One for the Books

This has been a week for the books. You know, the baby books that I never write in anymore (*SOB*). In many ways, this past week was groundbreaking, eye-opening, tear educing, and beyond fulfilling. There’s no other way to share it than to just lay it out there for you.

Monday night, famished after the seventh hour of playing DUPLO, Bubba and I decide to share a bag of pistachio nuts. Immediately, he starts complaining that he has “ouchies” in his mouth. Then the vomiting started. I called the pediatrician, and am put on hold for SEVEN minutes-during which he goes from mild discomfort to heavy, profuse vomiting and wheezing. I am told by the on-call doctor to take him straight to the emergency room, so I threw some coats on both of us and literally RAN to the ER with him in the stroller (The ER is very close to our apartment too, it would have taken too long to wait for a cab or call 911). I will say that it was a totally surreal and dramatic experience, running him to the ER. I felt like I was The Fugitive or something. By the time we got there, he was in a full blown severe allergic reaction. They gave him Benadryl (which I had given him at home as well) and steroids to calm down the reaction. It was absolutely terrifying. I held him on our bed in the ER for five hours, he slept while I listened to the stories outside of our curtain, feeling entirely grateful for his returning health. The ER is a very, very scary place to be.

Wednesday morning, I bundle the kids up and we head over to the pediatrician’s office to do some allergy testing. Bubba is a total champion kid, didn’t even flinch when they drew his blood.

Thursday: I take the kids to Bubba’s preschool, come home, put the kids down for a nap and get ready to head over to Times Square for my very first blogging event (“Time to Talk” Day for Domestic Violence Awareness). I arrive with time to spare and immediately they toss Peter Hermann into my lap. AHEM. Not literally I wish. I am so flustered that I probably make a fool out of myself and then completely forget to take any pictures of him and record only half of the interview. Fail. My next interview was so emotionally intense that I felt like I was kicked in the stomach. I am not a journalist, and I don’t know how they do what they do (funny, I always wanted to be one until someone told me I was a jerk for aspiring to be a journalist). So I brushed off my tears and continued with the questions. I will post these HOPEFULLY tomorrow, I just got done transcribing them. It’s been hectic around here. During the interviews, I get a call from the pediatrician saying that yes, Bubba is in fact severely allergic to pistachios, cashews and walnuts. He must stay away from all nuts, at all times. COMPLETE shock. No where in our family is there a nut allergy. I’m still baffled.

After the interviews are over, I hop into the subway and head over to Pranna where BlogHer is hosting their Holiday Party. On the way to the party, I see a HankyPanky panty sample sale. I couldn’t resist, of course, so I loaded up on panties and headed to the party. This is also my first BlogHer event. I don’t have any business cards (but I’ve got plenty of panties!) and this is a networking event. Networking without business cards- EPIC fail. So I just mingle around with people and at the end of the party, head to the coat check with two new friends. They are there when I pick up my coat and panties. Parting words from my new “friends”? “We’ll help you and your bag of panties grab a cab” with loud, heavy laughter. Fail.

That night, Z develops a fever of 102.5. She woke up with a 103 degree fever again on Friday, and being that it was almost the weekend, I want to get her seen. Not to mention her history with febrile seizures, I don’t mess with fevers. We’ve been rotating Tylenol and Motrin since Thursday night. So we get bundled up and head to the pediatrician’s office, a few blocks away. No sign of anything amiss, the doctor diagnoses her as having Roseola… a virus that starts with three days of fever and then ends with a nasty rash. So we head home and do not leave the house the entire weekend. HUGE cabin fever weekend bonus: It started snowing on Saturday, and it was absolutely breathtaking.

Z’s temp crept up all weekend long, until this morning when we woke, it was at 104.2. This is easily the highest I have ever seen, so I bundle the kids up and head downstairs to grab a cab. No way am I going to walk these sick babies (J also had a temp of 101) outside in the 30 degree weather for 15 minutes. As it turns out, getting a cab at 8:30 in the morning is next to impossible in NYC. Yet another rookie mistake. Panicked, I start running to the pedi with Z in my arms and Bubba at my side while Dr. J tried unsuccessfully to hail a cab. I am cursing the city, cursing the cabs and the people in them all the way to the office, where we showed up 15 minutes late. We were back and forth to that office all day trying to get blood and urine work done, and finally at 7PM we left the office with good, yet frustrating results: Negative all the way around, except for some dehydration. It’s a virus and there isn’t anything we can do about it. She went down again tonight at 103.3 and I will be up all night, again, checking on her. I’m drained, and I just want my babies healthy again.

I should add that Dr. J has begun finals week in his first semester at Dental School at NYU. This is, without a doubt, the most stressed I have ever seen him, and there isn’t anything I can do about it. Fail.

On the bright side, we leave for California again next Tuesday, and I have a TON of stuff I want to get done before then. Christmas in NYC is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen and I want to experience it all! Providing the children are healthy, of course.