The virus

Birthdays are okay these days, nothing to get too worked up over though. I love having a family dinner and Eliza giving me a home made card. I truly don't understand what people who hit a certain age (cough*their30s*cough) get all excited about. But, that being said, I don't wish for my birthdays to be a nightmare either.

Two weeks ago....Wednesday-ish Jackson was whinier than normal and was running a fever. Plus he was drooling like CRAZY. I thought he must be getting his last molars. But part of me was thinking it was strange since he had never been like that before when teething. He cried and cried that night even with Tylenol and Ibuprofen. Thursday morning when he was screaming I happened to look in his mouth and all I saw was cankers covering his mouth. I was able to get him into the doctor that afternoon. While we were waiting Eliza said that Jackson had never held still for that long. Haha! He was running a temperature around 102. He was so tired and worn out from crying and not sleeping that he just laid on my chest. And the child who can't go anywhere without his binky didn't even want that because it hurt his mouth. The doctor told us he had hand, foot, and mouth disease. It was only in his mouth but that was bad enough. The good news was that it wasn't serious, the bad BAD news was that because it's a virus, there was nothing we could do for it. Just wait it out. He said the sores should only last about 3 or 4 days. So we left the doctor thinking that we were probably already on about day 2 or even 3 of it. I thought we were near the end. Well.....

Jackson cried for 4 days. Seriously. He didn't sleep, he didn't eat, he didn't drink. All he did was cry. I got really worried on Saturday, which was also my birthday. He had only had one wet diaper in more than 24 hours. That is one thing our pediatrician asked us to watch out for. He said dehydration is the main concern with that virus because since it hurts to drink anything, some kids just don't. We took him to Kids Care and the doctor there basically told us what we already knew. He said we could take him to the hospital for some IV fluids or try to give it one more day and see if we can get some more fluids in him. Also he made a mixture of Maalox and Benadryl to swab in Jackson's mouth. That did not go over well at all. It made him scream more.

By this point Matt and I were spent. We were running on no sleep and just didn't know what to do for him. THANKFULLY he slept a little better that night and then Monday he did even better. By Tuesday he was nearly back to his old self. I never thought I'd be so happy to have our grumpy, gets-into-everything, can't-hold-still child back. I know it was only a week but it felt like it was never going to end. Now his little tantrums and whining seem like nothing.

Despite the awfulness of it all, there were some good things to come out of it. Most importantly is that Eliza didn't catch it. Also Jackson no longer wants a binky all the time, only when he sleeps. And we finally stopped giving him bottles at night since he didn't want anything to do with one for a week. Now we just have to get him to drink more than 2 tablespoons of milk during the day.

So, not the best birthday I've ever had but I'm just glad it's over. We're SO happy to have the old Jackson back!