I feel like this is the first chance I've really  had to sit down since early Tuesday evening. The last couple of days have been spent cuddling my feverish little boy and willing myself to hold back tears every time I have to force feed him the antibiotic which he HATES.
    It all started Tuesday evening when we were hanging out and playing in Bug's room. He had been seemingly fine for the earlier part of the day and I thought he just was super tired because he didn't take the best nap that day. We were playing and he was being his usual bubbly, hyper self until around 6ish or so. Then, he started whining and wouldn't talk or play. I went over to pick him up and then I knew that something was wrong; he was burning up with fever. Being an experienced Mama I went straight to the medicine cabinet and got the thermometer. (We finally broke down and bought one of the ear thermometers so we wouldn't have to take the kids temperatures rectally anymore...HOORAY) Anyways, after a couple of seconds it confirmed what I already knew...Bug had a fever: 100.2. That didn't really worry me because his fevers have reached close to 103 with his ear infections. We willed him to drink lots of juice and water and put him to bed early. He woke up 5-6 times that night and by 3am his fever had reached 102.5. I waited until 8am yesterday morning and called the pediatrician's office as soon as I knew they were open. We got scheduled for a 9:30 appointment and off we went.
     We got there and while we were hanging out in the "oh so fun" waiting room, I told Caleb I thought it was Noah's throat that was bothering him. I even ventured to say that I had a feeling it was strep, but Caleb leaned more towards another ear infection. We got called back and the doctor came in. She checked Noah over while I named his symptoms and told her that in my opinion, he had strep throat. His temperature was now reading 103.5 (with Tylenol) After what seemed like an eternity of poking, prodding (and screams that would make blood curl) she confirmed it...his throat was definitely the issue. She wanted to do a strep culture, and because I already knew this wouldn't go over well, I braced myself for the aftermath of swabbing a toddler's throat. I put on the strongest Mommy face I could muster while simultaneously trying to not let on to Noah what he was about to endure. Then, out came the swab and down his throat it went...let's just say this, to make a long story short, I left the hospital covered in vomit and tears with a half broken heart. I knew this would probably be how it ended because it's what happened to me every time I got strep throat as a kid, which turned out to be quite a lot, resulting in having my tonsils removed in the fourth grade. :-)
     So, yes, we headed home where I spent the rest of the day cuddling Noah and trying not to lose my mind as I cared for our 3 month old daughter and sick little boy. Praise the Lord Caleb was able to take off work and go to the doctor's office or one of you may have seen me aimlessly wondering the streets of Salem, lol....mind totally gone. *grin* In all seriousness, though, I am pretty beat. Make that totally and utterly exhausted. We finally got Noah to bed around midnight last night but he was up again at 6:30am. I called Mom and asked if she would mind watching Hales today so I could focus 100% of my attention on little Bug. He is currently napping (praise Jesus for that) and I am taking a much needed break. Off of here now to get a bit of housework done until the wakes up.
     Please continue to pray for Noah and that the Lord heals him quickly.