After gushing on and on about the first half of May and all there was to celebrate and do cartwheels for, I've reformed my opinion on this month and have to say: I will not be sad to kiss the second half of May 2022 goodbye!
After celebrating the "holidays" and all the people we love wrapped up in Teacher Appreciation Week, Nurse's Day, and Mother's Day, sh*t hit the fan right away! The day after Mother's Day, Juliette developed a fairly "severe" case of [what we thought were] allergies. Watery, itchy, glassy eyes + constant sneezing + thin, clear snot shooting straight out of both nostrils every time she sneezed sureeeeely seemed like a perfect storm of seasonal allergies, #amiright? After a full day of misery, I sent Brian and Scarlett to Walgreens that evening in hot pursuit of some children's Zyrtec. [Ok, as a side note NOT related to Juliette's symptoms, can we just take a moment to complain about HOW HORRIBLE the tree pollen is this year?! I don't usually have seasonal allergies but am certainly struggling this year! Every time we go outside to sit on the patio furniture, we have to first wipe a fairly thick layer of yellow pollen off the table and cushions... The minivan is also coated in pollen after being parked outside my work building for 8 hours each day. Insanity!!!]
Back on topic!
The children's Zyrtec seemed to take the edge off initially for Juliette, but within a few days her symptoms had progressed to thick congestion and yucky cough and it was seeming not so much like allergies anymore! With an alarming increase in fussiness by day 5 of symptoms, I had her evaluated at the pediatrician's office and boom! Double ear infection + amoxicillin x 10 days. Her first ear infection and first round of antibiotics. We were thankful to have an answer [to the fussiness at least, who knows what the allergies/virus was!] and a solution.
As an added bonus, the antibiotic cleared up the congestion and cough right away and Super J was feeling "quite super!" again within a couple of days! YAY! ...But also BOO, because her gut did not enjoy antibiotics, and the constant pooping/wiping gave her the worst diaper rash she's had to date. With lots of diaper rash ointment, many sessions of allowing her naked booty to "air out" on a puppy pad, and so much diligence in keeping her clean and dry, THE BOOTY RASH FINALLY RESOLVED and we stopped going through new diapers every 10 minutes. And most importantly, our girl was her smiling, happy self again!
Phew! After the completion of 5 days of "allergies" and cough/congestion followed by 2 days of unusual fussiness followed by 10 days of antibiotics/diarrhea/diaper changing combined with cutting her very first tooth somewhere in the middle of it all, we [thought we] were finally in the clear!
But no!
After finishing the antibiotic course on a Sunday evening, the poor girl woke up Monday morning with a 100.2* temp that eventually progressed to a 101.6* fever by the afternoon. This all went on for 3 more days, and juuuust when I was about to take her in for re-evaluation [resistant ear infection? COVID? Flu? RSV? Something bacterial that could progress to pneumonia? My nurse brain was going insane!], the fever broke and never returned and halle-hallelujahhhh, AMEN, [I'm scared to say this out loud, but] I think we might actually be on the upswing from a few weeks of hell.
Oh, did I mention that in the meantime of all of Juliette's issues, COVID cases were on the rise [again] in our community and at the kids' school? We were just holding our breath -- literally, like yell/threatening the kids before school, "DON'TCHU DARE TAKE A BREATH AROUND ANY CLASSMATES THAT HAVE A COUGH!" [Jk but for real.]-- trying to make it to the end of the year without another quarantine for the big kids. Soooo very thankful that we were able to celebrate the last day of school and preschool spring program for Scarlett + Field Day and last day of school with early dismissal for Harper! IT'S OFFICIALLY SUMMER BREAK!!!
#normalcy
#at
#last
But oh, no! Not a chance.
On the second night of summer break, we were jolted from a deep sleep at 1:15am when the smoke + carbon monoxide detectors in our home began flashing and alarming off obnoxiously. As Brian scampered around the house looking for a fire and/or some kind of gas leak, I was furiously searching Google from our bedroom like, "How long does it take to die of carbon monoxide poisoning?" After a thorough search through the house and Brian being "pretty sure" it was just a false alarm, I remained on the opposite end of the spectrum. ...Likeeeee, should we wake up the kids and get a hotel just in case? ...IF we go back to bed, should we at least have every door and window
in the house wide open so the outside air can dilute the carbon monoxide
fumes? ...Wait, are the kids already dead since they didn't even emerge from their bunk beds when the fire alarm was blasting off? ...BRB while I go check pulses.
After it was confirmed that everyone was, indeed, still breathing and pulsating [pulsing?], I talked Brian into at least calling the fire department to see what they recommended. Not like the 9-1-1 phone line, but just the regular non-emergency line, you know? I mean, the writing was on the wall for the next day's newspaper headline: "FAMILY OF 5 DIES IN THEIR HOME AFTER IGNORING CARBON MONOXIDE ALARM AND GOING BACK TO BED."
So grudgingly, he called...
...and eagerly, 3 night-shift firemen and their XL firetruck arrived to our front door 10 minutes later.
[And let it be known that I spent their full 10-minutes-en-route throwing sh*t stuff -- anything out of place I could get my hands on quickly enough -- into closets and under beds because #HOLYMESSYHOUSE which was ever so embarrassing to show off to a group of strangers at 2am.]
After an up-and-down search/assessment of our home and all the smoke detectors on the ceilings, one fireman brought some little nifty handheld carbon monoxide detector inside. After that one didn't alarm off anywhere in the house, he stated he was "99.999% sure that, even though the house was only built two years ago, one of the carbon monoxide detectors is faulty and needs replaced. This was almost certainly a false alarm, and you may go back to bed, ma'am!"
And the best news??? Brian, Juliette and I were all able to fall back asleep relatively quickly after all the excitement fizzled down...
...AND...
..........drumroll..........
...all 5 of us woke up alive the next morning! [Clarification: I woke up less than 3 hours later to my alarm for work, but #minordetails.]
Tick tock, tick tock. I feel like I've been typing this post for an eternity, so where are we now?!
Resting up for a jam-packed Memorial Day weekend is where we are now! [Anybody else's offspring nap in the weirdest positions?!]
Family graduation party, Mass, Memorial Day BBQ with friends, flower shopping, sleepovers, and soooo much more...! We have our fingers crossed for lots of sunshine and swimming and zero sickness or senseless 2am drama!
STAY TUNED TO SEE...
...and let's welcome in a less-obnoxious June in 1...2.........3!!! :D
