, but knowing this will have to wait for a little while longer.

Today was definitely one of those days - long, cold, stir crazy, and without Nate to help distract us all. Plus, I was up to my ears in laundry, had nothing started for dinner, and my patience was completely shot. And, of course, my children made sure to test every boundary during this day, making me want to rip out every last hair on my head. They had been to time out so many times today (except Blythe, of course!) that it was more like a vacation spot than a punishment.

Take for instance my little Gwen -

So sweet, so loving, and so full of question after question after question. And, when she is not asking a question, she is tattling on her little brother, and not just some of the time, but ALL of the time (I bet that if tattling were a major in college, Gwen would have a PhD!). Today was totally one of those "question" and "tattling" days, followed with meltdowns every time I did not have an answer to her question and when I did not get after her brother after she tattled on him.

Also, there is my boy, Beckham -

So cute, so funny, and so FREAKING naughty! Seriously, I thought that he would have grown out of the naughty "2 year old" stage now that he is 3, but it seems to only get worse with age. And today, after purposefully making a mess of everything I cleaned up, climbing my bookshelves, destroying our DVD's, and then literally making a swimming pool on the bathroom floor during his bath, he also decided that the best place to wipe his chocolate covered mouth was on my off-white rocking chair cushions (lovely).

Even our perfect, beautiful, and precious baby girl, Blythe, had a super gassy day, requiring my arms to be holding her for almost the entire day. Normally this would not be an issue because I love to hold my babies! Love, love, love it! But today was hard as I had two other kiddos requiring a lot of attention, and my cute husband was working and not able to offer another set of arms.

So, as bed time rolled around tonight, and as I was finally able to have some "me time" and sit down without an interruption, and maybe stew over my frustrations, you'd think that I would be grateful for the break, or relieved that I was finally able to have some time away from my kiddos...but I wasn't. Actually, on the contrary, I was missing them, missing their faces, missing their smiles and missing their laughter. And, as strange as it might sound, I wished they were awake.

I hated that I spent the entire day being annoyed and flustered, when they bring me more joy than I can even express. I hated that I could be so selfish as to lose my patience over and over and over again when they are only being children, and only doing what they do best...and that is being them.

And, so, I got up and went to their bedrooms and looked at their sweet sleeping faces and thought "I can't believe they're mine!" and "how did I get so lucky as to be their mom?" And then I went and prayed to my Heavenly Father, thanking Him for my children, asking for forgiveness for my shortcomings and promising to do better tomorrow.

I love being a mom. Love, love, love it! There is nothing else I'd rather be doing. And, even though I have days like today full of busy, frustrating kiddos, and where I am makeup-less, have yet to have a shower and it's 10:00 PM, and am covered in baby puke, I know that it's worth it. The good and the bad, the happy the sad, the whole she-bang. It will always be worth it.

-Kim