I knew something was brewing in the house. Timothy was increasingly cranky. Wil was entering one of his "bad diaper" cycles. And it had been a few weeks since the last illness. Luke woke with one of those asthmatic sounding coughs, but he doesn't have asthma so I assumed allergies, gave him a dose of Claritin and sent him back to bed. There is lot's of stuff blooming afterall.

And then fever set in for Timothy along with an all over body rash. Wil kept James busy running baths to soak his sore bottom. And Luke, on Friday night woke every two hours in a panic over his cough and inability to take a deep breath. So at 1 am we started steam showers. Poor guy. "Does this mean I am getting sick?" he cried in his most pitiful voice as he gasped for air forcing himself to hyperventilate. He sat on the toilet as the bathroom filled with steam and his airway opened. And just like that he was back to himself. "Mom, can you bring me a pillow and blanket? I am getting tired of sitting on the toilet but I really like it in here so I think I will just lay down and get comfortable." I convinced him he should go back to bed and set him up in the guest room with a humidifier. An hour and a half later he woke in another panic. By the time I got downstairs he was starting the shower. So I found a place on the sofa while he sat in the bathroom. When I went in to get him I found this. . .

I thought seriously about leaving him there with the shower running. I would be sure to get some sleep that way. But. . . somehow that felt wrong, letting my kid sleep on the bathroom floor. So, I got him up and back in bed. We went through it one more time before getting up for good and making a trip to the doctor.

After two days on oral steroids for croup he is feeling good again. Although he just walked through the den and shared the following with me, "Mom, it feels like I have to go stinky but then when I try nothing comes out. It is very confusing."

Never a dull moment around here.

I wandered into our guest room/office today, which has served as the sleeping quarters for the parent who loses the “I feel worse than you do” battle (the winner gets our bedroom). I noticed this flower. I don’t know how long it has been this way. A good while I suspect. I thought it the perfect reflection of how our family has felt the last ten days. And the fact that it’s sitting there, in rancid water, all droopy and dead with dust covering the once perky orange petals reflects the level of neglect our home has experienced.

It started ten days ago with James telling me he didn’t "feel quite right.” Now that is never really good is it, that ‘not right’ feeling? So, while feeling for James, but also receiving a quick flash of what his ‘not right’ feeling might mean for the rest of us I sent him to our room with instructions to get in bed and not leave. This was a Saturday. Sure enough aches, high fever, weakness, headaches, severe congestion all reared its ugly head sometime that night. Poor guy. He tried to find a way out of preaching Sunday but when you are the planting pastor that is not necessarily easy. So he forced a shower and made it to church, preached and returned to bed. He did not get out until Tuesday.

Now, I was feeling pretty good that no one else was showing any evidence of the crud. My efforts were paying off. Keeping James quarantined, dashing in and out of the room with his food and medicine and washing up after each visit, spraying Lysol on anything James had previously touched. . . you know, typical ocd behavior. On Tuesday when James found the energy to take a shower I decided to change the sheets for him. Maybe that’s where I went wrong. Tuesday night, I lay on the couch, pleased that after three full days of caring for everyone I could relax and watch the American Idol wannabe’s take the stage. And then it happened. Out of nowhere I started having that ‘not right’ feeling. Oh noooo! This can’t happen. James is far from well and if I get what he has who is going to keep up with our rugrats? Sure enough, within an hour I felt like spit. And to top it off, because my body is just good to me this way, I developed a migraine.

James and I tag teamed on Wednesday. The kids still seemed okay, thank God for small favors. Then Thursday morning around 4.00am I hear the screams. It’s Luke I realize in my muddled state of mind. I dash to his room thinking he was having a nightmare. As I am holding him trying to calm him down I say, “it’s okay Luke, you were just having a nightmare.” He pulls back from me with a look on his face that seemed to confirm this as he wailed in complete horror, “I think I have what you guys have!” Ohhh, he’s sick. Not wanting to disturb Wil we dash out of the room, a vain attempt, but hey, you can’t blame a girl for trying. I bring him into my room where through his tears he is still talking, “I’m cold like dad.” Neither of us got any more sleep that morning. And I am reminded once again that Luke is sooo not subtle about anything.

James got Wil up later that morning while I stayed in bed (for the next three days!). I heard the bath running so I knew that wasn’t good. In our house, running a bath in the morning means Wil has a pretty good mess in his pj’s. Sure enough diarrhea set in for him. And continues to this day.
I will spare you the details of the following days but will tell you that by Sunday, in my desperation, I went to an urgent care center where I was diagnosed with Strep. Yay, I got drugs! Wil was given the same news Monday and James was told he has a massive sinus infection. So, we are now, on Tuesday, still weak but have beloved antibiotics pumping through our veins so hope has entered the house!

So here it is after 8pm and I have not made my Get it Down:31 for 21 post for today. Of course, had I not committed to this challenge I would be lying on the sofa with my Southern Living and a sweet tea right now but the "rule follower" in me is drawn me to the computer.

The reason I am just getting to the computer? I have had three sick kids for a week now. Today we made our fourth trip to the doctor, Wil's second, since last Friday. They have all had croup and obediently taken their steroids (Luke even got two shots to the legs which let me tell ya was not fun!) but Wil, poor Wil, whenever he gets any type of cough or congestion it almost always develops into other types of infection. And that is what we found out today - a sinus infection and two more weeks of antibiotics. It's hard to see the little guy so uncomfortable but we know the drill so hopefully we can get him cleared out soon. For those of you that don't know kids with Down syndrome have smaller airways so they get clogged up pretty easily and therefore when they get colds (or croup in this case) they tend to last longer and often lead to various kinds of infection. So this time of year is tough. And for us this week has been tough and it all seemed to culminate today. Or maybe I just completely ran out of resources today. Either way, it's been a long day, a long week and I am glad it is behind us.

Oh (please inject a hint of sarcasm here) and did I mention that while I was sitting in our den this morning trying to console Wil I looked up and noticed that our ceiling was wet? It is a second story ceiling, nothing above it but attack space sooo. . . could it possibly be that our new house, with a three month old roof is leaking?! It was almost too much for me to consider at the moment but thankfully our warranty department is on the ball and sent someone right over. Turns out it was the A/C, which is housed in the attack, that was backed up and leaking. Problem solved, but now we have to have the drywall guys come in and set up scaffolding in a week or so to repair the ceiling. There is always a convenient time for that with a 1, 2.5, and 4 year old running around! lol

Okay, well, I had some pictures of our sickly brood for you but those aren't uploading for some reason and I am too tired to figure it out.