…it pours.  That’s the saying, and it can feel like that as a parent.  Take my Thanksgiving Weekend for example.

On Tuesday, my son stayed home from preschool because he threw up twice before we could get him out the door for school.  He even threw up in our bed, and I had to put our sheets in through the wash twice just to get all that milky vomit out.  Sorry, TMI.

Later that afternoon, I left him at home with my parents so I could take my daughter to her regularly scheduled Gymboree class.  She was just fussy the entire time and was not into anything, including bubbles.  Now that made me raise an eyebrow.  We got home and I tried to give her lunch, but she was not having it.  She was still feeling really hot (it is usually really hot at Gymboree), so I took her temperature and it was 104!  So I gave her Tylenol and let her cuddle and eat/drink anything she wanted.

The next day my son was fine.  I think my husband gave him rotten milk.  So my son went to school and I was left to tend to my still feverish daughter.  More Tylenol, but at least she was eating a little bit and would play a little.

On Thanksgiving she still had a low fever, but she was just clearly not herself.  Usually she is very happy in the mornings, and when she was sick she would still try to communicate she didn’t want anything.  But that morning she was a bit lethargic.  So we called the pediatrician and they saw her that morning.  Turns out that she had an ear infection–her first.  An escript was sent to our local pharmacy, picked it up, and made it back home all before lunch and in time to start cooking the side dishes for Thanksgiving dinner.

Friday she was feeling fine, but we still kept her home just because.  Saturday she started developing a rash on her head, but I thought it was probably the new headbands that I bought her.  I had her try them on before I washed them.  So I thought that perhaps it irritated her skin.  Or maybe it was a heat rash from her wooly hat I made her wear when she went outside for a walk even though it was pretty warm outside.  When she woke up from her afternoon nap the rash then spread all over her body.  So I called the pediatrician’s office.  The doctor told us to stop her antibiotics and to call Sunday when the office opens so they can see her that day.

Sunday morning the rash was all over her body, so we called the pediatrician and again were seen that morning.  I was worried that she may have a penicillin allergy like me, but the pediatrician said it looked more like a viral rash.  But the good news was that her ear infection was gone.

So it was a pretty hectic long weekend for us.  But I am so grateful that our pediatric practice offers emergency hours on holidays and weekends.  We could have easily gone to the emergency room or an urgent care facility.  And while these facilities are great, most urgent care facilities don’t know much about pediatrics (our lone experience, they sent us to an ER for just a run of the mill viral infection).  We also aren’t exposing my daughter to really sick adults and tying up an ER for something that’s not an emergency, like an ear infection.  Plus it was nice seeing a pediatrician we were familiar with, and who had notes about her (we were in the office the previous week for her one year appointment, and the doctor noted that she had fluid in her ear but it wasn’t infected, and that’s the ear that later got infected).

I hope everyone had a very good Thanksgiving this year!

And I promise I’ll post about my daughter’s first birthday party soon!  I started it, but then life happened.