Quotes and Notes

Molly:
- Well, it worked! Operation pull the paci is complete! On the Tuesday that Matt and Charlie returned from MN (the 29th), I laid Molly down in her crib for her nap and didn't give her a pacifier. I didn't mention it, I didn't say boo about it, I just gave her the taggy blanket to snuggle with and walked out. She sat up and was looking around for her pacifier, but didn't cry about it or anything. She talked for maybe 10 minutes in her crib before falling asleep. No tears! No whining! No fussing! We did the same thing that night for bedtime and she again fell asleep without crying. How easy was that?! It was the same for Charlie and Alanna - they both did the extra talking thing at naptime before just accepting their new normal of no pacifier. Yay!
- In regards to the aftermath of taking away the pacifier, I have noticed that Molly is much  more reluctant to go down for a nap. I can't say to her "let's go find your paci" anymore. Since I took it away, about half the time she is crying when she goes down for a nap. It usually doesn't last long, but she isn't nearly as thrilled to go back to her bedroom after lunch as she used to be. We used to hold hands and practically run to her bedroom. Nope, not anymore. A few times I have carried back a really disgruntled girl with her back arched and everything. She always calms down though so I'm not concerned. She'll figure it out and adjust to her new normal... whatever that is.

Charlie:
- I got a phone call just as the girls and I were eating lunch today from Charlie's school. I wasn't going to asnwer it, since I had a mouthful of hot dog (thanks, Costco trip, for providing me with a meal plan for lunch!), but when I checked two minutes later to see who it was, I saw that it was Charlie's school and immediately called them back. I figured he threw up at school or something. Turns out the nurse was calling so I could come and pick Charlie up but for a different reason: a rash on his hands. I saw the rash this morning on his knuckles but it looked just like the pressure hives I get on my elbows and knees from time to time. He was itching, but it didn't seem to be ruining his morning, so off he went to school. I picked him up at 12:30 and we scurried down to urgent care about 45 minutes later.

I should maybe preface this story with his illness over the weekend. Starting on Friday morning, he was complaining of a sore throat. Saturday was the same. Sunday morning brought a low fever (100.1), followed by a higher fever (101.2) 90 minutes later, and a higher fever yet (102.7) about 90 minutes after that, where it continued to hold all day on Sunday. I checked his fever in the night a few times and saw that about 3:30am it was down to 99.5 Not really thinking anything of it (kids get fevers! they just do!), I sent him to school since he ate breakfast just fine and seemed more like his normal self. Matt picked him up after school on Monday and he was totally fine.

Apparently, last night he came out to the kitchen around 10pm saying that he had an itchy spot on the bottom of his foot where his skin was peeling off. I had no idea. I went to bed early and didn't hear him. Charlie came into our room at 1:30am saying that his foot was itchy again, and since I still wasn't connecting the dots, Matt got up with him and put some lotion on his foot before tucking him back into bed. This morning, Charlie showed me his knuckles with what I presumed was something like the pressure hives I get. I packed his lunch and dropped him off for picture day at school.

(Kristin Richter, are you reading this?!? Do you know exactly where this is going??)

The nurse at school said that the rash was creeping up his arms. Yes, it was. It was also now on the back of his legs, on the bottoms of both feet, a few spots on his face by his mouth, and more on his hands and palms. At urgent care, Dr. Mitch looked at his spots (literally like little dots, some a few millimeters bigger than others, but all are relatively small dots) and said that it could be two things: syphilis or hand, foot, and mouth disease. I'll let you guess which one Charlie has. Yep, classic case of hand, foot, and mouth disease.

It sounds awful and disgusting, doesn't it? It's actually just a virus that starts out like a cold with some runny nose stuff and a fever and just ends with a rash that is usually all over but just clusters together moreso on the hands, feet, and mouth. The rash isn't contagious, it's the cold-like symptoms that are the contagious part. How long until it will show up in Alanna and Molly, you ask? They will probably get it next Wednesday night - the night before Matt and I go to the hospital to have the baby. :( Honestly, the doctor printed off some info for me and said that it would be about 7-10 days before Charlie will totally recover. I'm hoping that the 7-10 day count started when Charlie's throat was first scratchy! We're 9 days out from meeting Baby. The math here is not good, people. The timing is not ideal. Dr. Mitch said that it's a virus that you get once, but I think Kristin might tell a different story. I would be shocked if no one else in the family got it, but I guess time will tell. I don't remember having it as a child, and neither does Matt, so there's as much of a risk of us getting it as there is for Alanna and Molly. Grrrrrrrreat. So far the only symptom I have is fussiness, but I'm thinking it's due to a whole different medical issue. Wink, wink.

So there you go.

In other news, Charlie and Alanna call parmesean cheese, 'parm-a-John cheese' so I'm going to try and keep that going for a while. It's precious.