Is it Friday yet?

Aye. What a week. THREE sick babies (yes, my husband is one of the three) makes for a long week…. We have a new visitor in our house. And no, not the bats (they are gone, by the way). It's the coxsackie virus - wooo hooo! AKA - Hand Foot Mouth Disease. I thought it was a bout with bad summer colds but as both kids lost their appetites and started to cough terribly and start weezing, I took them to the ped today. Turns out, they have HFMD - which runs it's course on it's own within 7-10 days. GULP.

We started round the clock motrin for pain and the nebulizer treatments for their breathing as soon as we arrived home. I jinxed us. Last week, I took all of the respiratory meds we had left (like 150 doses) from the post-NICU days and gave them to the pediatrician's office, KNOWING I would not need them any more. Low and behold, they gave them all right back to me today when we walked out the door. I knew I should have held on to them, just in case. Murphy's Law strikes again.

This week has been one for the books. It all started on Monday when the vet called and said they would be late for our appointment. Any of you who know my psychotic cat know that I can no longer take him to the vet since he’s such a spaz so we have to have the vet COME TO US. Thank goodness for our mobile pet vet – she’s awesome if anyone has a similar problem. Anyway, she called and said she would arrive around 4:30/5pm; which would normally be fine but that is when I feed the kids dinner which is a whole circus in itself. So, 4:45 rolls around and chaos ensues.

The vet walks in, the cats scatter and the kids start cranking up since it’s dinner time. Mac and cheese in the microwave, cheerios sprawled everywhere and cats meowing crazily as we try to chase them throughout the house. The vet usually does her “visit” in the bathroom so the cat can’t get away – but before that, we have to catch them to get them in there. Long story short, after about 30 minutes of trying to coax Gus out of small places, they had to pull out all of the stops to catch big Gus and get the net. Yes, it’s like the kind that you see on cartoons that the “dog catcher” uses. So there we are, poking him out from under the bed with my swiffer (gotta love those things) and off he goes into the net on the other side. He was making noises that I never knew a cat could make. He hates me, still.

By the time the cats were done, we were nearing the end of dinner and JD goes into a coughing fit, causing him to throw up all of the dinner he just ate. Followed shortly by Cole who just gagged on lord knows what and threw all of his up too. In between making sure that the kids aren’t choking, the cats aren’t coming after me and slipping on my butt from the water that JD spilled on the floor when he tossed his sippy cup, I pay the vet and get her and her assistant out of the house. Two less people to worry about….

On we go – right to the baths (I made a short stop at the frig for a glass of wine, on the advice of my smart mother who called in the midst of all of this). Finally, 7:45 pm and the boys are tucked in bed. C had arrived home in the midst of the chaos and made us a wonderful dinner…ah, perfect ending to a long afternoon. Thank goodness my husband can cook. Only to be awaken at midnight by crying babies...

Since then, we have had intermittent sleep every night due to fevers, congestion and coughing. My poor little guys – I never knew such little bodies could produce so much mucus (ewww). The midnight to 4am stint last night was brutal and apparently I'm in for a few more of those, according to the doctor. I just feel awful for the kids after learning that the source of their will NOT to sleep is from pain in their throats. I wish their pain could be transfered to me so they felt better instantly.

This too shall pass - we've got our work cut out for us this weekend. Never a dull moment!