Frequent Flyer Miles...at the Doctor's Office

I have been to the doctor lots in the past week.

And, sadly, I'm headed back tomorrow.

But this time, it's not for Benjamin.

Benjamin went back to the doctor yesterday for a 4th shot. He was also given an oral antibiotic. I take him back this Friday for another chest x-ray to check the progress of the pneumonia.

But the other two boys are now struggling.

Thomas (who is on day 7 of a 10-day Rx of Omnicef for a double ear infection) has developed a slight cough, a low-grade fever, a runny nose, and retraction in his chest. For those of you unfamiliar with retraction, it's basically where you look at their (naked) chest when they're breathing (which is hopefully any given second) and you can see an indention where they are having to breath hard. It's like their stomach kind of sinks in and you can see a separation at the top of their rib cage. I would never know to look for this if not for Benjamin and his past history.

But after a weird, fussy, clingy, non-sleeping day and night, Thomas woke up this morning and he showed retraction when he breathed. I counted his breaths per minute, and they were fine (about 30), but I called the on-call nurse anyway. We decided to just monitor him and if he seemed alert and kept his color, to take him in to see the doctor tomorrow morning.

His day was fine, though I did see slight retraction throughout the day.

And Andrew.

Andrew now has a cough that sounded barky this morning but then turned into a normal cough and his throat is scratchy.

I'm just taking them both.

This winter, which I thought had been better than last, is now officially kicking Amick butt and taking names.

It's also wrecking my usually neat house, and I'm struggling to keep up! I know, not the end of the world, but it definitely messes with my mind.

So we'll see in the morning whether or not the other two boys have fallen victim to any other illnesses such as strep or pneumonia or whatever else they could have caught. Ugh.

I will leave you with a few pictures before I head off to bed.

Last weekend, before his haircut, and before he got sick.

After his buzz cut. :)

A week ago, in the doctor's office. We were there for Thomas.
Benjamin never got out of the stroller.

Yesterday. B finally felt well enough to venture out of my bedroom, where he'd

been holed up for days.

I was sitting on the couch, trying to feed Thomas a bottle and entertain the other two at the same time. But as you can see, Thomas wasn't interested in the bottle. He was watching Andrew. It's quite a scene.

And here is the view from above me. Feeding TPB a bottle while Andrew tries to curl up in the corner of the loveseat to watch Play With Me Sesame (or maybe it was Max and Ruby, his latest obsession). All the while, Benjamin wants in on the action.

Me and my oldest and youngest.



Thomas's 10 month rocking chair picture. Only two more to go!!

I think these two will be good friends.

I hope so.