Sick of Sickness! UPDATE

UPDATE: Wednesday Emmersyn seemed to be taking a turn for the worse. I took her back in to the doctor on Thursday morning (everything was closed on Wednesday due to the big storm we got). After a chest x-ray and nasal swab it was determined that not only does she have bronchiolitis, but she also has RSV and pneumonia! Poor baby! If she doesn't get better in 24-36 hours she will have to be admitted to the hospital for close observation. We are do our best to prevent that. We were sent home with a nebulizer and instruction to do 4 breathing treatments a day until she gets better. Futhermore, we were also given the instruction to do the same for Lincoln. The doctor suspects Lincoln also has pneumonia as well, if he's not feeling better we will also have to take him in! Please keep both kids in your prayers! I am so tired to them being sick and am ready to have my healthy kids back. Praying for a restful night tonight as well, I am tired and not getting much sleep at all. Between all three kids being sick I'm getting maybe 3-4 hours of sleep a night and it's starting to wear me out!

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We've been in IL for almost a month now and since moving the kids have been nothing but SICK! I don't know what it is. Probably just the time of the year, but two weeks ago we were all really sick with the flu. We all had it--all of us but Emmersyn, thankfully! Ty was even sent home early on his first day of work because he was so sick.

Fast forward to this past Wednesday. Riley started not feeling well and it was all down hill from there. Lincoln got sick Thursday and Thursday night Emmersyn did as well. Emmersyn had her well visit on Friday so I made appts for Riley and Lincoln too since I was going to be there anyways. They all got checked out. The doc. seemed to think it was just a virus! After a VERY long weekend of being couped up inside, no sleep, high fevers, and nasty coughs I decided to take them to see the doc again on Monday morning. Come to find out Riley has a left ear infection and bronchiolitis, Lincoln has a right ear infection and bronchiolitis and Emmersyn has bronchiolitis. Between the three of them we got twelve prescriptions filled! The kids are very rarely sick, so I am hoping this is it for a LONG time. It has been a very long few weeks!

You now know why we have couch covers :)...Riley puked all over them therefore they were being washed.

My kitchen counter with all the kids' medicines (12 in total). Riley LOVES medicine, Lincoln HATES them and would rather throw them up before he'll swallow them. Emmersyn is somewhere in between. :)

We're Here!

We are finally "home" again. We moved to Champaign, IL last weekend and just got internet on Friday. It feels good to finally be plugged back into the world! I am really enjoying this city. It seems like there is so much to do around here and the kids and I can't wait to get out and start seeing all that it has to offer. Ty starts his new job tomorrow, we will miss having him home. I have gotten used to having an extra set of hands and I'm sure it will take some time getting used to doing it all on my own again.

We are renting a house for a year and hopefully after that year will buy a house here. Hopefully this will be our last move for at least a few years. I am thankful we were able to find a place to live since Ty had less than a day to find something. We are only 2 miles from Ty's work, the mall, Meijer (YES! You have no idea how excited I am about shopping at Meijer again--weird, I know but I missed that place :)!!), and less than 1.5 miles from a kids museum, churches, parks, etc. I am so excited to have somewhere to take the kids. We also start MOPS tomorrow (although we're not going because R and L are both sick) and we already met a new friend last week who we're getting together with this week.

My Dad, Jamie and the girls came down to help us unpack which was a HUGE help. Dad and Jamie helped unpack and the girls played with the kids--we wouldn't have gotten so much done without their help. No to mention that Ty's best friend, Luke, flew all the way to WV to drive our truck to IL so Ty could drive the van with the kids and I. I'm not sure he knew how grateful to him I was, but I tried to make it very clear. It would have taken me 12, instead of 7 hours if Ty wasn't with me...but thanks to Luke, Ty drove the can while I took care of the kids! What a blessing!

I miss all of my WV friends and always wish I could bring my friends with me whenever we move, but I look forward to having lots of visitors and going to Chicago to shop :)!!

Here is a recap, in pictures, of the our first week in Illinois:

Saying bye to some of our best friends in WV (the Kirk's--minus Skylar):

Riley and Luke posing while packing up the truck:

Me being very excited about shopping at Meijer again:

Emmersyn has started "crawling" backwards:

The kids taking a break from "unpacking":

A trip to the the kids museum:

Carousel Rides at the mall (it has a great play area too!):

Sickness (Unfortunately, both R and L have been really sick the past few days. Both have spent a lot of time here and Riley has been throwing up. Not a very fun weekend!):

Thanks for all your thought and prayers as we went through Ty's lay off and moving again, you have no idea how much your support and encouragement as meant!

Vertigo.

Vertigo. One small word that has made my life miserable! The past three weeks I have been suffering from what the docs say is vertigo--an inner ear thing. Anyways, three weeks ago I ended up in the ER because I couldn't even stand up without falling over (literally). I had to call Ty home from work on Thursday (the day I went to the ER). I couldn't even get off of the couch to pick Emmersyn up when she started to cry because the room was spinning, I was so dizzy, and my head hurt so bad I thought it was going to explode. Every time I tried to get off of the couch I would fall over. For literally two weeks I couldn't function. I just got through the day...somehow. My poor kids watched more tv those two weeks than they have the entire year, I'm sure!! Not that they complained, but I don't let them watch much tv normally!

Anyways, I am finally starting to feel better. I still have a massive headache that hasn't gone away for even a minute in the past three weeks, but I can at least stand up now and walk without falling over! My blog has been severely neglected but I'm about ready to start back into things...check back for updates :)!

They're baaaaaack....

What's back you ask? Lincoln's ear infections!! Oh, so frustrating! This past week Lincoln acted like he was getting a cold (he was congested and had a runny nose--at the same time), then Friday he woke up in the middle of the night, which he never does unless he's sick, I nursed him and he felt like he had a fever. He went back to sleep, so I just let him sleep. Saturday he acted like he didn't feel well so I called the Urgent Care in Kzoo and took him in on Sunday morning. Sure enough, they confirmed my suspicions: he had another ear infection and a fever of about 101. They gave me a script for Augmentin and sent us on our way. Poor Lincoln just didn't feel well at all and when he was awake he cried for hours! I felt so bad for him. He also hadn't been eating baby food a whole lot.

I put him to bed at 7:30 last night and the whole night he kept moving around and whining in his sleep. He finally woke up at 12am and when I picked him up I could tell he was burning up! I gave him some Tylenol and took his temp (underarm) and it was close to 104! I knew a rectal temp. would be even higher because it's more accurate. I called the ER to ask them if I should bring him in and they advised me to. So, Lincoln and I were at the ER from about 12:30 until 4 am. They gave him some stuff to get his fever down and that's about it. He slept through most of it--he was so tired and just laid there, limp, in my arms!

His fever is down this morning, but now he's throwing up everything he ingests (food, medicine, etc.) We've got a follow-up appt. tomorrow morning at his doctor's office. I plan on having him seen again at another ENT (I didn't like the previous one we visited) and if they think that he needs tubes in his ears we're going to just going to go through with it. I feel like there is no reason for my little guy to go through all of this when it could be prevented. So, if you think of it, throw up a prayer for Lincoln that he feels better!

Prayer request for Lincoln

I have mentioned it before but Lincoln has been sleeping horribly lately and has been having a lot of ear infections. Well, when we went to my Dad's this past weekend Lincoln got sick again. When we got back I took him to see the doctor and sure enough he had another ear infection, actually a double ear infection. Poor Lincoln has had 5 separate ear infections in 6 weeks and has been on 5 different antibiotics within those weeks as well. Anyways, to make a LONG story short, we've got an appointment with the ENT doctor because they think Lincoln may need tubes in his ears. They are afraid if we don't do something about it quickly it may affect his speech development because he may not be able to hear very well. When they told me that and what the tubes entailed I just started crying...I can't imagine having my poor little baby going through all of that. But, I do realize it will help him in the long run. So just pray that his ears will heal and he'll stop having infections and also for the doctors that they'll make the right decisions. (Also, that I can get some sleep, because he hasn't been sleeping well AT ALL the last 2 months and I'm starting to get worn down!)

Writing hiatus...

UPDATE: We got Ri a prescription for "butt cream" and picked it up this afternoon--seems like it is getting better and healing already! I'm thankful, poor little thing...it would be much easier if she could have just told me what was wrong.

It's been a little while since I've written...no not because I had the baby already, Joey's mom :). (Thanks for checking in though :))! I suppose that's a good thing, although I'm getting VERY ready! Only 3 weeks to go, that's only 21 days! YIKES!! It's getting SO close!! But, to be honest I haven't written in a while mostly because it's been a boring week.

Ty has been working SO much lately and we miss having him home. This week he's working 13 or 14 hour days and then also starts his MBA again. He had the last 6 weeks off. Poor guy, he's been so busy--leaving for work at 5 am and not getting home until 8 pm, then going to bed at 9pm just to do the same thing the next day. Although tonight he has to drive to Spring Arbor for class from 5:30-10:30pm then drive an hour back and get up tomorrow at 4am, work all day and have class all night again tomorrow!

I appreciate him working so hard so I can stay home with Riley and this new little one! He is such a great husband and father, I couldn't ask for anything more!! I think more than anything, though, he misses spending time with Riley. Last night he got home after she already went to bed and he had to go into her room and hold her for a while while she slept! She misses him too, but hopefully he won't be so busy for too long!

Lets see...what else is new in the Paulk household?! Well, I'm taking Riley to the doctor today because the past 5 days she's had what I thought was diaper rash but yesterday I finally called the doctor because she's never really gotten diaper rash before and it was hanging around for longer than it should. After describing her symptoms and the rash the nurse thought that Riley may had a yeast infection (which is actually fairly common in infants and toddlers). Anyways, since she's had the rash she's been putting up such a fuss when I try to change her diaper...NO WONDER! Poor little thing...I feel horrible that I didn't call the docs. sooner, but I had no idea! So as prescribed by the nurse I've been giving her 3-4 baking soda baths a day (which, believe me, is not easy because I can barely get close enough to the bath tub to do it because my belly is so big). Also I have to change her diaper every hour or two and I can't use wipes--warm wash cloths only and I'm suppose to let her run around naked a few times a day. So yesterday I spent most of the day bathing, changing diapers every hour or two and cleaning up pee on the floor (because she was running around naked). It's been a long week already and it's only Tuesday! But whatever makes her more comfortable and helps her booty get better!!

Keep her in your prayers because she seems pretty miserable! Hopefully the doctor will prescribe something today and help her heal quickly.