A little pick-me-up

Yesterday was a bad idea. We got some discouraging news. I was operating on little sleep and dealing with a horrible cold and ended up driving in "heavy flurries" (didn't know such a phrase exists, but it does according to Environment Canada) to the doctor's office to get antibiotics.

While I was cleaning up, I discovered that darling daughter had tucked in her dolly on our bed. There she was, propped up on pillows and covered with the small afghan my grandmother made me when I was a baby. Darling daughter had made her comfortable before she headed off for preschool. Despite all the crap I've been wading through lately, this put a smile on my face.

Final thoughts for this final day of January

Four illnesses, busting my butt to get the house ready for market, and trying to work a casual freelance job (casual in all sense of the word), I managed to survive January.

Goodbye January! See you in 11 months.

Since my last post, it has been a roller coaster. I got sick. Dear husband got sick. And darling daughter was still sick. We managed to kick another gastro bug out the front door, but now darling daughter is sick again, this time with a cold. She isn't a happy camper as she is operating on very little sleep. However, she has plenty of two-year-old attitude to dish out to me and her father.

Despite battling illnesses, we managed to reach our goal and get our house up for sale. I didn't realize how much work is involved in getting a house market ready, but we have managed to transform our humble abode into something very nice. While I wanted to pull out my hair during the staging process, the results provide that it was worth every hurdle we had to jump over.

Now we wait. My house is immaculately clean. Hopefully it will sell fast. That's our wish, but we shall see. We don't know what the future holds. We know the house will sell, but what we do in the future is a mystery to us. I'm just taking it one day at a time.

Vomit

This is one of the mysteries of parenthood: why does my child decide to get sick at midnight?

My child has yet to wake up in the morning to tell that she is sick. All of her illnesses start at midnight. It is kind of freaky.

Wednesday night she got up around 11 p.m. for a bathroom break, which is routine. But then she was unconscionable, crying, demanding cuddles in the rocking chair. Then after we settled her down, she threw up. A quick cleanup of puke all over the bathroom floor, we thought we were in the clear until she threw up two hours later. And before dawn could break, there was another incident that involved vomiting.

The washer ran constantly yesterday as I had laundry from two beds, along with darling daughter's pukey clothes, to wash. Poor pink dolly. She got vomited on twice in a span of 12 hours. Fifteen minutes after she freed from the dryer, darling daughter threw up on her again. Back into the wash she went.

So far, we've been 24-hours free of any vomiting incidents. I finally got around to doing a major scrub down of the bathroom floor today as I wasn't happy with the quick cleanup job I did the other day. The laundry is done and put away. Hopefully we stay puke-free for the time being.

Fighting through the fog

I hate sickness. It ails me.

Enough of the puns. In all seriousness, I dislike being sick. Last week, I thought I was suffering through a bout nausea. Lately, I've been suffering through tiny bouts of nausea. Not all that serious. It sometimes happens. And before someone says morning sickness, that is not even a possibility.

So when I was feeling nauseous on Wednesday night, I didn't think much about it. I took a Gravol and called it a night. Well, this wasn't just a period of nauseous that sleep could cure. It was a stomach bug. By Friday, I was still suffering through it and dear husband had it. Amazingly, darling daughter has been stomach-bug free since I got sick (knock on wood).

Since Saturday, I've been trying to feel like more like myself. I'm still not back on the food wagon. I quickly got tired of eating toast, so I switched to pizza. It may not be the healthiest of choices, but it is something that I can stomach. (Oh dear, another pun). I may even attempt meat tonight for dinner. The poor chicken dish I made on Wednesday night is still in the refrigerator. There it will stay until garbage day. Such a waste, but there is not much you can do when most of everyone in the household gets sick and as a result falls off the meat wagon for several days.

Yesterday, in an attempt to fight through the sickness fog, I went to the gym. I ran. May not have been the wisest choices, but I felt marginally better. So between fighting a stomach bug and insomnia, I'm slowly getting back to myself. I can't wait to crawl into bed tonight. Hopefully I'll get some sleep and when I wake up tomorrow I hope that the fog has finally lifted.

Searching for a saline solution

The instruction pamphlet makes it looks so easy. Lay child on his or her back. Tilt head. Insert applicator into the upper nostril, parallel to nose. Press applicator. Repeat for other nostril. Gently wipe nose when done.

In reality this is how it goes: grab squirmy child as she back away from you. Try to coax her to lay down. Watch child scream and cry. Try to insert applicator into nostril. Squirt either yourself or child with a strong spray of saline solution in the eye or face. Repeat. Cuddle crying child when done.

So far, this has been our experience with saline nasal spray. Yesterday, I took darling daughter to the doctor's as her cough and runny nose returned. Last time she had these symptoms, she was diagnosed with an ear infection and I was a bit concerned the infection had returned. According to the doctor, her runny nose is due to fluid in the ears. The cough is related to the runny nose. He suggested we administer a saline solution spray to help move out the mucus in her nose. What he failed to say was, good luck with that.

Administering the spray is a two person job. One to do the actual spraying and the other to be kicked at when trying to hold darling daughter steady. She'll actually back away from us when she sees us holding the spray bottle. Both me and dear husband know from experience that nasal irrigation does work. We both regularly use a neti pot. But I can understand where darling daughter is coming from as it took me months and several times viewing a YouTube tutorial before I gathered up the courage to stick a little teapot up my nose to drain away my troubles.

So we will continue in our quest of nasal irrigation. We both have our fingers crossed that darling daughter will see that this is helpful to her and makes her feel better. But we doubt that she'll see reason. So in the meantime, we expected to be kicked and cried at, along with getting an eyeful of saline solution, for the very foreseeable future.

Musical beds and an ear infection

We had one of the worst nights since darling daughter grew out of the newborn stage.

The last three night, or has it been four, we've been struggling through sleepless nights. Darling daughter is suffering from a wicked cough and runny nose, which would point to either a damn bad cold or allergies. My money had been on allergies as I was a bad allergy kid, plus the fact her barky cough sounded like a typical allergy cough.

Last night was the worst. Although she got to sleep relatively quickly, she woke up at 11 p.m. And for the next three and a half hours both me and dear husband tried to comfort our barking, snotty child. At one point, I was sleeping on her floor. Then dear husband and I changed positions. Staying true to her morning routine, darling daughter got up at her usual time at 6:15 a.m. And for the next hour and a half, she tossed and turned in my bed. No sleep for me.

Yesterday, I had the good sense to make an appointment with the doctor. While my gut was telling me allergies, none of the allergy medication seemed to be working. So this morning I took my barky, snotty child into the doctor, who surprised the heck out of me when he informed me that darling daughter wasn't suffering from allergies, but from an ear infection. An ear infection?!? You've got to be kidding me. I felt so bad. I had no clue. But at the same time, I was relieved. Don't get me wrong, ear infections are horrible, but I've been suffering on and off with allergies my entire life. Allergies are no picnic. I've heard the old war stories from my mom. At least with a cold or ear infection, it can be treated in a timely manner.

I've got my fingers crossed that we have a better night tonight and the antibiotics kick in soon. Right now I'm running on empty in the sleep department.

I'm dreaming of a NyQuil induced coma

Forget dreaming of a white Christmas. I'm dreaming of sleep.

I'm in desperate need of sleep. The last three nights have been H-E-L-L. Night one: two hours. Night two: five hours. Last night: six hours. Despite increasing my sleep quota over the last two nights, I'm utterly exhausted. I need some good, quality sleep. Not interrupted sleep. For a woman who basically lives her life in a bubble, I've been either dealing with allergies or a cold for the last month. Darling daughter got sick last week. She seems to be getting over her epic week-long runny nose.

I, on the other hand, sound like I'm coughing up a lung. My cough keeps me up at night. Combine this with the fact that I will suddenly wake up at night for no reason and I have a disaster on my hands. I'm utterly tired. I think I'm reaching the threshold where I'm just too tired to sleep. Ah, insomnia is not my friend. And as for dear husband, who takes public transit to get to work every day, other than the sore throat on Monday, he has had no major colds to deal with. Lucky him.

I'm waiting for dear husband to come home to take over parental duties. Once he walks through the front door, I'm taking a mega dose of NyQuil and calling it a day.