Pox, Flu, & a Hurricane, Whew!

My previous post called "What a Day" should be renamed to "What a Week!"

Here's a day-by-day guide to my weekend. Just add it on to Tuesday when i got locked out of my car at Sam's and then went looking for my lost Ergo, wah!

Thursday:
This morning Claire woke up with spots all over her belly. Some even looked like a clump of spots, more like hives. Since she was exposed to Chicken Pox 2 weeks before, I just assumed it was beginning. We got lots of oatmeal ground up for oatmeal baths and i kept close watch on her spots all day. She also started running a fever that night.

Kate also popped up a really spotty looking diaper rash which i assumed might be chicken pox since she had possibly been exposed too. She was also finishing up antibiotics for an ear infection though, so it could have been a rash from that??? Very fussy!

Then Kenneth started running a fever and feeling sick/sleeping all day. Stomach flu???

Friday:

Claire woke up with no spots, hmmm...interesting. But within an hour, new spots emerged. Not definite raised pimple-like spots, like the books say, just red dots all over her lower body and arms. The fever continued all day and night getting up to 102.7. She loved her special oatmeal bath twice today. Girls are so girly!

Kenneth felt much better today, but then Owen started running a fever. By Friday night, he threw up all over the couch and continued throwing up all night. Poor guy even slept on the floor in our bathroom because he didn't think he'd make it to the toilet in time if he went to his bed : ( Lots of laundry today!

As if all of this wasn't enough, we had a major hurricane, named Ike, coming up our alley. What time i didn't spend bathing, holding, rocking, giving medicine, cleaning up throw-up, etc, i was running around outside cleaning up all our stuff and "hunkerin' down" as our neighbor called it. We were told to expect hurricane strength wind and lots of flooding rain beginning during the middle of Friday night.

Between the itching, crying, nursing, head-holding, tylenol giving, and crazy hurricane winds tonight, i think i slept about 10 seconds. One time, all 3 of the kids were crying for me at the same time, what to do? Of all times, out of 365 days a year, a major hurricane, chicken pox and a stomach flu all hit my house in the same night. Amazing! It is amazing how God gives us the strength to get through what ever may come our way.

Saturday:

Owen woke up feeling fine, hmmm. Claire woke up with new spots again, hmmmmm. Kate was extremely fussy, ugh, and outside the wind was blowing so hard that when we tried to open the door it actually came flying open into the house along with rain, yikes!

The blessing of all of this happening at the same time was that Kenneth wasn't able to go work at all today, yay! So I did get to sleep a little extra in the morning and even take a short nap in the afternoon. He and Cody even "braved" the hurricane force winds to go get us all donuts! I was watching the news while they were gone and the reporter was laughing that Starbucks was actually open during a hurricane. Several cars drove by and he laughed more wondering where all these people would be going in the middle of a hurricane. If i was not so shy, i would have called in and told him they were probably all headed to the donut shop just like my hubbie! We wound up watching movies and eating donuts in our pajamas most of the day, how fun! And of course, Claire and Kate enjoyed more oatmeal baths. We did actually drive into town Saturday evening to pick up some dinner and check out all of the damage.

Sunday:

We spent today cleaning up all of the wind blown stuff and assessing the storm. The only major thing we had happen was the trampoline net enclosure ripped almost all the way around. So now the enclosure is not really "enclosed." The kids think its fun to wrap their bodies all around in it like fish, though. We were very blessed to get through a hurricane this easily. We never even lost power once!

Claire spots are the same as yesterday, finally, but only one spot has opened and scabbed. I could just as easy think it was a scratch??? So, i have no idea if she really does have chicken pox, maybe just a mild case or something totally different. She's acting and feeling great. And Kate, i'm not sure about either, maybe just a mild case too. I guess we'll know in 2 weeks if she or the boys show up with chicken pox.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with chicken pox?

I have some great pictures of all the shannanigins this weekend, hopefully i can post them soon.

Hopefully this week will be better!