Daycare-itis, Double Ear Infection, and the Stomach Flu

Well it only took less than a week. Ben and Henry have had their first case of "daycare-itis." It started with runny noses over the weekend - Henry even blew bubbles out of his nose at Little Gym. Then on Sunday, Ben woke up from his nap in a pool of vomit. Andy went in to get them when they woke up. First he brought in Henry and then a shirtless Ben. He handed me a clean shirt for Ben and explained about the vomit. I guess he missed the dried vomit in his hair. It took three washes (and a Q-tip to clean it out of his ear) to get rid of the smell. Here's a pic of a vomit-less Ben ready to drive us to the Stride-Rite store for new shoes!

On Monday morning I got a call from their teacher, Miss Maggie, saying that Henry had a low-grade fever. I took some Tylenol up to school and they let him stay. On Tuesday, he had another fever at school, but again they gave him some Tylenol and let him stay. That night, I heard Ben wake up and vomit again. Andy got up and changed his sheet while I put him in the bathtub to wash it out of his hair. Then I rocked him back to sleep and went back to bed. About 30 minutes later, Henry woke up crying. When I went to check on him, he was burning up. So I gave him some Tylenol and rocked him back to sleep.

So I kept them home from school and took them to the pediatrician on Wednesday morning. Dr. Neely, our regular pediatrician, was out of the office this week so we saw Dr. Curtis. My main concern was Henry since he had been hospitalized with pneumonia in June, but I figured as long as we were taking one, we would take both to get checked out. As I suspected, Ben checked out okay - just a little cold. But Henry surprised us with a double ear infection. Poor guy! So she prescribed an antibiotic and sent us home.

We got home, fed the boys, and put them down for a nap. I guess I should mention that Andy had not been feeling well all morning. His stomach was upset and he was wondering what he and Ben had eaten to make them both sick. So anyway, about the time the boys woke up, I started to feel sick to my stomach. I helped Andy give them a bath, but then couldn't even finish getting them dressed. I went to bed and was pretty much down for the count until Thursday night. Thank goodness Andy's mom came over on Thursday to help us take care of the boys. I don't know how we could have done it - by Thursday morning I could barely pick one of them up.

Everyone went back to work or school today even though Henry woke up with fever again during the night. He didn't have a fever this morning so I sent him to school. I finished up with a client meeting around 2:00 and decided to go get the boys early. When we got home at 3:15, I took Henry's temperature and it was 100.4 degrees. I worked from home for a couple of hours while both boys passed out on the living room floor. So it looks like we're not 100% yet, but hopefully we're all on the mend. Here's a pic of Henry helping Daddy play NCAA Football '09 - Go Navy! One of the few benefits of sick babies is lots of cuddles.