Month nine: All The Tired Horses

Dempsey celebrated turning eight months old yesterday with a morning full of vomiting. In fact, the last month and 1/2 sickness has engulfed our house.

I have been challenged. The day after Valentine's Day, I was told that my husband had the flu, Madeus had a combination of the flu perhaps, RSV, and maybe pneumonia, and Dempsey would develop RSV. The next two weeks go on record in the top five most challenging moments since I found out I was going to be a parent. I never realized I could be that sleep deprived and a series of bad timing and serious contagiousness left us without many people to call for help. Madeus has never been so sick. Dempsey got it last and I thought it was not going to be that bad but then he stopped nursing. For two night, he screamed the whole night and I would just pace the floors. I was reluctant to go to the doctor because they had already diagnosed him with RSV and said I would have to ride it out. However, we went back the next day and he had developed bronchitis and two ear infections. The poor little man had blisters on the back of his throat which coupled with the ear pain, explains why he could not nurse. He had antibiotics and recovered. I fell sick but not badly and we thought we were in the clear.

Then last week we believe Madeus got food poisoning and last Sunday night I got it as well. Madeus recovered pretty quickly, but I have never been so sick and so scared of getting sick. We recovered and on Friday, I took the kids to the indoor play park at the mall and Dempsey started to projectile vomit. I was soaking wet, trying to gather Madeus from the park and get out of the mall as fast as possible. It continued for the next 24 hrs. He is all better. However, it does seem a crazy coincidence that we had two food poisonings (from the same hot dogs) and one stomach bug all in one week.

And then today Mike again has a fever and a cough, and just now I hear Madeus coughing from his room.

Until this year, I had the healthiest little boy in Madeus. He has still never taken an antibiotic and he just recently had any stomach illness for the first time. Some people say this is what happens when children go to school and Dempsey is suffering from being the second child in a family where the first child is bringing home germs from school. The pediatrician assures me it will only build his immune system. The whole thing has made me feel inadequate, frustrated, depressed, and just exhausted.

But, tomorrow starts the first day of Spring and I hope also the reblooming of my little family. Dempsey, true to his little personality, smiled after every time he vomited. In fact, he takes it all in such Dempsey style, it was often hard to tell just how sick he was.