Luke Has Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease

I just got home from Urgent Care with Luke and he has Hand, Foot & Mouth Disease. I'm trying to let everyone know who Luke has had contact with over the past 5 days. You'll want to watch your kids for symptoms and try to avoid passing this disease along to other kids.

It is highly contagious among children under 10 years old, but it is harmless and won't cause any long-term problems. Adults aren't as likely to catch this, but could pass it on without knowing it. The doctor said that Luke could even transmit it to the baby just by breathing in her face. Children's Urgent Care has seen over a hundred cases in the past week.

I was told to wash my hands after touching Luke and before touching Lexie; that should be enough to keep her from catching this.

Symptoms are high fever, a lack of appetite, and blister-like sores on the bottoms of feet, palms of hands and in the mouth and throat. Not all children will have blisters on feet and hands, but most will in the mouth.

Luke's fever got as high as 103.2, but it's down to 101 now. They have me giving him Motrin/ibroprofen every 6 hours to keep the fever down and help with the throat pain. He hardly ate anything today, but the doctor said not to worry about that as long as he's drinking plenty of fluids -- either juice, water or milk. The scariest thing for me was when his fever got so high around 9:00 pm and he was laying there looking so lethargic.

Sorry that I had no idea Luke was getting sick or I'd have never taken him to all those events this past weekend and Thursday and Friday. I'm guessing he came in contact with it at the Boonshoft Museum on Wednesday. The fever didn't appear until early this afternoon. The fever could last 3-5 days and he's contagious for a few days after the fever disappears.

Here is more information and details on Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease from the Center for Disease Control:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/enterovirus/hfhf.htm

Mastitis, again!

Well, I've got Mastitis again. Although I don't feel quite as back overall as I did last time, my right breast sure is painful! It's the same side as last time. I don't know how I keep getting this and ending up with all those clogged ducts. Thank God I got on the antibiotic right away. After 5 doses I'm really starting to feel better.

Please pray for my head, though. I've been getting really bad migraines and sinus pressure that is making me dizzy and nauseous. I'm not sure if it's my neck that's out of whack, if it's my allergies, or simply a result of too much heat outside. I am getting tested for food allergies this week to rule out a couple of things. It's a 2-part test, so I'll go in Tuesday and again on Friday from 2-4 pm. They also need to see if I'm allergic to glycerin since I reacted so badly to allergy shots last year. I hope to start the shots up again after all the testing is complete. Please pray that I'll find some relief from all my allergies and that the shots will help quickly.

A Fun Week

We've done a lot this week. Now that I'm officially a stay-home mom, I try to get outside with the kids every morning. Mostly we walk to the park on Nordale in Belmont; it's about a 1/2 mile walk and right in our neighborhood. Luke just loves riding in his stroller, especially if he knows he'll get to play outside. He's very content to stay on the swings 90% of the time!

Yesterday, we went to the Children's Garden at Wegerzyn MetroPark. Luke loves it there; there's so much for him to do. He loves playing in the water and the dig pit! I highly recommend it for any mom with kids under 10.

Marty even got to go with us the last 2 mornings. He's been home the last couple of days due to the most horrible hives and itching I've ever seen. He had an allergic reaction to something and we ended up in the ER Tuesday in the middle of the night. Thank God my mom happened to be sleeping over that night already; what a huge help. He's on Benadryl and Prednisone. Please pray that we can figure out what's causing this, because the rash will start to clear up and then flares up again.

Wednesday afternoon we had professional photos taken of both kids. We had a coupon for the free baby package for Lexie at Olan Mills. They should turn out really well, but boy was it stressful! Thank God my mom was there to help with the kids. Luke would fuss while we took pictures of Lexie, then Lexie decided it was a perfect time to fill her diaper. Then Luke didn't want to sit how we wanted for any of his poses, although we did get 2 great ones in before he started running in circles around the studio and laughing his head off! As soon as I can access the proofs online I'll upload several adorable photos.

A Great Night's Sleep!

Last night I got the most sleep I've gotten since before I got pregnant with Lexie. She slept from 10-6, then went back to sleep until almost 9 am! Luke was up at 6:45, so I gave him another dose of Motrin since he's been sick and he slept until 8:45. So, I got an additional 2 hours of sleep after almost 8 hours straight. What a blessing!

Lexie at City Folk Festival

Here is our bald baby girl watching the music from Poppy's shoulder on July 3:

Luke at City Folk Festival

Here's Luke raising his hands and dancing to the music at City Folk Festival on July 3:

A Rough Couple of Days

Luke has some type of viral infection with a fever. We went to the doctor today and we just have to wait it out. He's been very grumpy, whiny, clingy and waking up in the night crying. Poor baby!

I took Lexie to the doctor last week, because she has a red bumpy skin rash. It turns out she has a type of dermatitis and we have to bathe her with a medicated shampoo to help clear up her itching. It's similar to cradle cap, but without the scales. It's mostly on her head, face and eyes. You should see her rubbing her eyes until they're red! The shampoo seems to be helping, but she has her miserable moments.

Thank you, Sara & Joy, for your recommendation on the Evenflo bottles for Lexie. Sure enough, she took to the narrow nipple immediately. She now will drink both breast milk and soy formula out of the bottle easily, thank God! I needed some way to quickly feed her when we are out and about.

Last night she cried for awhile and didn't get to sleep until midnight... then she was up at 4:30 and 6:30. I'm really tired. But a couple of nights ago she slept straight through from 11 to 7. That was awesome, so I'm praying she'll do it again!

The crazy thing is that Lexie already weighs over half of what Luke weighs. She's 12 1/2 lbs and Luke is exactly 24 pounds! I'm guessing we'll reach a point where they'll weigh almost the same. I guess we're destined to have a little boy and a big girl!

Lexie Slept Through the Night!

I was so excited to wake up at 5:30 am and discover Lexie still sleeping soundly! She went to sleep at 10:15 and actually slept until 6:00 am this morning. What a blessing! Please pray that she'll do this again. It felt so nice to sleep 7 hours straight! I can't remember the last time that happened.