Sick kids, foiled plans

Last weekend started out so great! We had some laid out plans, Thomas and I both took Thursday and Friday off work, so we had a 4 day weekend ahead of us! We were pumped! And it started off great! Well, there was one minor bump to start off the trip.

Ok, here was our plan:
The ultimate goal was to go down to Jacksonville to visit my dad (side note: my dad moved to Jacksonville probably about 2 years ago and we STILL hadn't been to visit yet - traveling with the boys used to be way too hard, but it's much more manageable now!). We thought we might split up the trip by going to Charleston first. This was a great idea for a few reasons - less time in the car for one day and Wednesday was Fifi's birthday so we could come celebrate with her for a few days.

The planned agenda was going to go something like this:
I was going to give the boys a late snack around 5:30 pm on Wednesday night. We were planning to get on the road en route to Charleston around 6 pm. We were going to eat dinner somewhere around Columbia and arrive to Charleston by around 9:30 pm. Then we had fun lunch and dinner plans on Thursday and we were going to spend the night again in Charleston Thursday night. On Friday morning, we were going to leave shortly after breakfast to head down to Jacksonville to visit my dad. My dad had an oyster roast and low country boil planned for Saturday night and we were all excited. We had plans to maybe go out to the beach (if the weather cooperated), and just have a good time being away from home and visiting with family. I was a little unsure about how the ride home would be on Sunday, since that would have been the longest road trip to date.

But anyways, things don't always go as planned. Wednesday brought terrible wind and there were storm warning and probably some tornado warnings as well. Thomas said his car was shaking due to the wind on his way to and from work. There were several trees that came down in our neighborhood. We decided to hunker down for the night and not leave for Charleston in the crazy winds! Plus, truth be told, I had the boys all packed and ready, but I had not packed for myself yet, so this gave me a little extra time! So our delayed departure was first little bump in our "fun road trippin' weekend" road.

So instead, we got up Thursday morning and left around 9 am. The boys were wonderful little car riders and had fun watching Finding Nemo and Robin Hood. We got down to Folly Beach just in time for lunch! We met Fifi, Jerry and Mag at Taco Boy, which is one of my favorite places to eat at Folly. Let's be honest about this lunch, the boys had just gotten out of the car and were not really in to sitting still at a restaurant to eat. They wanted to be up and running around...and I couldn't really blame them...so they were up and down at the booth, climbing over laps, switching places, and maybe ate a couple of bites. Luckily, since it was a Thursday afternoon, there weren't too many people in the restaurant to be bothered by such shenanigans. Thomas took William and Stokes around the block at one point and then I took Stokes out to the patio area to run around for a minute, just to try to expel a little of that pent up energy. The food and margaritas were delish, but I was ready to get out of there with our rowdy little fellas.

Taco Boy!

Our table at the restaurant - lots of room in the
booth to create mayhem and bounce around from
person to person.

Standing in the booth and being maniacs

Jerry and William

Stokes saying "cheese"!

We went back to Fifi's condo and let the boys play for just a little while before we put them down for their nap. They were all upset about napping and it took them a few minutes to calm down and go to sleep. Thomas and I took this time to get out on the deck and watch the water and relax. It was really windy and pretty cold, but the sun was out and the condo building blocked some of the wind and it felt great when the wind would die down a little. So peaceful and nice and relaxing.

Ahhhhh......

After naps, the boys took some time to play with some of their faves. After a while, we got the boys ready and went out once again to meet up with Tara, Matt, Leece and Madison at Bowen's Island, which is a great low-key seafood restaurant. We got there early to make sure we could get a table and lucked out here. It was fairly empty when we got there, which was a good thing due to having all the crazy toddlers with us!

Still sleepy after nap - William
snuggling with Mag

Fifi and Ryan

Dada with 2 wild little guys

Dinner...

Bowen's Island

Beautiful setting on the marsh

William wanted to go outside and see the view of the marsh 

William and Leece - they were hugging

Ryan sitting with Jerry

Jerry and Ryan

Dada and William

William leaning in to give his Mama a kiss

A boy in each arm!

One of my fave family pictures!

After dinner we got home and sang "Happy Birthday" belatedly to Fifi and then got the boys down for bed.

Happy birthday to Fifi!

We didn't stay up too late - I think we were all exhausted from a busy day. Thursday night was a little rough. Ryan woke up coughing quite a few times and I felt like he may have had a fever (of course, I didn't pack my thermometer), then Stokes woke up coughing. Both of them ended up in the bed with us and let's just say that we didn't get much sleep from around 4 am on.

I was concerned about how everyone, especially Ryan, was feeling when we woke up on Friday morning. I had a call in to our pediatrician to see if we should just treat the fever, or whether we needed to visit an urgent care facility, or just next steps in general. Our pediatrician called and recommended that we go to a medical office, so we quickly checked in at a local Doctors Care for Ryan. While we waited for our appointment, we just hung out, listened to music, watched tv...just chilled at Fifi's condo.

Too cute! Stokes was bundled up in
Fifi's sweatshirt while they went
on a quick walk when Thomas and I
were at breakfast.

Mag and Ryan listening to some tunes

Bonding time: Mag, Ryan and Jerry

Handsome William, captivated by the TV

When we got the notification that it was time to go to Doctors Care, we went ahead and loaded up the whole car and the boys. Although we were already checked in, we still had to wait a while to be seen. Thomas, Stokes and William all waited in the car watching DVDs to avoid any chaos. We knew as soon as we let them out of their car seats, it would not be pretty to get them back in.

While at Doctors Care, we discovered that Ryan tested negative for the flu (thank goodness), had a 101 temp, got Motrin, did a breathing treatment, had his lungs listened to by the doctor and talked about our potential trip down to Jacksonville. The doctor mentioned that he thought it was a virus, he didn't detect any pneumonia (which was something our neuro told us to be cautious of) and I explained that the last time Ryan had a fever and a virus, he ended up having a seizure, going to the ER, getting intubated and staying in the PICU and hospital for 4 days. My concern level was pretty high at this point. The doctor and I were weighing our options to stay or to go (or really to go home or to Jacksonville) and it didn't take much discussion to realize that we needed to go home. In case he were to have a seizure, I would feel much better being at home, near medical facilities with which we're familiar, around doctors that we know and just in the comfort of our own home. 

Ryan at Doctors Care

Still smiling, even though he
didn't feel well

Nebulizer breathing treatment

When we finally got out of there, we just turned that van right around towards Greenville and got home Friday afternoon.

I was super disappointed that we didn't end up going to Jacksonville, but the health of my kids is my top priority, so although I was sad about it, I knew we were doing the right thing.

Sleeping fellas on the drive home.

Ryan

William...without much light :(

Stokes...with a lot of light

It was a good thing that we chose this route, because Stokes started getting worse as well and between giving cough medicine, alternating doses of Tylenol and Motrin to Ryan, giving Stokes Motrin as needed for fever and just trying to keep everyone happy, it was a long weekend. We had several bouts with vomit from Stokes and one from Ryan, which made us go on the BRAT (bananas, rice, apples, toast) diet - YUM - and three pitiful little guys. They just did not feel well. For Thomas and me, the weekend consisted of a lot of laundry, holding babies, drying tears, wiping noses, administering meds and worrying.

Poor little guy wanted to rock and be
held by his Mama

Breaks my heart that they don't feel well

Stokes and William rocking with Mama

We had a bit of a scare on Saturday night. I was getting up every 3 hours throughout the nighttime to make sure Ryan got all his doses of fever meds so that it wouldn't spike too much, but after the 4 am dose, he was coughing and fitful. I put him in the bed with us and noticed that his forehead and cheeks didn't feel abnormally hot, but the back of his head was really warm. I unzipped his pjs and his chest was burning hot. We took his pjs off and put a cool washcloth on his head. I was trying to think of what the nurses in the PICU did when he had his fever and remembered that they didn't want any covers on him. I was so worried because we had not skipped a dose of the fever reducer and he was still hot, and I was freaking out that he was going to have a seizure at any moment. Thankfully, after a while without pjs and the new dose of meds, his body temp seemed to be coming back down. I don't know what his temp was because the thermometer was in the other room with Stokes and William and I didn't want to wake them up (and to be honest, I'm not totally sure how much I trust our new thermometer), but it was definitely worrisome. A mother just knows when her child feels too hot!

We luckily made it through the weekend without too much drama, but Monday morning, Stokes had "gunk" in his eye and everyone was still coughing so I did not delay in making an appointment with our pediatrician. 

Gunk in eye and not feeling good

So, we have an ear infection and a mild case of pneumonia (Stokes), a viral pneumonia (Ryan) and just a cough for William. I made notes to talk to our ped about, so I hope I didn't forget any important details or symptoms that we witnessed over the last 4 days. It all starts running together between what happens to who and what time everything starts and all that stuff!

Stokes and Ryan at ped office

William with Lala at ped office

Stokes and Ryan both got antibiotics. The medicine will clear out Stokes's ear infection, which also caused the gunk in his eye, and should help clear up his respiratory issues. The doctor wasn't convinced that Ryan's pneumonia wasn't a virus, which antibiotics won't help, and wanted to go ahead and get him a prescription as well, just in case. We just need to give William cough and fever medicine if needed or as needed and wait it out for him.

So....our awesome 4 day weekend did not quite turn out how we had expected. I was seriously thisclose to writing a post about how we'd pretty much made it through the winter without much sickness (apart from Ryan's horrible hospital episode), but I thought, "nah, I better not write that because I'll end up jinxing myself". Well, self, it looks like you jinxed it just by thinking it! Arrrgggghhh.

Anyway, we've seen the pediatrician, we have meds in hand, we're (hopefully) on the way to wellness and will just hold tight. We will try to plan another trip to Jacksonville ASAP!

And now we're ready to LEAP into spring and into good health! Get it? Leap? It's a leap day today. :)
And BTW, one of my besties, Jacqui, had her baby today. How exciting that he was born on Leap Day? I will post a picture as soon as I meet him in person. YAY!