sick again

Last week was one of the hardest I've had as a mother, and I know it's only going to get harder with a second child. Baby Doodle had a stomach bug for three days, two of which Mr. Doodlebug was out of town. Unlike last April when he came down with a form of the rotavirus he only got sick three times (once each day). He was hydrated and fairly active during his illness, which in general is a good thing, but not when you have a kid who loves to eat and is really really hungry. The first day he had lots and lots of Pedialyte in small portions and a few saltines. The second morning he was able to eat some dry cereal, apple sauce and more crackers, but all in very small portions which caused him to ask me every ten minutes if he "could have more Cheerios?" In order to keep his mind off his hunger I had to literally entertain him all day long. He got sick again the second afternoon so we were back to square one with the Pedialyte and nothing else. By dinner time I let him have a few more crackers. The third morning started with him getting sick again at 5:00 after having been up all night (since Mr. D was gone I was on night duty and day duty -- very exhausting, not to mention I was 29 weeks pregnant).

My poor little guy. All he wanted to do was eat large portions of foods that were out of the question, like dried fruit and nuts and ice cream. At one point I overheard him talking to his trains saying, "My favorite room is the kitchen. I love to eat every day."

By the fourth day he was keeping down small portions of food and lots of Pedialyte. We all had toast and scrambled eggs for dinner. Meanwhile, I was not able to eat large, delicious quantities of food either so as not to tempt baby Doodle. I had to sneak down to the kitchen under the guise that I was getting him more "juice" and quickly eat a few bites of peanut butter and jelly sandwich before returning to entertain him some more.

Anyway, it's over now. Luckily, I did not catch the virus, and needless to say neither did Mr. Doodlebug. Though he did bring home a cold for us all to get AGAIN. It has been a bad winter of illnesses and I can't wait for spring so these f***ing germs can fly away through the open windows.

snow

It's sad when you get your toddler dressed entirely in snow gear to play in a dusting of snow, which seems to be all we get here in Philly.


Since this picture was taken and I wrote this post we have actually accumulated a bit of snow. So I take back my snarky earlier post. Around 4:30 today the three of us went outside to shovel and salt the stairs, sidewalk and walkways around our house. Then we played for an hour. I'm glad it snowed some more. Baby Doodle loved it!

A Christmas carol 23 days after Christmas

It took me that long to figure out how to isolate the one segment of video and post it here!

random thoughts

Our financial woes are not as bad as they could be, for sure. Mr. Doodlebug still has a job, we have great health insurance, we own a reliable car, we own our house (not outright), and we're continuing to save a little each month (in a savings account that the market can't destroy). That being said, it is so disheartening to see our 401K statements come in the mail. Half the money we've (mostly he's) socked away is gone. . . just like that. Mr. D's parents started a college fund for baby Doodle (whose name I'm going to have to change one of these days, he's hardly a baby anymore) and that is also half gone.

Again, I know we're fortunate because we still have 30 to 40 more working years ahead of us and won't need that money until then, and if history is any guide we'll have recovered everything we lost and then some. And, baby Doodle is only 2.5 years old, it will be a long time until he needs a college fund. But still -- I'm a saver and can't stand to see my/our hard earned money disappear.

This time of year we're paying more per month to live because our gas bills are so extremely high. Our December bill was $515.71. That's all heat. We have a gas hot water heater and clothes dryer, but we use those during the summer too and our bills in the warm months are $30. Living in an old house has it's charm, and I love our house, but damn it's expensive to heat.

I was up half the night hacking away. I had a tickle in my throat that would not subside. I eventually fell asleep with a Halls in my mouth, not the safest thing but at least I wasn't coughing.

Baby Doodle's naps are sporadic and it's taking him a really long time to fall asleep once he's in his room. He plays for a while and then when he finally decides he's tired enough to lay down on his bed it's almost too late for him to have a nap at all. Most days this week he has fallen asleep around 3:00 and if he's still asleep at 4:30 I wake him up. He'll never go to sleep at a reasonable hour if he sleeps past 4:30 (it used to be 4:00, but he's been taking soooo long to fall asleep that I pushed it back).

you know you're comfortable when . . .

you're comparing your abilities to cough up phlegm with your husband.