Family, Parenting & Life: What a week!

Well, you know how the week started. It is ending about the same. Samuel started to get better by Wednesday afternoon and Joseph went completely downhill. Wednesday afternoon Joseph wouldn't take a nap, so I had him on the couch watching TV. All of the sudden his face got red and he started pulling on his ear. I took his temperature and it was 102.4. I gave him Advil and called the doctor. I wanted to make sure he didn't have an ear infection because the night would be unbearable. I called the doctor at 3:30 pm and they said to come in by 4:30, which was perfect because Samuel gets home from school around 4 and we could go straight there.

Right after I got off the phone with the doctor, Simone woke up from her nap. I got her all changed and then started feeding her. Around 3:50 I saw Samuel's ride coming down the street, so I told Joseph to stay by the back door and not move while I ran and put Simone in the living room, so I could go and meet Samuel outside. It was raining and I didn't want Simone or Joseph outside. Plus, I never let Joseph go down the back steps by himself because he isn't normally that stable and he just goes. I am sure you can guess what happens next, in less then 30 seconds, Joseph is screaming at the back door. I knew he tried to go down the steps and I was terrified at what I was going to find when I rounded the corner. He was laying on the ground and half off the last step, he lifted his head up and there was blood everywhere. I flipped. I picked him up, ran into the kitchen and made him spit in the sink. I grabbed wet paper towels and cleaned up as much blood as I could. I looked in his mouth and there were no loose teeth and no cuts in his mouth. Then I wiped away the outside of his face again and there was just a gash on his upper lip and right side of his mouth. He was bleeding a lot, but they were mostly big superficial cuts. Thank goodness.

At the same time this is happening, Samuel is being walked to the back door. He does not do well with blood or seeing other people hurt, so he started to freak out too.

I have to preface the end of the story with a recap from Tuesday middle of the night. Samuel woke up in the middle of the night with a bad dream and I ran into his room. I got him calmed down and back to sleep, then I went back into our restroom because I felt like I needed to blow my nose. I reached up with a Kleenex and all of the sudden my nose started gushing blood. I have gotten nose bleeds before (usually when I am pregnant or really stressed out), but this was unexpected. I usually can control the bleeding, but it wouldn't stop, so I yelled for Dave and totally freaked him out. Anyway, my nose finally stopped bleeding and I got back in bed, but I was feeling really light headed like I could pass out. I ended up falling asleep, but in the morning, I had a conversation with Samuel about if something happens to me and I can't respond or talk that he needed to call Daddy or Savta on my cell phone and tell them and they would get me help. I wasn't sure if he understood what I was saying, but he acted like I did.

So back to Joseph bleeding. As soon as Samuel saw him bleeding, he freaked and grabbed my phone and said, "Do I need to call Daddy now? He will know what to do." He did in fact call Dave and told him that Joseph was bleeding and hurt his mouth. Luckily Dave was already on his way home. When Dave got home I took Joseph to the doctor and he did not have an ear infection (after all that). He was clearly sick, but no ear infection.

It ended up that Wednesday night the boys slept okay, but not great. Then last night happened. In the afternoon Joseph started to get a really high fever. By 3:30, he had 104.4 fever and I totally flipped. If you can't see the pattern here, when my kids hurt themselves or are sick I completely freak. I know I should be calm, but I get so worried and I don't handle that stress very well. Joseph was absolutely miserable. Let's just say that for the next few hours, I was not a relaxed person. Joseph was freaking out, Simone was screaming and Samuel just being a pain. My nerves were shot.

I had a feeling last night was going to be a bad night, so I set up blankets on the couches for me and Joseph, just in case he needed me in the middle of the night. At 9:30pm, Joseph was up and a mess. His fever was still super high (we did try everything to get it to go down) and all he wanted was for me to hold him. So my night on the couch began at 9:30. Joseph is terrible to sleep with. He wanted to sleep right on top of me in the craziest positions. At one point his entire body was on me, but his head was hanging off the couch, then he wanted to sleep directly on my head, this went on and on. Around 12:30 am his fever finally broke. We didn't get restful sleep at all, but he was feeling a little bit better.