Let me start with why I am not surprised my week was disastrous. Of the past 5 finals weeks for Eric, something has happened except for once. I am not sure why this happens, maybe it's a big life test for us, I don't know, but let me re-cap what has happened during Eric's finals:
Dec 08: Up every night until at least 3am trying to evict our no longer paying tenants
May 09: Eric had a broken foot
Dec 09: I was pregnant and in the hospital with some type of stomach bug
May10: The one good one
July 10: Up all night with contractions thinking Jared was coming
Despite those, this year just topped all of them. Not only did Eric have 6 finals (yes that is crazy), but the first Tuesday into finals, Mallory came down with an awful fever. She was up ALL night. I can only do so much because I have Jared. Inevitably, she wines and cries because she isn't feeling well, waking Jared up, leaving me up with two kids for a couple of hours a night.
It's not often that I have ridiculously crazy weeks at work that would require overtime, but as you can guess, that happened to be this week (and that maybe happens 3 times a year). So Wednesday I took Jared to school,Mallory into work with me to get my computer, and head home to care for her while I work. Mallory was so disappointed that she did not feel well enough to go to dance or to the "cookies with Santa" event at her school.
Wednesday I got Jared from school, went through our normal routine, and he woke up in the middle of the night with a fever. Now we had two kids with fevers. I headed downstairs to put Jared into the sling (since that is the only way he'd sleep) and proceeded to work for 2 hours since I figured I might as well be productive if I was going to be awake. Just as he woke up, Eric was headed out to study for his next final.
I thought Wednesday was bad trying to work from home with one sick child, but nope, Thursday topped that. Working from home with two sick children equals an awesome fun time. By about 7 oclock I was spent and we headed off to bed. Again, both kids were up all night, and just as they finally both fall asleep at 7 in the morning, I had to get up and get work done for a meeting at 8, yes! Eric ran off to the store to try and find some corn free tylenol for Jared (because who is even thinking that every standard fever reducer has corn syrup in it?) and brought it back before he went off to study for his next final. By noon I had just about had it working from home with two kids again, so I signed off for the week, accepting that fact that everything that had to be done got done and that everything else could wait until next week. Oh, and did I mention it was my turn to bring breakfast in for the breakfast club? Of course.
Mallory had been fever free all day Friday so I thought we might actually have a good night Friday. Wrong! Of course since Eric had a final on Saturday, she was up all night just crying, saying her nose was stuck and that she didn't feel well, with a fever, along with Jared coughing so much he'd gag himself and puke. I must have changed 6 times that night. So between Eric and I, I'm pretty sure we got 3 hours of sleep combined. You can imagine how that final went for Eric (at this point we are just hoping for no fails so we don't have to repeat another semester of this). Can you imagine what kind of grades he'd be getting if this stuffy didn't happen?
Since Mallory's fever came back, I took both her and Jared back to the doctor to make sure ear infections hadn't settled in. When we were there Mallory had to stand on the scale. The little boy behind her wouldn't do it, so after we got back to our room she looked at me and said, "that little boy is not going to get a sticker." Smart girl :) After chest xrays and nose swabs, the tests came back positive for influenza. The doc said we could expect 3-5 days of fevers and a couple weeks of coughing and running nose. I have to say the coughing is the worst for the sleep. No matter how much cough syrup you give them, it doesn't help.
Here we stand on Sunday and although Mallory had a fever at midnight, we have been fever free for Mallory and fever free for Jared for a day and a half. Fingers crossed that we are on the downhill end of this sickness, because I think if I have to go one more day with no sleep, being puked, peed, pooped, sneezed, or coughed on, I might lose my mind. Speaking of losing my mind, can you believe going at this for 5 days, solo during the days, I only had one semi-breakdown?
Although Eric had a fever during his final on Saturday, and I have had body aches (no fever), headaches, and a mild cough, I'm hoping I don't have to follow up this post with a flu post for us.
During times like this is when you really wish you had family who lived right next door who could just come over and let you sleep for even 30 minutes! Today, Eric's aunt and uncle stopped by to bring us a big container of homeade soup, lots of fruits and veggies, and a big stuffed puppy for Mallory. It was very thoughtful and appreciated!
Here is poor Mallory sleeping at the counter (note the flowers from Eric).
Although she has been really whiny (but fever free) I managed to get her on the dog for a picture.
As I write this, we are currently getting a snowstorm. All I have to say is if their daycare closes tomorrow, I refuse to work from home with two kids again, so I will for sure be calling in sick!
With that said, who wants to volunteer to be here at the end of April for Eric's last round of finals? If I plan to have help ahead of time then nothing can go wrong, right?
We leave for Colorado on Saturday for the holidays. I really hope and pray we don't get sick before or during our trip! Here's to hoping for a better week with healthy happy children!
