the battle has begun

this week i find myself battling yet another illness. and yet again, it is not my own illness that I am fighting. This time, it's Henry's. 

For those of you who don't know, the week that we went to settlement on our house, my husband came down with what I affectionately refer to as The Stomach Plague. Let's just say, it wasn't pretty and it ended him up in the ER for dehydration (followed by a jointly decided upon banishment from mine and Henry's presence...he was reloacted to his parents' house for several days). 

I had just barely put down the hand sanitizer (okay, who am i kidding? i'm still clutching that stuff with white knuckles...i do NOT want to get what Ryan had) when Henry started exhibiting signs of (a different, thank god) sickness himself. 

But let's rewind, shall we? 

So we settled on Friday, moved on Sunday and Henry had his (two week late) four month well baby visit scheduled for Monday. 

I called the pedi's office and asked if we could forego his shots this visit and instead if i could push them back a week or so. It just seemed to me that there was too much going on in a short period of time for one infant to deal with - especially since he had a pretty fierce reaction to his shots at 2 months old. 

They said, "Sure no problem!" and i felt good walking into his visit that monday. 

Until the doctor we were working with said something like, "Well you can push back the shots but....god forbid he gets meningitis in that time. I'm just saying."

oh, really, you're just saying? okay then. that makes it all better. 

she even said, "I won't judge you, no matter what you decide. But you do want to go into this decision with your eyes open."

cause yea, we all know that when people say "i won't judge you" it really usually means, "just letting you know, i'm going to speed-dial CPS after you leave."

So between her and Ryan wanting to be there when he gets them (he was with us), I was overruled and we went ahead and gave him the shots. 

And can i just say, this experience has taught me that i should always listen to my initial intuition about things? Because seriously, those shots at that time were a bad idea. 


Did Henry have a strong reaction? Yup. He needed the baby tylenol for two days after that, he slept all day, needed mommy. 

Not only that though but as of Thursday he clearly didn't feel good. Glassy eyes, sleepy, cranky, unwell. 

By Friday he had his first fever and a definitely stuffy nose. We were right back in that doctor's office, dealing with the same lady and I was thinking to myself,
"i TOLD you so." The poor little guy's system just went through WAY too many things at once. I knew it. 

And we've been fighting this cold of his ever since. 

The fight is being won though, it truly is. I will beat this cold and I won't let any pediatrician push me around next time. 

The battle has truly been epic however...here are just a few stats:

- Times that we have, as of this post, stood in the bathroom with the shower running hot enough to make us a steam room: 3

- Amount of hours spent listening to Henry complain in his sleep because he is uncomfortable: 20+

- Hours spent walking around the house because we have a baby who is too cranky to do anything besides be carried around: 40

- Times Henry has choked on mucous in his throat sending me into a full out panic attack: 3


- Frantic phone calls to my mother and my sister who is a nurse: 3


- Tweets about Henry's health concerning me: 6


- Middle-of-the-night arguments between Ryan and myself because I am panicking and he is tired: 1


- Balloons purchased to try and cheer up a little baby who doesn't feel good: 1


- Amount of kisses and snuggles administered to try and cure this cold: 100+


It hasn't all been bad but i HAVE felt bad for the little guy. He clearly just hasn't felt well and his recovery is slow going. He's had a lot of changes recently and let's be honest, it's been tough for me and Ryan who are seemingly stable adults to adjust to all of this stuff.  I can't imagine what it's like for him.


And with that he's let out a little yell letting me know my time here on blogger is done. Wish us luck, I am winning these battles and i know i can win the war too.