I am working on creating the marriage, motherhood and miracles website, and there has been never ending stress. I am really hoping that I can make this work!
I really don’t have much else to say. DH is sleeping because he’s still feeling horrible and Dinky is at the sitters. I have time to myself to accomplish this goal and yet it just isn’t getting done! Argh!
Today Dinky was diagnosed with hand, foot and mouth disease. We are supposed to be heading out of town tomorrow to visit my parents and friends for a few days, because everybody has been seriously ill, and I want to try to help them out as much as possible during this very difficult time.
I didn’t know very much at all about hand, foot and mouth disease. I thought it was something that children only picked up from other children and were only likely to get if they are in daycare. Since Dinky isn’t in day care and hasn’t been in the church nursery for two weeks, I was very concerned about how she got it.
As it turns out, adults can carry the virus as well, though they almost never show symptoms. It is just as likely she got it from me or her father as she did from another child. How frustrating!
My poor Dinky is in pain. She’s not feeding well, and my mother is pushing me to force feed her solid food, which hurts her poor mouth. The doctor said that she needs to be kept on formula and extremely smooth foods like pudding and yogurt. There is a risk of her becoming dehydrated if she doesn’t want to drink (which has been the case for two days) and solid food fills her up and doesn’t encourage her to drink. I can tell that this is going to be a struggle.
The treatment for hand, foot and mouth disease is painkillers to help her to deal with the pain that she is experiencing in her mouth. I purchased some neosporin tonight for when the blisters begin to burst, and I’m going to keep her loosely dressed to ensure her comfort. I also bought her a cup with a straw, since she knows how to use one and it will be easier for her to drink.
I want to cry. My poor little girl is in pain and there is so little that I can do to help her except to wait out the week-long period that it’s going to take before she starts to get better!
Please pray for my darling daughter. She needs the prayers right now as she has been having such a tough time!
Since I haven’t posted in a few days, I thought I would stop in while the baby is asleep for her nap. I don’t have long, but long enough for a quick update on me.
I am a terrible housekeeper. I always have been. I just never got the proper training of how to do it and keep up with it. Some methods work and others don’t, and nobody showed me what worked, so I kept on doing what didn’t. It’s a terrible situation, and the house got to be a huge mess that needed to be cleaned — badly.
I don’t want to ask DH to do it because he has enough on his plate without having to worry about the housekeeping. Besides, I think I’m actually more efficient than he is. I’ve been observing the way a friend of mine handles her house, and stopped over at flylady.net for some information, and pitched right in over the last three days. I almost have the living room clean, and the bathroom just needs to be mopped right now (or every day for that matter!).
I’m very proud of myself. It was a lot of work, but I’m managing. Things are being put in their proper place, and the room is becoming organized. I’m hoping that tonight DH will hang our pictures on the wall in that room and further reduce the clutter (pictures waiting to be hung). I’m looking forward to having it done so that I can move on to the dining room/office!
I’m a terrible housekeeper, I admit to it! It’s never been a strength of mine, and when I became a Christian, I really began to feel as though God wouldn’t be pleased with me if I didn’t start doing better with keeping my house clean. I got angry at first, and I understand from my husband that anger occurs a lot in new Christians, mainly because we’re just getting to know what’s expected of us and it isn’t always fun.
I’m committing tonight to shine my sink. I don’t want to do it. I really don’t have the motivation to do it. But I have issues in the self-confidence and housekeeping department, and I want to get that taken care of. What kind of mother can I be to my daughter if I can’t so much as shine a kitchen sink? What’s she going to learn from me over the years if the house is always a wreck and her friends can’t come over to play?
This is a big thing for me, and a bit step, too. Wish me luck, everybody. I’m going to need it!
I’m not one of those moms who rushes to the doctor for every little sniffle or cough. Because my husband and I pay out of pocket for our health care, we’re a bit more careful than we would be if we were insured. I recognize that there is nothing that a doctor can do for a cold other than recommend rest and plenty of fluids, and I don’t want to receive a hefty doctor’s bill to cover that prognosis.
DD was doing worse this morning, though. She has had a recurring rash in addition to the cold symptoms, and she had severe diaper rash this morning. Additionally, she’s been pulling at her right ear. So I called the nurse, who recommended that I bring her in, and I did.
The diagnosis was ear infection, yeast infection, and teething. She’s on antibiotics for the first and has a cream for the second. The teething will have to just run its course.
I can only thank God that she is clearly feeling better today and is substantially less fussy than she has been. Mom, on the other hand, is worn out, and the colder weather just isn’t helping. I don’t think that I’m pregnant, although there is a very slim possibility that I could be. I’m going to test in two weeks and see what the results say.
We missed church tonight because I had to wait for DH to finish at work before we could pick up the prescriptions, and there was an overlap at that time. I don’t know whether I’m disappointed or just too exhausted to get worked up about it. We’ve been attending every Wednesday night for quite some time now, and I enjoy it far more than the Sunday services. I’ll be attending both Saturday and Sunday this week, however, and I think I’ll survive a missed Bible study. It was better, too, to keep DD away from the other babies to ensure that she doesn’t make other children sick or get sicker herself.
The last few days have been long, and in some cases, arduous. It seems as though my journey keeps getting interrupted by harmful thoughts and behaviors, and as quickly as I can change one, another new one pops up and rears its ugly head.
DD seems to be cycling through a virus. It almost seems as though whenever she starts to recover, another cold hits her. Yesterday she was hit pretty hard, and her fever spiked up high enough that even DH realized that she needed to go to the hospital. Then, as soon as we got there, the fever broke. After forty minutes of waiting and not even being called to registration, we left and went home, gave her some Tylenol and put her to bed. The sleep broke the fever, and the fever seems to have beaten whatever infection she had.
Marriage, Motherhood and Miracles 