I need help!

Anyone have any great tips for getting a kid to take antibiotics? Bubba has now been sick for almost a week and yesterday they prescribed an antibiotic. (They don't know what's wrong with him; he's had a fever in the 102-104.8 range since Sunday and his CBC showed elevated white blood count). While I can get him to take Tylenol or Motrin with some gentle coercing, I can't get him to take the antibiotic. I mean the second it touches his tongue he gags until he vomits. I tried letting him drink it, I tried using a squirting dispenser, I took it back to the pharmacy and got it re-flavored, I tried mixing it will chocolate syrup, I even added a little food coloring while he wasn't watching and tried pawning it off as a ''new'' medicine-nothing. If I pin him down and squirt it in his cheeks, he vomits. Yesterday I ended up having to call the on-call doctor, who put in a call to the urgent care. We (my mom went with) had to take him up to urgent care where they gave him a shot.
He was beyond pissed, crying and screaming which lead to gagging again.

Today I have to call our Dr back and see if they can prescribe something different. He still has to take the antibiotics for 3 more days.

He understands why he takes the medicine, so that's not the issue. He hates being sick and he knows that the Tylenol/Motrin keeps his body from getting too hot. The ''pink medicine" is to help get the germs out of him (and his blood {he wanted to know why he had to get blood drawn and she said to count the germs}) so that he can feel better. He even goes as far to say that he wants to take the medicine, he just can't.

What can I do? What else can I try? I was considering asking the doctor for tablets and seeing if I could just get him to swallow those, but I don't know if they come in a dose small enough. Anyone know of a antibiotic that tastes great??

I need help!

he's feeling hot, hot, hot

and not in a good way.

*updated at the bottom*

original post:

Bubba is still sick. Like, really sick. Okay well compared to some people's situations, I'm sure it's nothing. But for us and our family, it is something. It started on Sunday with a fever and body aches. Then on Monday he still had a fever, anything from 100-103. Tuesday, still had a fever didn't eat lunch at all, again.Took him to the doctor she ran a strep test, which came back fine. She believed he had a virus and it'd last about 4 days.

Tuesday night when I went to bed, I checked on him and no fever. It was like a Tuesday Night Miracle, he felt absolutely fine. He woke up Wednesday morning, played a little, ate cereal, still no fever. He said that he just wanted pizza for lunch, so off to Pizza Hut for the buffet we went. He ate a slice of cheese piece, 2.5 breadsticks with sauce and drank over 1/2 a cup of water. (Now usually he will eat a slice of pizza, a spoonful of chicken pasta, a breadstick or two, and pudding. So he ate less than usual, but more than he had in days.) He was tired and still kinda pale but his appetite and mood had improved drastically.

We got home from Pizza Hut and all four of us took a nap. When he laid down, he was tired but no fever. But when he woke up, holy hell was he burning up. Like 104.4 burning up. I immediately forced some Tylenol in him, stripped him and put him in a lukewarm bath all while simultaneously calling the doctors office. She said that I was doing everything right. To give him some Motrin (in addition to the Tylenol) keep him in the tub for 15 minutes and retake his temp in 30mins. So I did that. After 30 mins his temp was down to 102.9 so she suggested keeping him at home, rotating Tylenol and Motrin, and using wet washcloths or baths as necessary. But the fact that it was responding well and coming down, was a good sign. Well an hour later it was back up to 103.4 so I ended up wetting 4 washcloths with cool water and placing one on his head, one on his chest, one on his back and the other over his legs. (He refused the tub.) This went on and off all night. Temps varying from 100.6-104.6. Around 7pm, after another bath, he curled up in my bed with a washcloth on his head and another dose of Tylenol.

When I went to bed at 11pm Bubba was slightly warm but not bad. I went ahead and gave Motrin, just in case. I checked on him probably 10 times through the night and while he would get a little warm, he never felt hot. I would just pull the covers back down and he was fine. At 6am I woke to Peanut's cry; changed his diaper and laid him back down. At 7:30 when Peanut and Pooks woke for good, I checked Bubba again. He was super hot again! Using our ear thermometer I checked and one ear read 104.6, the other 105. I checked my ear to make sure it was working. 98.4. Okay, so I took his again. 104.7. Back in the tub, another dose of Tylenol and ice cold juice.

So very long story, brings us to now. The bath and Tylenol brought his fever back down to 102.4, then just now I checked and it's 101.6. It is coming down and yesterday, after 2 hours from dosing time it was climbing again. Thankfully today it's not. (knock on wood). This morning he wanted to eat some dry cereal and 2 PB crackers, both of which he's kept down. He's now laying on the couch in a wife beater and shorts watching Backyardigan's. As long as his brothers leave him alone, he's content. His only symptoms are fever and irritability.

This is day 5, I really truly hope that this is the last of it. I don't know how much more either of us can take. He dreads the baths and medicine almost as much as I dread giving them.

Update:
Just got back from the dr office and bubba had blood drawn. They were checking his white blood count and for mono. Mono test came back clear but his white blood count is up. Somewhere he has a bacterial infection but they don't know where. His ears look good, his sinuses and throat look good, he has no symptoms of a UTI...they don't know. As a precautionary (since his temp has been so high for five days) they are putting him on Zithromax for 10 days. So whew! Hopefully he gets better quickly!

holy sickness batman!

The kids are sick, again. I blame the weather (going from 80 degrees to 55, sunny to rainy all with crazy wind) and the fact that they are at the age where they interact with more kids. School, library story times, all equal more germs.

On Friday I had to take Peanut to our urgent care because his breathing was so labored and his doctors office couldn't squeeze him in for hours. They took one look at him and questioned whether he needed to be at the hospital. His chest was caving in when he breathed and he was miserable...and this was less than an hour after a breathing treatment. He had a cough and a slight fever. They swabbed him for RSV, then gave a breathing treatment that was a steriod, I believe. Whatever it was, it was a night and day difference. He was immediately better. So we were instructed to continue with the breathing treatments every four hours, plus an oral liquid steroid for 10 days and run a humidifer or vaporizer at night. Official diagnosis was Bronchitis. Again.

So by Friday night, he was doing amazingly better. Saturday morning he woke up with only a slight cough and no fever. Because B was leaving on Sunday (for work, 2 weeks, again) we wanted to try to do something with the kids. Hence visiting the Open house. He sat in his stroller the entire time and never once wheezed, let alone coughed. Other than a runny nose, he was/is healthy. He starts wheezing when he gets to hyped up but otherwise he's good. We're still doing the preventive treatments and the steriod, but overall he is doing better.

He is doing better, but Bubba...not so much. He woke up Sunday morning saying his tummy hurt. He had a slight fever so I gave him some Motrin and we hurried up and ran to the grocery store before he got worse. (B had already left). He did fine at the store but on the way home said that he didn't want to eat lunch, he just wanted to sleep. I bribed with Happy Meals; he said he wanted a Cheeseburger but when we got home refused to eat. Not a single bite or even one fry. He actually fell asleep on the sofa while his brothers ate.

After a three hour nap, he woke up not feeling much better. He did eat dinner like a champ and played a little bit while Papa was here but by bedtime he was miserable again. I gave some Motrin and he went to bed, at his request, by 7:28pm. I checked on all the kids at 10pm and he was burning up. I mean really hot to the touch, head sweating--the works. Checked him and his temp was 103.4. He was also complaining of his back and legs hurting "on the inside" I assumed bodyaches.

I immediately looked for Tylenol, knowing that I couldn't give him Motrin again yet and needed to alternate the two. No Tylenol. So I call nanaw and she sent Papa over with some. Meanwhile I finally convinced him to use the potty and to let me put a wet washcloth on his head (after he downright refused a luke-warm bath or laying in my room). Luckily after a dose of medicine and laying like that, his fever started going down. By midnight it was 99.9 so I crawled in bed to get some sleep. At 1am I woke up to him calling for me. He couldn't sleep, wanted more water and wanted to lay in my bed. So I obliged. He wanted to watch TV but at 1am there isn't a lot of kid shows on. Instead I let him watch an episode of Scooby Doo on my iPod. He fell back alseep less than half way through.

While I woke several times throughout the night (to use the restroom, check on him) he slept straight through. At 4am he woke wanting water and felt warm. After a drink, I gave him another dose of Tylenol and he fell right back asleep. He woke up at 7:30 feeling quite warm again...took his temp and it was back up to 102.6. More medicine and water. He's now resting on sofa while his brothers run around like crazies. He won't eat, not even a cracker, but did want water. I know he should pee again (he hasn't gone since 1am) but he is refusing to..saying he doesn't need to. I'm really trying to prevent him getting a UTI, so I'm gonna go convince him otherwise.

I just want them all to get better...I don't think that's too much to ask!

(ps..other than a runny nose pooks is perfectly healthy in all of this)

just roll and twist...like this!

Today we took the kids to the local University's ''Open House'' tour. They got to visit various colleges, get their faces painted, visit/pet animals, look at x-ray's, hear the marching band and their favorite activity: learning how to make soft pretzels in the Grain and Agriculture building. They *loved* it. They were able to help roll out the dough then twist it and use their little thumbs to squish it down. When they were all done they got to sample ones that we're already baked...so much fun for them and fun to watch them. They took it very seriously!

Peanut has bronchitis, and therefore never left his stroller. (walking=wheezing) He liked watching though!

Bubba admiring his finished pretzel

Pooks very excited about his pretzel

and lastly, a pic of all my boys standing next to a tractor that was on display outside the Meat Science building

oh the things you can buy!

As i mentioned in my post last Friday (found here), we took the boys to my first OB appt where we heard the heartbeat. They were fascinated and loved it. We've talked about babies or heartbeats with the boys every day since then. And everyday, at least once a day, pooks listens to my belly with his fisher price stethoscope and is ''twying to hear that babies heart''. Well needless to say, he's been unsuccessful. After trying for a good 2 minutes yesterday {while I was in the middle of cooking dinner nonetheless} he gave up. I feel bad because he is so excited and he shows such interest but obviously, it just won't work. Hell, even a real stethoscope doesn't pick up a fetal heartbeat until closer to 20 weeks. What they use in the office is a fetal doppler:

It's a type of ultrasound, hence why it picks up sound waves so much quicker. I only have one appointment each month until 30 weeks, and I'm not taking all the kids with me each time. But one thing that I never realized is that (of course on the good old internet) you can actually rent or buy one for personal use. Now I'm not talking about the $20 one Wal-Mart sells (everybody everywhere says those are crap) but legit medical grade dopplers. The huge downside is that the medical grade ones are $200-$600 dollars to buy and anywhere from $25-$48/month to rent.

Yeah, that's not going to happen.

So we were looking at buying one on Amazon.com. They have ones for sale that aren't the cheapo glorified stethoscope ones that walmart sells, but not the medical grade either. We were looking and reviewing one that cost about $60. I'm hesitant because I don't want to get the kids hopes up and have it not work. So I turned to the place where I knew someone could give me some advice, my online moms' group. I asked about renting vs buying and if anyone had experience with the $60 one. And low and behold one of the mom's actually owns a "real" one and has offered to let us borrow it!! How sweet is that? Hopefully everything will work out (she has to find it, lol) but if it does, how happy will pooks be? I will definitely make B record their reactions on the camcorder and get it posted up here, asap.

I think it will be a great way to help the kids bond with the baby and help them realize that it's still in there and still growing slowly. Pooks is now referring to the sweetcheeks only as "Sissy" and in all honesty, my gut instinct is telling me that it's another boy, lol!

Oh and I should update; some decisions were finally made regarding the ''big" ultrasound. If we go to our appt in May/June and the sono tech can tell the sex of the baby, we will find out. If we go to the appt and the sono-tech cannot tell the sex of the baby (legs are crossed, etc) then not only will we not find out then, but we won't find out AT ALL until the birth. Both B and I agree that if we aren't meant to find out, then we won't. And if we are, then we will. { I will mention that at Bubba's very first ultrasound, they couldn't determine the sex...we found out at a later appt; so it isn't a far fetched idea!)

Also, we agreed on both girl and boy names, as well as middle names. I won't tell you the first name, but if it's a boy the middle name will be Ray; after my Papa Barry and my Great Grandpa Everett, both shared Ray as a middle name. (Well and myself...my middle name is Rae) And if it is a girl, the middle name with be Diane; after my Grandma Virgina as well as Nanaw (my mom) both shared Diane as a middle name.

Whew, I think that's all the updates I have regarding sweetcheeks :)

"how do you do it?"

Ever since I started having little ones, shortly after I've fallen pregnant with the next little one. The gap between Sweetcheeks and Peanut will be our largest age-spacing....at a whopping 22/23 months. I actually figured it out and from the time Bubba was born to the time of Sweetcheeks expected arrival is a a mere 4 years and 6 (or 7) months. When I type it out, I sound nuts!

"How do you do it?"

I hear this question often. That or "3 boys and you're pregnant again...I don't know how you do it!" I usually just smile and say that some days are better than others. {Because it's the truth!} For the most part, I don't know any differently. While most days go off without a hitch; we get up around 7:30, I get 3 little ones breakfast. Help them get dressed plus get myself showered, dressed and presentable. Clean up the dishes, straighten the living room and we're out the door by 8:35 to take Bubba to school.

Most mornings are like that.

But some aren't. Some days we botch up the whole morning and thus our entire day.Some days are about survival. Some days are about taking the easy way out. Doing anything and everything to keep everyone happy til bedtime.

Like today. We overslept and didn't get up til 8am. Bubba woke up crying saying that his "head just hurt". He hadn't bumped it or hit it on anything; he didn't have a fever, his eyes looked fine so I assumed he had a headache. I asked if he felt like going to school and he said no. So we didn't. I wasn't hard to convince. I wasn't feeling so great myself (morning sickness has struck again) and we would have been scrambling to get everyone ready in 35 minutes. So we laid in my bed and watched Mickey Mouse before heading downstairs to eat breakfast.

Most days we eat breakfast at the table. The boys have a banana, some cereal with milk and either a cup of milk or OJ.

Today was not that day. Today they ate dry cereal and fruit snacks with a sippy of milk each, while sitting on their blankets in the living room and watching Dora.

See this was easier while I was running up and down stairs, racing to get to the bathroom before throwing up. And guess what? No one complained. They all survived and no one starved.

They spent the entire morning in pajamas, watching movies, playing with cars, talking to nanaw, hitting each other and coloring on their magna-doodles. Bubba surprised me by doing this...without asking me how to spell anything:

I made a super easy lunch of mac & cheese with cut up hot-dogs and grapes. I'd love to say that they enjoyed homemade organic mac and cheese...but that'd be a lie. It was good ol' blue box mac and cheese and oscar mayer (all beef) hot dogs. The healthiest lunch? Nope. But they ate it, told me it was ''super delicious'' and that I was a ''great cooker''. They went down for a nap, still in pajamas, but with full bellies.

And now that they are sleeping I'm attempting to keep down a sandwich, while blogging and checking facebook. Fully aware that my laundry room looks like this:

( in my defense, the clothes in the white basket are clean and semi folded--and I did sort the dirty laundry)

and our sink looks like this:

and I'm not caring. At all.

If I've learned one thing as a mom....the one thing that helps me ''do it everyday'' it's this:

Some things can wait. The world isn't going to end if the dishes sit in the sink all day. Toddlers don't care if they don't get a home-cooked meal. Husbands don't complain about laundry...until they have no clean socks/undersear to wear for work. You can grow a healthy baby inside of you, even if you throw up everything and only keep down Doritos and a pre-natal vitamin.

While most days are great, some are about survival. And that's okay too.

At my OB appt...

everything went just dandy. Weight gain was good (2.5lbs for the entire 1st trimester), blood pressure was good and we got to hear the heartbeat. There is almost nothing more fascinating than hearing the sound of the tiny baby's heartbeat. If you've never heard it, it sounds like a galloping horse and the sound just fills the room. And I prefaced that statement with an almost, because today we discovered something even better than hearing your baby's heartbeat for the first time.

How about hearing your baby's heartbeat for the first time while simultaneously seeing the expression of complete awe and happiness on the faces of your three and four year olds who are hearing it at the same time.

Seriously. Best thing ever.

We intentionally took all 3 kiddos to the appointment so that they could hear the heartbeat. And boy when they heard it were they just fascinated. I mean they were completely silent, standing completely still and grinning from ear to ear.

"Dat's the babies heart!?"....."I can hear it!!"

Then Dr. P asked them if they thought the baby was a baby brother or a baby sister. They answered at the exact same time "SISTER!!". Dr P then turned the fetal doppler towards me and said ''Well Mom, they might just be right. That's a pretty high heartbeat."

It was fluctuating back and forth between 166 & 168.

Never in any of my pregnancies has the HB been that high. I'm trying not to read too much into it. After all, it is an Old Wive's Tale that states under 140 means boy, over means girl. And Peanut's did get as high as 155, twice actually.

Either way it's fun to wonder. And it's great knowing that we have a healthy baby that is growing right on track!

12.5 weeks

HI! Long time no blog (well, long time for me). Sorry about that, I temporarly lost the memory card for my DSLR and wasn't able to take pics for about a week. I found it today (between the couch cushions) so pictures and posts will be resuming back to normal.

In the meantime, here is my belly pic for week 12. I took it late but I did want to make sure to take one because, well my belly looks preggo now and not like I ate a few too many fries at lunch. I actually had a random person ask me when I was due; which to be honest I think is pretty ballsy...I mean if you see a woman will a bit of a gut and 3 small kids with her...would you ask?

Yes, there is only one baby and yes my due date is correct. *Sigh* I know I'll be saying that for the next few months! I can't help it, I show early. Even when carrying Bubba, I had a belly by 15 weeks. I get big fast, stay that size till about 24 weeks, then gradually get bigger and bigger until I deliver. I don't mind at all, other than the questions from others.

So what have we been up too....

Well I never did post the pics from the park with Katie so here are some of those (this was on the evening of Easter):

we thought it would be a good idea to get a pic of all 4 kiddos together...

easier said than actually done.

and lastly a pic of Katie and I together. We are due within 3 days of each other :)

Unfortuately, those are the best pics we got. A lot of the pics had really bad shadows, so some didn't turn out. But it was fun!

Then this past Saturday we went to a nearby zoo. It was, honestly, highly disappointing. I remember it being a great zoo but they haven't kept it maintained like it should be. 3 tigers in one {small} cage and there was no grass or trees in their area at all :( The animals all looked super depressed and the entire place looked rundown. The kids enjoyed it but it's not a zoo we will be visiting again anytime soon.

and a self portrait from the train ride.

All in all, we've been up to the same old same old. The weather has been awesome so we've been outside a lot. I'm no longer sick and even my exhaustion seems to be easing up so that's helped tremendously. The boys have been behaving, for the most part.

Peanut is walking more and more (meaning we don't take the stroller, not that he wasn't walking) and listening to instructions and holding hands--he did great at the zoo! Pooks is planning his 3rd birthday (we're doing Backyardigans) and Bubba is having fun in school. His last day is May 5th and I know he's gonna ask me all summer ''Do I get to go to school today?" It'll start again at the end of August and I know him and Pooks (who will also attend) are already so excited!

what's in a name?

For obvious reasons, my family has had baby names on the brain. Remember how little peanut was nameless for over 24 hours? Yeah well that wasn't our shining moment as parents. Having the nurses refer to your child as "T--- Baby Boy" and having everyone who called, texted and vistited immediately ask "So did you decide on a name?" Granted we ended up choosing a name that was on our list all along but still; it wasn't the best experience. We should have been enjoying our little guy wholeheartedly (and don't get me wrong we were) but we were also constantly asking "Does he look like a [insert name here]".

Bubba and pooks ask me almost every.single.day ''what's that baby's name?" And amazingly enough, B and I found a name that we both love. It's a boy name (we're still at a loss for a girls name) but we both love it, it flows nicely with the middle name and our lastname, it doesn't give him weird initials, and it sounds good with the other boys' names as well.

So what is it?

Well, I'm not telling. Sorry! We're still on the fence about whether we will find out sweetcheeks gender at the ultrasound or wait for the birth but we have decided this: If we find out the gender, we will keep the names a surprise. If we don't find out the gender, then we will share our top names. This way there will be a surprise at the birth (in some form) but we're not leaving people hanging the entire pregnancy either. Wasn't that considerate of us?

sweetcheeks...

you're making mommy sick and i'm over it. little one, you are almost 12 weeks developed and i should be feeling better, not worse. first it was a random morning and now it was yesterday morning, last night, early this morning and i'm still not keeping stuff down. i just want some juice. maybe a cracker.

is that too much to ask??

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone reading had as nice of an Easter as we did. This was the first year that the boys seemed to understand what was going on. Bubba definitely remembered the Egg hunt...He was a man on a mission when it came to tracking those down! Overall it was a great day. Perfect weather, the kids were in great moods and we were able to spend it with awesome friends and family. (Except for Nanaw, she had to work because her place of employment is evil). I kinda went overboard with the pics...we'll see if I'm actually able to upload them!

The discovering of the baskets!

(each kiddo received a hollow chocolate bunny, a new toothbrush, a bottle of bubbles, a candy carrot and an egg full of jelly beans as well as a card from Mom and Dad)

Bubba was super excited about his candy carrot

Once pooks realized it was candy, he was much more excited too!

Peanut was a little overwhelmed. He wasn't quite ready to wake up and didn't really know what was going on...at first.

Shortly after going through his basket, bubba saw an egg hiding.

Pooks wasn't one to be left behind

Once peanut realized there was candy involved, he was excited. With Bubba's help, he managed to find a few eggs too!

There were 10 or 12 eggs hidden inside the house, then about 2 dozen hidden outside for later.

Like I said, very excited about the candy (jelly beans)

They were allowed to eat the ears off of their bunnies before breakfast. The rest was saved for later. The result was "Mmmm".

it was unanimous...chocolate = good.

Peanut was seriously worried that someone would take it from him, lol.

A lousy attempt at a picture of all 3 kiddos. Note to self: candy does not make for a good picture.

After the egg hunt, the boys got dressed while I started getting everything ready for lunch. Growing up my family has always eaten holiday meals as a late lunch rather than a dinner. It works best for us so we continued the tradition. While the kids watched playhouse Disney and played with B, I went to work. We had a honey and orange glazed ham, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing and Southern Banana Pudding. Papa came over for lunch and around 12:45 we sat down to eat.

Yumm-o

(and yes, I ♥ stuffing!)

After lunch it was finally the time that the boys had been waiting for: the outdoor egg hunt. The older boys had cheated slightly by looking out the front window to see all the eggs.

When that front door opened, Bubba was off!

Pooks caught on that speed is a necessity

Bubba was a machine, I swear he could spot them so quickly. But he was also quick to share and point them out to pooks and peanut.

And what was peanut doing this whole time? Well he was eating the jelly beans. He could have cared less about searching for eggs, he just wanted the candy.

After they found all the eggs and their buckets were full, I had Papa snap a few pictures of us. This is our last Easter as a family of five, ya know. They turned out great...squinting eyes and all :)

(did I mention it was a gorgeous sunny day?)

and we wouldn't dare forget Papa!

Happy Easter!!! Welcome Spring :)