The Sick Room

Last week Jeremy was out of work for three days with a nasty virus. Thank you to those of you who knew that and prayed for a swift recovery! He is back at work and feeling 100% better. There was a bit of an appendicitis scare from the doctor, so we were thankful that didn't turn out to be the case.

Then as soon as the sickness was on its way out, we had visitors! Ben's grandma and Aunt Morgan visited for the weekend. They drove all the way up from Tallahassee late Thursday night and were here through lunch Sunday. Ben had a great time showing them all that he had learned since he last saw them at one week old. He smiled, made tons of bubbles, held his head up with lots of strength, grinned at familiar faces and "friends" (i.e. the star music player and ceiling fans) and surprised them with his weight. He enjoyed hearing Grandma howl in a coyote-like manner in her successful attempts at making him smile and having Auntie Mo change and dress him and tell him that she would be his favorite aunt. Over and over again : ) And I enjoyed much-needed time with my Mom and sister talking, laughing, going to lunch and only a little squabbling here and there. Oh, and Jeremy shared his early birthday present from his Mom: The Settlers of Catan. And we played it together three times. And Morgan won twice. And Mom won once. And Jeremy and I were shamed . . . and of course proud of their instant success. I guess . . . Although there was a BIG dispute over a stolen, no taken fairly, no stolen, no . . . wheat. Glad that the two of them could work it out and win and all : )

Another update: Apparently while Mommy was away from home our friend Ryan was over and he and Jeremy made Ben laugh. I tried to get Ben to laugh all day Monday without the tiniest hint of a giggle. Again and again we have tried to replicate the laugh and we haven't heard anything. While I do believe that he laughed, I am eager to hear it myself! We'll keep you posted.

But, the reason for the title of this post is not just because one of my boys has been sick recently, but because they both have! Today was baby Ben's first trip to the "sick area" side of the doctor's office. We had quite a day. He ate his first and second breakfasts as normal but it was all downhill from there. He woke up from his nap SCREAMING and continued to be sad, tears and all, for an hour. It was a long hour. I had no idea what to do. Jeremy was at work and the Internet was not helpful as I searched for the potential problem. I finally decided that though it might be a little early for this, he must be teething. My mom did mention over her stay that I broke my first tooth at three months and one website said that type of thing tends to be hereditary. So I tried to gently pull his little pouting lip out to see the beginnings of a pearly white . . . trying to figure out if each little white speck was a potential tooth. Well, it was 2:30 and he hadn't eaten in a record 4.5 hours and showed no signs of being interested in eating at all, so I called the doctor. They told us to come in thinking that he most likely had an ear infection.

Jeremy met us there and after a checkup (he is now 13 lbs!), the doctor thinks he actually has a virus. A little stomach virus that shouldn't last as long as Jeremy's and really shouldn't have as many terrible parts to it: chills, aches, hot/cold all that. I am thankful because it was hard enough to see Jeremy that sick. I couldn't bare to see Ben shaking from chills. The doctor told us to give him Pedialyte when he doesn't want to eat and he has been asleep since about 4 after 6+ ounces of Pedialyte. I think we are going to have a long night with our little usual sleeper waking up several times. I have mentally prepared myself to be up whenever! Anyway . . . I will stop blabbing. Let me just say that it is hard to see your little baby sick, no matter how sick they are. I hope he gets better soon : ) His little pouty lip just rips my heart right out!

Please pray that Ben gets a good night's sleep and feels better and that his symptoms don't progress or worsen. Thank you and love to you all!